Nice choice, Sitake

[javadave]

Watching the Oregon State vs Arizona game on football in 60. My god the Beavs are horrible. Hopefully Sitake doesn’t get fired in the next couple of years.

Actually, I’d be fine if he was fired.

[Anonymous]

Sitake has always been overrated as a coach, I’m so glad he’s gone. Shareef Shaw will make an outstanding defensive coordinator when Pease retires again.

[javadave]

Makes Dr Hill look like a genius.

[Wilson’s Mustache]

To be fair he had 2 returning starters on defense to work with & their offense is worse than their defense. Hard to be even moderately good at defense when you’re on the field 80% of the game.

Think of it in these terms; Arizona had nearly 36 minutes in time of possession. Arizona runs a very up tempo offense. They aren’t built for long sustained drives. It would be like Oregon having the ball that long, but still going up tempo & scoring at a fast pace.

Any defense in the country will wilt in the face of an assault like that.

That said, no Sitake hasn’t done anything to impress. If he had stayed one more year at Utah he likely would have seen a few Head Coaching offers from some mid-major schools. He appears he probably has ruined any sort of positive reputation he had previously.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Wilson's Mustache.

[Tony (admin)]

How good would Sitake have been last year without Nate Orchard?

[Anonymous]

Without a huge year from Nate Orchard, Sitake would have been the same D Coordinator who was 5-7 in back to back seasons with numerous defensive let downs.

[KiYi-Ute]

I feel that Sitake’s biggest strength as a coach was in his recruiting. Initially I was upset to see him go (and possibly more upset at the perceived notion that Chris Hill wasn’t willing to pay coaches what they were worth) but I am very happy with the addition of Pease. I think his defensive scheme is more effective, albeit less flashy than what we came to know as “Sack Lake City”.

That being said, I think that Sitake has a bright future ahead of him; whether that be an eventual HC job somewhere or not.

[UteStuckInSeattle]

When Sitake was here he was running Whitt’s defense. It’s always been Whitt who really had the most influence on that defense.

Sitake doesn’t have “his guys” quite yet but I don’t doubt he’ll get a pretty decent defense going up there. It may not become as elite as Utah’s but it will be a tough D to play against in a few years.

[UtahUteGuy]

I wonder if, ironically, Sitake will decline in terms of his recruiting now that he has left Utah. The Polynesian Pipeline at Utah is stronger than just one coach, it relies on tradition, location, reputation and the head coach, Kyle Whittingham, who I’m guessing is perceived as a guy who helps Polynesians get into the NFL. Sitake, although Polynesian, was the beneficiary of the Pipeline, not the originator. Obviously, it didn’t hurt to have him in such a prominent position on the staff via-a-vis the Pipeline, but he wasn’t absolutely vital. Utah will recruit strong in the Polynesian community no matter what, and we will recruit well on defense no matter what. Why? Because the head coaching philosophy benefits defensive players massively, and playing at Utah is as good a ticket to getting in the NFL as any other top football university.

What does OSU have to offer? They have no defensive reputation, no history, and what Polynesian players want to go up there and play when they can stay in the SLC area with its much larger Polynesian community. Yeah, unless OSU decides to relocate to Ogden, I don’t see one guy having that much of an impact.

[Anonymous]

I’m of the opinion that we’ve relied too heavily on the Polynesian pipeline. I think we have a good balance of coaches now.

[AZswayze]

I like Sitake, but he was always a high risk high reward guy. He blitzed more often than Pease, but we seemed to give up far more big plays too. I think Goff would have torched us if Sitake was still here. Very pleased with Pease.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by AZswayze.