Barnes was always Whit’s QB2

[Yergensen]

Barnes was QB2 in first Rose Bowl, surprised us because JJ was QB2 per depth chart.

Barnes was QB2 in 2022 season.

Rose, per Whit, was not ready for LV Bowl because he didn’t know the playbook well enough. So, a healthy Rose would not have been ready in September thru December.

NJ was Barnes’ backup thru 2023 unless Barnes performed so badly that change was needed (see Baylor). With NJ’s stinker, Barnes was restored to the job and retained it even with a few more stinkers.

Whit either didn’t know the extent of Cam’s injury and thought Cam would be back this season or he did know the extent of Cam’s injury and thought Barnes was good enough to win the PAC championship. Whit was wildly wrong on both counts.

Whit did know or should have known the extent of Cam’s injury and gone out and offered a transfer QB a 1 year starting position on a back to back PAC championship team. Easy sell.

What’s worse? Whit was ignorant as CEO of the operation. Or Whit was fully in the know and terribly misjudged his QB2 talent. One of these two things happened and neither are good.

[Utah]

I love Whitt. I really think we will take a step back when he retires.

But the dude has too much control. You can’t have a system where there is no accountability. Once a person loses accountability, their performance will suffer.

Having practices closed doesn’t help Utah win games. See the Arizona game this year. No one knew about our injuries until game time and we still got our asses beat.

But what closed practices does is remove accountability for Whitt. No ones sees the QB’s play. No one can question him on why Barnes is getting all the reps, or why Rising is getting reps, when they clearly struggle.

No one can ask why Johnson or Rose isn’t getting more reps when they have flashes in practice.

Same with not listing injuries. If you don’t list injuries, you don’t have to answer questions about players.

Everyone needs accountability. The second you can’t question your leader is the second you allow bad things to happen unchecked.

[Ute Dub]

Whitt went with Barnes and won 8 games on an injury-riddled season? So, was Whitt right?

[ORute]

Barnes didn’t win 8; our D won 3–Florida, Baylor, UCLA. Botarri won 1 – CO, NJ won 1 – Weber (could argue Baylor). Id credit Barnes with wins over USC and ASU. USC being his seminole moment, aside from that, Id credit him with 2 wins. It was honestly our D that won us 8.

[Ute Dub]

Reread it. I NEVER said Barnes won 8 games. I said WHITT WENT WITH BARNES….AND WON 8 games.

Are you trying to say Utah would have won more than 8 with Rose or NJ?

[EagleMountainUte]

Whitt never WENT with Barnes is the point. You are the one not comprehending the point.
I thought it was also simultaneously how great Ludwig was for winning 8 games as well. Despite you know all the inconsistent cope you have to swallow before believing that. Just one game fUCLA Ludwig won in spite of his offense.

[Ute Dub]

Whitt didn’t go with Barnes? I could have sworn I watched Barnes play in some games.

[ORute]

Reread it, I said our D won us 8. And yea, probably with anyone else we would have beat NU.
I guess im not following your argument–that Whitt is a great coach because we won 8 with Barnes and injuries? Could just as easily say that our D won us 8 despite having to constantly carry our offense. Im saying Scalley is an elite coach and the D carried this team, from all indications Whitt and Lud made a number of misteps which held the offense back.

[EagleMountainUte]

Whitt somehow went with Barnes all along now. After you know 6-7 weeks of struggling with the decision and shutting down Rising and Rose. Splitting reps admitting that is a bad idea.

[Ute Dub]

It was the toughest schedule in school history, Utah played all the toughest teams in the conference and skipped playing lower level teams. The team had immense injuries and still won 8 games. Yeah. I think Whitts a badass mother f**ker. Barnes was late on his throws and barfed all over the field against Northwestern, but hindsight is 20/20 and not something Whitt had the benefit of knowing before the game. And he was probably working 100 hours a week to keep his team together before the bowl game. So yeah. I think he’s a great coach.

[ORute]

I agree he is a great coach. The issue is whether the QB situation was handled well and could have been handled better. And no, the bowl game wasn’t hindsight–Whitt chose to go with a QB who had been bad most of the season, declared he was transferring, had 2 QBs who are on next years team that could use reps and despite BB aweful play, STILL kept going with him

[Ute Dub]

Nah. Whitt’s going to play to win the game. A bowl win increases his compensation. Reps for new players? He’s trying to win the game and thought Barnes could do it. Barnes beat SC. Barnes beat Florida. Barnes was undefeated as a starter coming into the season. Whitt thought Barnes was the best option to win. Hell, the announcers said the pecking order was Barnes, Bottari, then Ja’Quindon Jackson, without mention of Rose. So I don’t even know what tf you’re talking about Rose being an option.

[ORute]

The mere fact that Barnes at any point in the season was considered the ‘best option to win’ says all we need to know about how the QB situation was mishandled.

[RoboUte]

“but hindsight is 20/20 and not something Whitt had the benefit of knowing before the game”

Pictured: Ute Dub using hindsight on the rest of our entire season (2023, colorized)

[EagleMountainUte]

Whitt won 8 games with Barnes*

Ludwig won 8 games with Barnes and all them injuries**

*Whitt never fully committed to Barnes until after the Oregon State game. One could argue he never fully committed to anything at this point either. Because Rising, NJ and Barnes were all sharing reps.

**Ludwig had Barnes and NJ splitting reps(with Rising)and relying on defense and JJ to win games. Despite JJ’s injuries and eventual reliance on Vaki’s dynamic playmaking ability.

Devils in them details but Ute Dub is just trolling in my view.

[Utah]

Maybe. Maybe not. That’s the point. We don’t know.

If practices were open, we’d know more. So now, instead of knowing, we get to speculate, which usually leads to a lot of nonsense.

[EagleMountainUte]

I still don’t understand how polarizing Barnes is in this fan base. The guy was good for laughs made a few flukey passes in games but he wasn’t ever a Quarterback for a top 10 team.

Starting the season with Barnes or NJ was a disaster. Finishing with Barnes was a disaster. Blame it on anything else to help you cope but it was a horrible decision to ever rely on Barnes for anything

[RoboUte]

There’s no doubt both were a mistake. The real issue is: Is the fact that each was a mistake our fault? Completely ignoring the existence of Cam Rising and his needing to be replaced, what caused Utah to be unable to either 1. Identify any suitably talented player for the position and/or 2. Sufficiently prepare any quarterback who was suitably talented? There are a number on the roster, if none of them are cut out for the position or haven’t been prepared, or a combination of both, what leads a coaching staff to be unable to either recognize or rectify this?

[The Miami Ute]

What’s worse? Whit was ignorant as CEO of the operation. Or Whit was fully in the know and terribly misjudged his QB2 talent. One of these two things happened and neither are good.

Yeap… there’s been a few people on this site, myself included, that have been talking about this very same issue since before the season started. In fact, Eagle and I have had comments removed on the Utah Utes Football Digest YouTube channel that mentioned this same issue. Just hard not to see it as a major fail on someone’s part.

[RoboUte]

I still don’t fully understand the psychological underpinnings of the head-in-sand sort of phenomena that has become the rule around this issue. It certainly isn’t as taboo as it was just weeks ago, but even still.

[stbone]

Seeing Aaron Rodgers recovery, makes me wonder … maybe Cam’s initial timeline was accurate. Also makes me wonder what treatment decisions weren’t made that impacted the recovery timeline.

[EagleMountainUte]

This topic has been discussed ad nauseam by now. But each Rising recovery thread that you think is logical leads you to an even worst conclusions.

[DataUte]

Um, AR was a torn Achilles, so different injury. He also isn’t playing this year. He even verbalized it wasn’t his call to activate him and he questioned why. Seems the same – the team has cleared him but he (and/or his doctor, same as Cam) has not and isn’t going to return for 2 meaningless games. Zach already pilfered the season away

[RoboUte]

Whitt right now:

[The Miami Ute]

LOL…sarcastic post of the year.

[The Miami Ute]

An Achilles Heel and a knee aren’t the same but I get your point. It’s just hard to believe that, given the severity of Cam’s injury and the normal recovery period, anyone could really think that he would play in 2023.

[EagleMountainUte]

Yet people will say Whitt somehow knew all along and WENT with Barnes despite saying Rising is like super close….until the facts came out.

It isn’t a new concept that Whitt has struggled at the QB spot. I don’t know why they love mental gymnastics over facts.

[The Miami Ute]

Eagle, you know the answer. There are people in this fanbase for whom Whitt can’t do any wrong. No doubt he’s an excellent coach but you have to call a spade, a spade. Sure hope we don’t have something similar happening in 2024. Whitt and Lud have to have a legitimate Plan B in case Rising is still gimpy or develops issues during the season.