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Show DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Thursday, April 18, 2013 7 FOOTBALL Co-coordinators build off one another Matt Ellis STAFF WRITER As the youngest offensive coordinator in the nation, Brian Johnson was at the helm of an offense that struggled in his first year. In part because of injuries, the Utes finished near the bottom of the Pac12 in every offensive category in 2012 and dead last in passing yards per game. Enter Dennis Erickson, former head coach of three current Pac-12 schools. He has a long list of accolades to his name, including a couple of national championships, and he and Johnson will co-coordinate in hopes of bringing out the best in the 2013-2014 edition of the Utah offense. There is still a lot of time for change before the Utes make their season debut at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Aug. 29, but so far it seems as though there are few things on offense that will be different from last year. However, Johnson did say the coaches made a concerted effort to have the offense run a little faster than last year, and Erickson's presence has helped. But Erickson sees it as addition by subtraction. "I don't know that I changed a lot. I just kind of slowed things down [and] condensed a lot of different things," he said. "We just got them organized and cut things back ... We're not going to do a lot of things, but we're going to do whatever we have really good. And it's made a difference." Both Johnson and Erickson said CHAD ZAVALA/The Daily Utah Chronicle Co-offensive coordinator Dennis Erickson watches his offense during spring practice March 19. BULLINGER Continued from page 6 If these guys are crazy enough to spread feces across a hotel bathroom, they will play football with no regard to their own health, which is what we know the NFL wants. A future lawsuit dealing with brain injuries? Not from these guys — their brains are already toast. They are the perfect NFL players. The second option is that the guys are not responsible. They could have had some friends over who went a little wild and left the hotel staff in a crappy situation. This means the players are a little inconsiderate — at least clean the toothpaste and pick up the trash — but not crazy. Would you clean another person's excreta off the walls? Didn't think so. This is where the information about whether a tip was left is crucial. If the players left a hefty tip for the housekeepers, their actions are somewhat excusable. Regardless, they aren't crazy if someone else was responsible, which means NFL execs should try to find those who flung the dung and draft them. Finally, there's the outlier option. Perhaps one, or both, of the players quickly became extremely ill, and it was a miracle they even made it to the bathroom. Remember, these are young adults, so they could have panicked and just trashed the rest of the room so they could avoid the embarrassment of telling the hotel staff about their sickness. This is the worst option for teams looking to draft these players — they lied and clearly have a weak stomach. Walter Payton never would have lied about pooping all over a hotel room. As you can see, these 7 3 3 8 9 1 6 3 5 8 Baseball has become a family affair for Utah senior Tyler Relf. His brother Brandon played for BYU and his brothers Ryan and Devin are preparing to play for UVU. RELF Continued from page 6 [Brandon] was supposed to hold me on," Tyler Relf said. "So me and him were just cracking jokes, and I was talking crap to him a little bit, just to be funny. Then the umpire comes over, `Hey, hey, calm down guys, calm down.' I told him it's my brother it's no big deal ... so it was pretty fun playing him." That was the first time the brothers had been pitted against each other, as they were teammates for a season at Alta High School when Tyler was a freshman and Brandon a senior. "It was fun to have [Tyler] on the same team," Brandon Relf said. "It was a whole different dynamic [in college] and still fun to have him [on the field] and play him as instate rivals." While Brandon Relf has a wife to support, kids to raise and a business to run and Tyler Relf will soon be looking at college baseball in the rearview mirror as his senior season comes to a close, there are two more talented Relfs who are coming down the pipeline for another rival school. Ryan Relf is currently on a mission for The Church players pose an interesting draft-day dilemma. Are they crazed, serial defecators who will be knocking the excrement out of people on Sundays, or are they weak-stomached liars? Hopefully their names will be divulged so we can eventually find out. j.bullinger@ chronicle.utah.edu Twitter: @jakebullinger ANSWER TO TODAY'S PUZZLE 4 PHOTO COURTESY PETER RELF m.ellis®chronicle.utah.edu Twitter: @mattellis utah THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH M 5 2 they've enjoyed working with each other, and collaboration hasn't been an issue. One of the things Johnson has enjoyed most is having Erickson's wealth of knowledge and experience to draw from and lean on as they decide how to go forward. Johnson acknowledged that having Erickson's experience around is handy even for things like setting the depth chart, which is mostly decided on the field. But he doesn't discount the value of simply having the presence of Erickson around. His two championship rings speak volumes, and Johnson believes he can help lead the Utes to a bright future. "Just from day-to-day having someone to bounce ideas off of back and forth and have that constant communication with has been really good for us," Johnson said. "I'm looking forward to when we get to fall and when we get into that room and start game-planning some opponents." In scrimmages, the two have split play-calling duties, but it remains to be seen how that will go once the season starts. Sophomore quarterback Travis Wilson said it's been good having two different coordinators who are on the same page. "It's a little different, but they really are good with each other and work well off of each other," Wilson said. "It's not like they are teaching two different things, they are just teaching us in ways that we all can understand." 2 9 3 4 5 6 1 SLAP SHY SPAM PILL SLOE URGE ABBE CAPN MIRA CREATIVITY MET EARTHS LAUREL DST ES SO RHODO DROWSE ASTA I STHERES IDUEOF NERO SP INAL KNITS TEST ECU SOCIAL TESLAS PRO WAS TEDT IME SARI AJAR OILS TTOP SHUN BARI SARA OLE SHOD facebook.com/PCSTcomics <0 Doug Bratton 2013 of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and plans to start his career at UVU as soon as he gets back. Their youngest brother Devin is also eyeing a spot on the UVU roster in the future. With the way Tyler Relf has been playing against the Wolverines lately, they should be anxious to get a Relf on their side. In the teams' first meeting this year, Tyler Relf hit a triple in the bottom of the nth inning and scored the gamewinning run on TJ Bennett's walk-off single. On Tuesday night, he laid down a spectacular drag bunt in the eighth inning that capped the come-from-behind win for Utah. Last year, his RBI hit sealed a victory for the Utes and ended UVU's historic 32-game winning streak. "[UVU's] Coach Madsen probably isn't smiling at Tyler's luck against them," said the Relf's father Peter. "I think Coach Madsen would rather have a Relf play for him than against him." Unlike their older brothers, Ryan and Devin Relf will serve LDS missions before spending any time playing college baseball. Tyler and Brandon Relf chose to play a year before their missions. "I was hoping to see Ryan and Tyler going at it, but it's just going to miss by one year," Peter Relf said. "Now I'll have boys that have had experience at all three Division I schools in Salt Lake County, and they've all been great — unique in their own way, but great." Peter Relf's alma mater is BYU, but with Tyler Relf being his only son currently playing college baseball, he has abandoned his Cougar ties for the time being. "I am actually 100 percent in the Utah camp," Peter Relf said. "Everybody laughs at me, but I come wearing red from head to toe. It's a little uncomfortable, but I actually enjoy it." Peter Relf has no problem cheering for any one of the rival schools as long as his boys are playing. He is a proud father with every reason to be. However, he says that none of his four sons are his favorite. "I honestly don't consider any of my boys any better or any worse than the other," Peter Relf said. "My daughter wins out on that, just because she's my only daughter. She had me wrapped around her finger pretty good." c.mobley@ chronicle.utah.edu Twitter: @Chad_Mobley SQUEEZE HIS HAND... 1-1C cuRsEs! WASH HIS MouTR OUT ti3t1- 14 SOAP. He FARTS melts! |