Five on the rise

After spending 73 hours (of psychological time) typing football stats into our system yesterday, I realized there are some teams and players out there who deserve some recognition. Well, I’ve realized every week I’ve typed in the stats (new papa James Edward did most of them in Week 2) that there are people who accomplish great things every week and don’t receive any accolades for them.

I’m finally going to do something about it. Here is the start of a weekly football feature on the blog. I’ll highlight deserving players, teams or units that may have gone unnoticed from the previous week. I’ll get my chance to notice them when I’m inputting stats, stats and more stats.

1. Altamont: I mentioned in the Saturday Morning Quarterback that no 1A teams beat any bigger schools on Friday night. Oops. As a reader pointed out, Altamont did defeat Carbon, 32-13. I’m not surprised the Long Horns are turning things around. When I caught the end of a practice in the summer of 2007, it looked like coach Dan Zabriskie had things going in the right direction. Altamont was a young team then, and is still a young team now. But it looks like it’s ready to win with players like running back Talon Carter (66 rushes for 534 yards in three games) leading the way.

2. Delta’s defense: The Rabbits are a legitimate contender in 3A, and a big reason why is their defense. Delta had four sacks, three interceptions (all recorded by Dayton DeLoach) and held Grantsville to minus-9 yards of offense in its 23-0 win on Friday.

3. Tyson Udy, West Jordan: I remember him being a contributor for the Jaguars during basketball season last year, and it looks like he might be a better football player. He had a sack, an interception and 10 total tackles for West Jordan in its 35-28 win over Olympus on Friday night. He also caught two passes for 29 yards.

4. Gauge Smith, Union: It’s never easy to follow a player like Rhen Richard, and Smith’s play was shaky early in the season. But it looks like he got himself on track last week, as he completed 14-of-17 passes for 302 yards and four touchdowns in Union’s 31-6 win over North Sanpete. His favorite target was Zack Trujillo, who hauled in seven passes for 132 yards and a touchdown.

5. Austin Gumucio, Grantsville: I wrote somewhere before the season started that he is a tackling machine. That proved to be true on Friday night, as he recorded 16 tackles against Delta.

6. Labeaus, Logan: This has nothing to do with football. I just have to say that I didn’t think anyone had fries that could rival Crown Burgers and I was wrong. After my former co-worker Jay Hinton introduced me to this place in Logan last winter, I went back before the Sky View-Logan game on Friday. Ridiculously good and greasy. Not the place to visit if you’re on a diet, but it’s worth a try if you’re in the area.