Haven’t heard anyone talking about Harding

[Anonymous]

Interesting he is promoted to Assistant Coach. The Oline did have a rocky start and really reached a boiling point against Arizona. I think Harding has done a fine job though and has been wise hooking his wagon to Whitt. I believe Christiansen brought him over from Wyoming so something good came from that. 

The big uglies at Utah will always be great. 

[KiYi-Ute]

I think a lot of the line’s struggles this year came from injuries. Losing center after center and having to shuffle the line around a few times is difficult. That being said, they performed well given all of those adjustments, and I think that is owed to coaching.

I’m very glad that Harding will be sticking around as the Assistant HC and our O Line coach.

[UteThunder]

The promotion tells me that Whit values Harding’s coaching of the OL, and possibly his recruiting, but he thought JH was a poor OC, hence the Taylor hire. However, unlike A-Rod who was willing to take a demotion from OC to position coach when we brought in Chow, I think Kyle knew he would lose Harding if he asked him to simply be the OL coach. So the only way to keep Harding was to give him a new title. This allowed Kyle to keep Harding in the fold while getting a new OC, and it allows Harding to save face while adding to his resume. 

Good moves all around.

[pedro]

I think I’m grateful Whit isn’t as complicated as what you explained there UteThunder.  😉 Whit’s pretty straight forward.  He did what he did because he thought they belonged there.  

[UteThunder]

Pedro, it’s not as complicated as it sounds. If Harding was promoted for being so great, he would still be the OC. He would have just been given the extra title as a bonus. Whit clearly didn’t think Harding was the answer at OC but didn’t want to lose him from the staff. The only way he was going to keep him was to give him a token “promotion” which in reality is nothing more than a title. Does anyone think Harding will have more responsibility as the Assistant Head Coach than he did as the OC? I sure don’t. In fact, I would bet he will now have less responsibility because he is basically just the OL coach again.

I would bet a year’s salary that it went down the way I described. 

[crazyute]

I think the center position definitely hamstrung us bit. That needs to get fixed. And with healthy bodies (Lo Falameka) it should be.

But I’m also not a big uhutafe fan. I think he has extremely slow and heavy feet. He gets beat in pass pro regularly.

[pedro]

Their pass protection was a little too sketchy IMHO.  I think that needs to be a point of emphasis this year.  

One other things as a whole I would like to see, full effort.  What I mean is all the great teams, Including ours in 04 and 08, do not stop because the play doesn’t involved them.  WR’s still block even on draw plays or if the play is 20 yards behind you.  We had a whole of plays this year when 10 guys were standing around watching the 11th try to make something happen.  Not much can happen when you do that.

 

 

[jamarcus24]

After the Arizona game I’ll always know him as Jim “Fu**in’ Fire Me” Harding.

[UteStuckInSeattle]

I loved that little clip of Harding, because it showed someone on the staff has the balls to put the head coach in his place.

While cohesion is important on a coaching staff, people willing to stand up for themselves is also important.

[Utah]

I thought Harding was fantastic this year. I would have been ok with him staying on as the OC. I think Whitt saw next year’s schedule and FINALLY realized that if he wants to win the south, he needs to score points (especially next year. We might be a six win team next year if we can’t score).

So, Whitt left his comfort zone and went after a guy he thinks can put points on the board. In doing that, Taylor probably said that he didn’t want to share the title with anyone, he wants to do his own thing and Whitt said ok.

That left Harding in a tough spot. He wasn’t terrible last year. The run game was our saving grace. BUT, Whitt doesn’t feel that he could lead the team as OC either.

So, what do you do? If you demote him, he leaves and you lose a ton of recruits and a really, really good coach.

So, you give him a better title, give him a s**t ton of money and promote him to Assistant Head Coach while bringing in another OC.

 

Also, I think the pass protection will be a TON better with an OC who is a little more organized and a little more forceful in what he is trying to accomplish. 

[MotherJabubu]

I have my own probably unjustified little theory about the Arizona game. I think that RichRod was getting ‘revenge’ on Utah for disconcerting signals from the defense. Whitt’s teams have, over the years, been accused of simulating the snap count on more than one occasion. I could see RichRod going all in on that strategy as a ‘f**k you’ revenge move.

Recall: Whittingham said going into the locker room at halftime that the players were saying Arizona was simulating the snap count. The next week, on the first false start (in the second half) against Oregon State the defense stimed and the Pac-12 refs called the penalty on Oregon State. I’m thinking the conference could have given the refs a heads up about what happened the week before with Arizona.