My story on Utah for Friday’s paper is on senior free safety Robert Johnson. This guy is a stud and any one who likes and appreciates the game will enjoy watching this guy play.
But another interesting story is Utah junior running back Eddie Wide.
Here is a guy who had 49 carries over his first two seasons, yet has rushed for 100 yards in four straight games since senior starter Matt Asiata was lost for the season with a knee injury early in the Sept. 26 game against Louisville.
Wide isn’t a prototypical Utah running back. He’s smaller (5-10, 195) but has been just as productive. He is second in the Mountain West Conference with 529 rushing yards, and is tops with 6.1 yards per carry.
“He’s picked up the torch and continued to make our run game productive and efficient,” coach Kyle Whittingham said. “It doesn’t matter how you get the yards as long as you get them.”
“He’s a quick, little guy and one that runs low to the ground and is hard to bring down,” added Wyoming senior defensive tackle John Fletcher.
Wide is a good example of how Utah is in that mode where it replaces good players with good players, or to use one of the more often-used sports cliches: “They don’t rebuild, they reload.”
When you finish undefeated and win BCS bowls in 2005 and 2009, and have won eight straight bowl games that’s what you do.
Wide is from Las Vegas and was the Gatorade Player of the Year for Cimarron Memorial High in 2006. UW junior linebacker Alex Toney also is from Las Vegas and attended Shadow Ridge High. Wide said his father and uncle coached Toney in Pop Warner football, and that he and Toney are friends.
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As of now UW still plans to leave for Salt Lake City Friday afternoon via charter flight out of Laramie.
The team practiced indoors at times this week not because of the cold and snow, but because the snow fell so hard that the field couldn’t be cleared long enough.
The forecast for Saturday’s game is for clear skies and temperatures in the 40s or low 50s with light winds.
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Weather permitting I will be headed to Salt Lake Friday. Look for my weekly “five things to watch” for the game soon, and for some Halloween fun.
The live blog is on for the game as well. We will go live at 5 p.m. The link is http://wyomingcowboysblog.com/2009/10/28/wyoming-vs-utah-live-blog/
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