Weber looking to improve offense


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OGDEN — In order for Weber State’s football program to become a winning program, coach Jay Hill knows the offense will have to find consistency.

And the best way for the offense to find consistency is to improve its execution in tight situations. The Wildcats’ offensive players have been good at times, but simply haven’t come together at the same time. That issue reared its head on Friday as the Wildcats took part in their first spring scrimmage.

Hill said the Friday scrimmage’s execution was disappointing.

“(The offense) just kept shooting themselves in the foot, like they’d get a good drive going and then they’d have an offside penalty,” he said. “It was self-inflicted wounds that were sloppy, that were frustrating. Especially because it’s usually just a lack of focus.

“That was frustrating to me, especially with all the success they’d had up through practice seven.”

One of the biggest questions of spring football has surrounded who Weber’s quarterback will be at the time spring camp breaks for summer, and both Jadrian Clark and Austin Chipoletti have shown a mixed bag. Offensive coordinator Steve Clark, who developed now-San Diego Chargers quarterback Brad Sorenson when he was at Southern Utah, said he see desirable traits in both quarterbacks.

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“I like both of them,” said Clark, who has also coached at BYU and Utah. “Chipoletti has the experience; he has the leg up because of the experience that he had from last year. He’s very competitive, and what I like about him is he’s so competitive. What I don’t like sometimes is he’s so competitive that sometimes he tries to do too much.

“Jadrian is a football junkie. He played in this system in high school, so he’s a little bit more comfortable taking drops from under center. They’ve both progressed very well.”

Both quarterbacks are young, and both are still maturing — something that Clark said makes the job of coaching them fun.

“The fun part of coaching is building a system around the talent,” he said. “And, not only the talent but the mental makeup; what they know.”

Obviously, last year’s offensive system is different from Clark’s new system, and it includes a marked difference in philosophy.

“We’ve kind of taken more of a running the ball, play-action approach,” he said. “I know they were spread last year, so it’s been kind of a big change for the players. But they’ve adapted really well, and that’s more of a credit to them.”

Last season, Weber’s offense ranked at the bottom of the Big Sky Conference, and Hill said a few tendencies from last year’s team showed up in Friday’s scrimmage.

“I think the most frustrating thing is when players either try to do too much or … try to do everybody else’s job,” he said. “I think we had a bunch of players revert back to ‘I’m going to do it my way; I’m going to show these coaches.’ We took a step back. So, we’ve just got to hone them back in.”

Hill said film study of last week’s practices will help demonstrate the need for players to follow coaching.

“This film will be huge to show them (what happens) when you do it your way,” he said. “When you do it our way, we can move the ball and be very successful. So, this (is) great film to show them.”

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Jon Oglesby

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