Kyle Whittingham vs BYU

[Utah]

Since joining the PAC-12, these are the average scores vs BYU at halftime, at the start of the fourth quarter and at the end of the game:

Average score at halftime: 17-7

Average score at the end of the third quarter: 24-10

Average score at the end of the game: 30-18

BUT, that is misleading because of the 2011 beat down. If we toss out that game, look at how things change: 

Average score at halftime: 17-7. No changes here

Average score at the end of the third quarter: 22-10. Really no changes here either. We are usually doing very well vs BYU the first three quarters of the game. 

Average final score: 24-20. It’s the fourth quarter. It’s Whitt’s “let’s take our foot off the gas and play defense to win the game” mentality. 

That is what I would love to see. Let our offense continue to play. We can get more conservative, sure. We don’t need to be doing huge play action bombs to end games, but why not get another TD or two in the fourth quarter and late third quarter and put Huntley in a couple of games every year? Why not put WSU away in 2014 when you are up 24-7? Why not put BYU away a couple years ago? 

Anyhow, maybe interesting to only me. 

I can’t wait for spring ball. 

[Tony (admin)]

It would be interesting to see scoring averages per quarter for all games, not just the zoo game.

[Utah]

True. It’s snowing pretty hard up here. If someone no shows, then maybe I’ll do it…or play settlers of catan online. 

The BYU game just makes me so freaking angry. I have a lot of BYU fans in my family and it’s the same every year. They talk crap leading up to the game, we come out and build a lead, they throw tantrums, then they come back in the fourth and they talk crap after the game about how lucky Utah is to have won the game. I need some more 2011’s. Big time. And we are good enough to have more of those types of games. 

[Tony (admin)]

We beat them this year and didn’t even play well.  We beat them in the bowl last year with NO offense.  Even when we are bad we beat them.  It’s the final score that matters, not that the zoo had more yards or more points in the 4th.  

[utefansince79]

No sense in getting angry when we’re winning all the time.   It was much worse for those who lived through the 70s/80s when the BYU fans were even worse than they are now AND were kicking our butts most of the time.

[Stone]

I have a memory etched in my brain (cannot remember who we were playing) when Urban Meyer was head coach. Utah was winning and the game was nearing an end. The offense started throwing some deep bombs, looking for another TD (the passes were unsuccessful if I recall). The TV cameras caught Whit glaring at Meyer because, as was evident, Whit was of the mind set that the offense needed to just grind out the win and run the clock down.

I don’t fault Whit for that mindset, it can win games and be very effective. And there are some great examples of a team losing games because the offense threw passes and failed to run the clock down. However, there needs to be a balance between gun slinging and hibernation. Extremes on either side are dangerous. Whit typically errs on hiberation, so it would be great to see him open things up a bit more. It doesn’t need to be a drastic shift, just be a bit more aggressive on offense throughout the entire game.

[Utah]

I sgree. I dont want wholesale changes. BUT, I want some changes. 

[deleted]

I don’t care at all if he doesn’t air it out when he has the lead late in games. I just want consistent first downs that actually result in grinding out the game. 

[pedro]

As a fan, I agree with you as my heart has a hard time taking those close games.  However, it is realy hard to argue with the success he has had doing that.

[Utah]

Until you realize that the south was handed to us on a platter with the way the schedule laid out and Utah lost to two terrible teams in Cal and Oregon. 

We fell on our faces last year. There is no arguing that. We had every opportunity to win the south and we scored 51 points on two teams that gave up on average almost 90. 

Yeah, Whitt has had success, but he wasn’t successful last year. 

Tufele is a 5 star DT that should have comitted to us already. Instead, he is visiting USC this weekend. Why? Because, they just won a Rose Bowl. We haven’t. Now, we have to fight tooth and nail for him in a fight that historically we don’t win. 

Hopefully Whitt and Taylor can get the offense humming. We don’t need it to become Oregon or TCU’s offense. BUT, it needs to be a whole heck of a lot better than it was. The games against the FCS team, SJSU, BYU-P, Cal, Oregon were all failures. We are lucky that we are just a lot, I mean A LOT better than the FCS team, SJSU, and BYU-P. 

[noneyadb]

Breath… everything will be OK. It’s just a game.

[pedro]

That would be a good point had it had anything to do with the topic at hand which is getting a lead and playing conservative thereafter.  I guess if you change the point of the argument it’s easier to win.

[Utahute72]

Or considering we were on our 4th string center and had to bring a running back out of retirement because of all the injuries at that position we could consider it lucky we won as many games and were as competitive as were.