Looks like we have a new RB coach

[Larry B]

Kiel McDonald from Eastern Washington. I know absolutely nothing about this guy but I was really hoping for Polamalu. 

 

What do you guys know about McDonald?

[Tony (admin)]

Wow we are in love with Eastern Washington I guess.  

[ladyinred]

Apparently so is Cal…

[uteman12]

Press Release link? Can’t find anything on this.

[UtahMan77]

Bruce Feldman on twitter

[leftyjace]

http://footballscoop.com/the-scoop/

SOURCE: #EWU RB coach Kiel McDonald is expected to become the new running backs coach at #Utah.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) January 17, 2017

[uteman12]

Well it hasn’t been confirmed yet. It says, “Expected.”

[Great1Ute]

I don’t know much about him. He was born on April 22, 1983.  He went to school at Sacramento State and coached at EWU for five years.  He recruited California and Arizona.  Prior to coming to EWU, he was a graduate assistant coach for Dennis Erickson at Arizona State University in 2011. He was an offensive quality control coach for the Sun Devils. Prior to that, hewas an intern working with the secondary in 2010 for the San Francisco 49ers, and was defensive backs coach and strength coach that same year for San Jose City College. He also previously worked as strength coach at Marshall Performance and Fitness in San Jose.   

[Great1Ute]

Here is the link to his EWU page.

http://goeags.com/coaches.aspx?rc=16&path=

[Stone]

Interesting. Looks like he has connections with D. Erickson (as a player and a grad assistant).

I am fine with this hire because it seems to clearly be a Taylor hire. So it shows that Taylor has some room to bring in his own staff (at least, to the degree there was an opening).

His playing experience is as a DB, but has coached RBs for about 5 years.

[ladyinred]

Why Polamalu? I’ve read that UCLA couldn’t wait to get rid of him, and their run game was abysmal this last season. Not that it should all fall on him, but just curious why people are high on him apart from maybe recruiting?

[jamarcus24]

I liked the idea of having him on staff because he’s a real presence in the Polynesian football community so having a guy like him on board would only bolster our foothold there.  He also has years of Pac-12 coaching experience and he has strong roots in southern California.  That alone would have been a good reason to bring him in, IMO.

On the flip side though, he’s a pro-style guy so he probably wouldn’t have been a good fit with Troy’s scheme.

[KiYi-Ute]

Official:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865671257/Utes-tab-Eastern-Washington-running-backs-coach-as-new-RB-coach.html

[Torg]

Given his ties to Erickson, I wonder how much Erickson is a mentor to him.

I’m neither disappointed or overly excited about this hire. It’s just a hire. I’ll just “patiently” wait until next season to re-assess.

[Anonymous]

With Troy Taylor’s offense, you don’t need a RB coach.  His QB was the leading rusher last year, which means Tyler Huntley will be the starter.  Say goodbye to a traditional running game.  We’re going to look like WSU and Cal: flashy, but ineffective.

[Utah]

Lol. Spoken like a true Utah fan. 

As far as no run game…as long as Whitt is the HC, I’ll believe it when I see it. 

[jamarcus24]

If anything a year from now people will probably still be complaining that we didn’t throw it enough.

[Anonymous]

The single most important thing a RB coach can do is to recruit talent. There is very little to coach up at the RB position. Talent takes care of itself.