Utah CFB Offensive Awards: Week Three

Week Three, more often than not, is the week before conference play, and is a pivotal week in terms of demonstrating what a team has learned in the first couple of weeks.

Gone are the excuses of the week one jitters or the inconsistencies of week two.

By now, teams are hoping to have a clear identity and direction for their football program alongside a few wins as they head into the most impactful games of the season.

Unfortunately for the state of Utah, only the power 4 teams walked away with a win after the week three festivities, as if Utah or BYU fans are too concerned.

We knew an undefeated week was out of the questions with both Utah and Utah State squaring off in Logan, but a 5-1 week was on the table.

Rather it’s a 2-4 week for D1 schools here in Utah.

That being said, the individual offensive performances were still note worthy and whether a team won or lost, anyone is eligible to take home one of the following awards with a stellar outing:

BEST QB

BEST RB

BEST PASS CATCHER

BEST O-LINE

BEST OFFENSIVE UNIT

Reminder: We are naming the top offensive efforts from the following groups at the D1 level in Utah and Utah only.

Lets do it.

BEST QUARTERBACK: JAKE RETZLAFF, BYU

Reggie Graff got an extended look in Utah Tech’s loss VS Northern Arizona and led the team in passing yards and rushing yards (158 total yards and a passing TD)

Richie Munoz was efficient, throwing a touchdown on 30 attempts completing 73 percent of of his passes in the narrow Weber State loss to Lamar.

Utah’s freshman Isaac Wilson deserves his flowers for filling in for Cam Rising in the battle of the brothers and shaking off a slow start (to the season and the game) to throw three touchdowns (tied for most in state) in a hostile environment type of win over Utah State.

But it was BYU’s Jake Retzlaff who led the way in multiple categories as the Cougars rolled on out in Laramie.

Retzlaff attempted 36 passes, more than anyone in the state, and completed 61 % of them.

His 291 yards was the most among all Utah collegiate quarterbacks and his three touchdown tosses were tied with Isaac Wilson for most in Week 3.

Although Wilson and Retzlaff both had a ratio of three touchdown tosses to 1 interception, Retzlaff not only had more rushing yards (62 to Wilson’s 14) but led the entirety of the Cougar’s ground game as the running back room remains banged up.

Retzlaff throwing for the most yards, averaging 10.3 yards per carry on the ground and refusing to take a sack gives Retzlaff the nod here.

BEST RUNNING BACK: TARGHEE LAMBSON, SOUTHERN UTAH

The battle of the brothers rebooted for the first time since 2015 featured an excellent running back duel between Utah’s Micah Bernard and Utah State’s Rahsul Faison.

Bernard has a long run of 64 yards, finished with 131 yards on 17 carries for 7.2 yards per tote and struck gold with a touchdown.

The Aggies back in Faison had 19 tries for 119 yards averaging 6.1 yards per carry with a long of 27.

Both impressive feats are well worth acknowledging and could easily qualify for the weekly award.

That is, if Targhee Lambson didn’t have another monster performance for the Southern Utah Thunderbirds in a tough loss to UC Davis.

Lambson had more yards than any other back in the state with 149 total.

UC Davis didn’t bring down Lambson a single time behind the line of scrimmage, making every run a positive one.

Targhee’s long was 40 yards and Lambson carved up the Aggies to the tune of 6.2 yards per carry.

Lambson was also the only non quarterback to end with two touchdowns to his name.

Sure, he did it on 5 more carries than Faison and 7 more than Bernard, but he did it without taking a loss, found the endzone one more time and personally accounted for 44 percent of SUU’s offense individually.

BEST PASS CATCHER: CHASE ROBERTS, BYU

An impossible award to give most weeks, there were multiple players this week with a good amount of receptions and trips into the endzone.

No one had two touchdowns individually but ten players between 5 teams had a receiving touchdown, with the 3 FBS programs having 8 of them between 8 players.

None of those athletes who hauled in a touchdown had more than 50 yards however proving no one fully pulled away from the pack.

Utah’s Money Parks was the closest with 4 receptions 49 yards and a score.

For those who didn’t visit the endzone, Brant Kuithe paced the Utes with 68 yards on 3 grabs.

Dorian Singer led Utah with 5 catches for 66 yards.

Otto Tia hauled in 5 receptions for 78 yards in Cache Valley for the Aggies.

Jacob Sharp had 7 catches for 81 yards for Weber State.

Mark Bails Jr had 7 receptions for SUU but only 45 yards.

Listen here’s the deal: those who had touchdowns didn’t have yards, those who had yards didn’t have touchdowns.

It’s basically a pick em at this point.

Thus I go for pure volume and that ends up back into the paws of the Cougars.

In the win over Wyoming, BYU’s Chase Roberts was the only WR to eclipse 100 yards, hitting 129 yards, 48 more than the 2^nd most yards in the state.

Roberts had 6 receptions tied for 2^nd most in the state.

Lets put it like this, BYU as a team has 25 receptions between 12 players, Roberts had 6 of those.

BYU had 318 receiving yards, Roberts had 129 of those. That is 41 percent of a workload, so lets lean towards Roberts here.

BEST O-LINE: UTAH UTES

MICHAEL MOKOFISI, SPENCER FANO, JAREN KUMP, CALEB LOMU, TANOA TOGIAI

SUU’s big guys up front earned some credit by plowing the defense for 210 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns with long runs of 40 and 26.

SUU was putting up 5.4 yards per carry and only gave up two sacks.

But it was the Utes on the road who take home the honors in a tight one.

Utah led the state in rush yards with a 221 net total, only gave up one sack and cleared the way for a long of 64.

The Utes featured 2 rushers with more than 70 yards featuring the previously mentioned Micah Bernard with 131 yards and Mike Mitchell with 78 yards.

Utah backs picked up an average of 5.4 yards per carry and allowed Isaac Wilson solid time to find his rhythm.

In a heated rivalry on the road, Utah was the offensive line to beat.

BEST OFFENSIVE UNIT: READERS CHOICE

Another week another epic battle between Utah and BYU.

Utah averaged 6.2 yards a play, BYU was good for 6.8.

Utah was 3-13 on third down, BYU was 2-11.

Utah was 1-2 on 4^th down, BYU converted on all three tries.

BYU was 4-4 in the end zone, Utah went 7-7.

Utah held the football for about 4 more minutes than the Cougars en route to two more total yards.

BYU had 458 total yards, Utah ended at 460.

The Utes had one penalty for a loss of 15 yards, BYU had 9 flags against them for -80 yards.

Both teams punted 4 times, both teams finished with only one interception and no fumbles.

Utah scored 38 points, BYU had 34.

Both teams were on the road against Mountain West opponents.

I’m not touching this one, pick whomever makes you happiest and sleep soundly tonight.

That is until I upset you with tomorrow’s defensive awards for week three.