Can I be a dick here?

[Utah]

I know a lot of you think I always am, but this might be going a little too far. Here goes:

I hope Troy’s HS coach is right, that Utah coaches decided on Huntley a month ago and they’ve been stringing Troy along. 

Troy was not good last year. If Huntley won the job a month ago, that’s awesome news. That shows us we might finally have a passing game. That makes me happy. 

Also, why would Troy/his camp feel that the coaches knew a month ago Huntley was starting unless Huntley was outplaying him? 

Again, more good news. 

[ladyinred]

I was expecting something better than that with the title.

I can see where the coach is coming from, but I just don’t see where Troy benefits from transferring. It’s not like he’d be starting at another P5 team, or am I mistaken thinking that? I do think Cox’ transfer last year put us in a bad way depth-wise at QB, but that if Troy transfers, it is a catastrophe for Utah. Waaaay worse than the Cox transfer.

[Chidojuan]

Probably something to do with Whittingham wanting to give him a chance, and learning to let Taylor do his thing with the offense. I was in that camp, hoping that Williams just had a rough first year as a JC transfer. I’m fully onboard now with Huntley starting and have eaten my crow about it.

[Anonymous]

Simple…the high school coach should shut his trap and behave more like a matura adult — hard to find these days, I know. Stop speculating. If Whit and Taylor have done something unsavory, then Troy can tell the story.

[humpbackchub]

I just signed up for the board and this is my first post. As a lurker I always looked foreward to your posts but I’ve got to say I really don’t understand/agree with your recent switch to calling Troy a bad QB. You looked at the numbers from last year, so i’m sure you’re spot on about him being a below average Pac 12 QB, which certainly is “not good.” 

But our whole offense was “not good.” If I recall correctly, you were the one who refenced the comments from other coaches about the noticable improvements in offensive scheme under Troy Taylor, and cited that as an indictment of Roderick as well as a source of optimism for this years offense. Why doesn’t that same optimism apply to Troy Williams? Why doesn’t the excuse of Roderick being a bad OC also explain William’s shortcomings? As a matter of fact, I would argue that Williams has the most valid excuse for being “not good” of anyone on offense if the claim is true that the offense ranked second in drops last year. 

Also, if what you’re saying about Troy is true, then all Huntley winning the job means is that we have a QB that showed himself to be at least maginally better than “not good,” which is hardly reason to be hopeful that we may now have a passing game.

[Milton Vanderslice]

Your username makes me nervous

[humpbackchub]

I’m starting a grassroots campaign to make this our new mascot…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpback_chub

[GameForAnyFuss]

This would be worth doing for no other reason than for the inuendos leading up to games against Oregon St.

“This week, the Chubs meet the Beavers…”

[COFfrom83]

or the “humbacks battle the beavers”

[Utah]

Thanks for the reply. Post more!

We were third in the PAC-12 in rushing. We had 5 NFL OL (if you believe that Uhatafe has a future in the NFL). We had arguably our best RB ever. Tim Patrick is in the NFL. Singleton has a shot as does Simpkins (and in the PAC-12, we’ve had two NFL WR’s on our team every year, I do believe).

But, there were problems everywhere. Joe sucked at first. Moss isn’t as good, or wasn’t last year, as we say he is. ARod was terrible. Troy was hurt. There were drops.

But every team has drops. I think Colorado dropped a TD or two vs us. Didn’t BYU’s TE drop a TD vs us where he was wide open?

So, I don’t give Troy as much benefit from the drops.

I do think you might be right about Troy/Huntley. All we know is that he is better than Troy…which still might not be that good.

[humpbackchub]

I don’t think pointing to the fact that other teams also had drops does anything to negate the fact that we were amongst the worst in that category.

Obviously its been a problem, or we wouldn’t have heard the coaching staff constantly reference it as something that needs to be fixed in the past. They’ve even taken the time to mention it as something that has been improved this fall. Thats one thing that has been a source of optimism. So, you can’t really ignore that and accurately judge Troy’s performance last year, in my opinion. 

All I’m saying is that if we see a significant improvement in the passing game this year, then it’s likely due to the influence of Troy Taylor, and we probably would have seen significant improvement in Troy William’s game as well. 

 

Also, the lack of spell check on here is a huge blow to the ol’ self confidence. 

 

[Puget Ute]

Our inflexible and highly predictable playcalling perhaps led to a high percentage of our receptions being contested. If the DB knows the route before the play starts, it is easy for him to get in position to defend the pass and the window shrinks greatly.

[EagleMountainUte]

Tim Patrick was UDFA and cut by the Ravens last I heard.

[ladyinred]

Right. And I will always and forever love TP for catching that last second TD against USC, but I think we’re about to find out from Carrington what an elite WR looks like. 

[CapitalUte]

He was picked up by the 49ers shortly after and has been having a solid camp with them. Very good chance he sticks with them.

[Stone]

@humpbackchub – you make valid points. I agree that it is unfair to judge TWilliams on his performance last year (at least, to a large extent). He was injured. And it appears he was not working in a good offensive system (although, who knows, we may one day long for the good ‘ol days of ARod – I doubt it, but stranger things have happened).

My hope is that the decisions to go with Huntley was based almost entirely on their performance in camp in the new system. If that is the case, then I feel comfortable with the decision. I think the coaches are being sincere when they say that we could win with each of the three QBs on the roster. Hopefully TWilliams sticks around because, as others have pointed out, there is a strong likelihood that he will get starts this year… it’s just the nature of the game and injuries.

[UtMtBiker]

Starting the slow clap now. Very well said.

[Milton Vanderslice]

Is Troy p**sed?  Good.  Work harder and you can still change your future. 

I’m sorry Troy, it sucks but this is the game.  Work harder and don’t Corbin Louks yourself. 

[Duhwayne]

Is there news of a transfer or are we making s**t up?

Though I prefer the Moose or Stormin Mormons (3 cheerleaders per male), the chub at least shares a nice neckroll of fat with most of the NEZ.

[humpbackchub]

I’d possibly settle for making it the NEZ mascot. As long as we got some flags with the chub’s profile printed on them flying up there. 

[PorterRockwell]

If you can’t be a dick here then it’s not safe to be a dick anywhere. Let me know if you need some Justice dispensed happy to oblige

[UteFanatic]

Woah, woah, woah.  If you hope Troy’s HS coach is right then you are implying you are OK with our coaches being shady.  

I don’t believe their intent was to be shady.  There was a legitimate QB battle and Huntley won.  Period.

[//r00t4Utes]

I may have missed people saying it because I don’t remember reading it BUT if anybody was bad mouthing or using negatives toward Troy Williams as a way to promote or give reasons as to why Tyler Huntley should have won the starting job than that is a poor argument and I would ignore it, and would prove to be a weak/no real point or argument.

Obviously all of us here are just speculating but given that the coaches jobs are on the line on QB decisions I would give the benefit of the doubt that this was purely on who won the job in spring and fall camps. They either feel Tyler out right won it or that Troy didn’t separate himself and in the past I would’ve guessed tie goes to the more experienced QB but with this new offense and new coordinator helping make this decision I can see the benefit of if equal than go with the younger QB to let him grow in the system. I would also expect the same thing 2yrs from now if Tuttle is as good as we all hope and is fighting for playing time and the starting spot.

As long as everything was communicated to Troy Williams like I hope it would be and he keeps his head up this decision was made with the idea that if Tyler isn’t ready or can’t handle it or just flat out not what they thought he was then Troy will get his chance and keep the job the rest of the year.

[Utahute72]

I think it’s been pretty clear that throughout spring and early in fall camp Troy was clearly the better QB. As happens with most players it seemed that something clicked with Tyler and he started really coming on. I think it was the best case scenario where Troy was improving his game, but Huntly just improved faster and showed more upside.

Choosing a starting QB is a bit counter intuitive. In most instances all things being equal, you take the more experienced guy, but with QBs if all things are equal you chose the guy with better upside and the time left in the program to improve. Troy’s path to starting was to show he was clearly the best option BECAUSE his experience allowed him to produce much better than the competition. It didn’t happen.