Harlan thinks that 2023 was Whitt’s best

[ProudUte]

KSL Article

Do you agree? I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I get his point. On the other hand – I think the staff handled the QB situation poorly. But, I do agree that 8 wins with 30 guys missing one or more games is quite an accomplishment.

The article also discusses Utah’s transition into the Big 12.

[Yergensen]

Whit raised the floor on this season.

It can also be true at the same time that he lowered the ceiling.

IMO he should be credited with both.

[RoboUte]

What do you mean by lower the ceiling? That thought hadn’t occurred to me at all.

[The Miami Ute]

I congratulate Whitt and Company for being able to win eight games with so many injuries. I criticize Whitt and Company for not having a good handle on Rising’s injury situation in what’s the most important position on any team.

None of the options regarding Rising are good. !. Whitt didn’t know…no bueno for the CEO of the team. 2. Rising lied to Whitt…no bueno for a team captain. 3. Whitt knew but didn’t do anything about it…well, what can you say? I’d rather let bygones be bygones and not focus on an issue that, still to this day, to me is not easily explainable.

[Utegator]

I agree with all the above. He’s lucky he coaches at Utah and not somewhere like tOSU. Bungling the QB situation like that would not be tolerated at a lot of places.

[MDUte]

I believe it is us fans who are lucky Whitt coaches at Utah. We have a Top 10 rated coach in America at a school that is nowhere close to being on the level of prestige of an Ohio State or any other blue blood school.

[RoboUte]

If this was a coach’s first season with a team and there was no history at all to pull expectations from this season gets a coach fired from most good programs. You don’t field a team with no QB, you just don’t. That’s like running a nascar team and forgetting the f**kin’ tires.

[2008 National Champ]

since the tires lied to Whitt about their road readiness, and it’s apparently not in his purview to verify anything.,,

[Ute Dub]

I think you’re wrong on all accounts regarding Rising. They went after other QB’s but those QB’s did 10 seconds of research and found out Rising’s doctor said he’ll be ready. What’s Whitt supposed to say? “Oh, never mind, the surgeon and his decade of schooling, pffft, I know better. Come sit behind a 2-time conference champ as our safety valve in case he can’t go.” Then Rose, the second string 3-star QB gets hurt in fall.

[RoboUte]

“Rising’s doctor said he’ll be ready”

Point us to that source, make sure it’s dated last spring and make sure it’s very clear and unambiguous. This is kind of a trick question of course because it doesn’t exist. All communication at that time was vague, as is to be expected. “I have to make sure I’m doing everything I can to make sure I’m ready for fall camp and then ready to go when the season comes around.” Stuff like that (actual quote btw)

“Oh, never mind, the surgeon and his decade of schooling, pffft, I know better”

Funny you say that. A good number of us on this board apparently did know better, we called rising’s return timeframe last June and earlier. It’s almost like it was really obvious or something… Then again I can hardly hold the surgeon responsible for something he never said.

[Utah]

Last year was…messed up. The injuries, Rising, etc. Whitt was in a tough place, because if you can hold onto Rising…2024 your schedule is exponentially easier. Your toughest game is versus Oklahoma State and they lost to a Sun Belt team last year. There is no Oregon, Washington, USC on the schedule.

With Rising you are favored to win the conference. With the easier schedule, there is a good chance you get through the schedule with less injuries. You get into the playoffs as the #4 seed and get a bye…You only have to win 3 games to win a national title. And being a top 4 team, your first game should be versus a team you can win. And if there is an upset…you might only have to win one really tough game to be national champ.

So you can’t lose Rising. You are too close to the top. Was it worth sacrificing 2023 for a shot at a national title? We will see.

The good news is, 2023 is over. Recruits have signed. Transfers have come in. Rising is back. Kuithe is back. We look like the runaway favorite in the Big 12 and have the easiest path to a top 4 seed in the playoffs.

Let’s make 2024 the best year ever and let’s hope Whitt retires at the end of the year hoisting a trophy over his head.

[The Miami Ute]

If what you imply is true, that Whitt essentially sacrificed the 2023 season for a chance to win the CFP in 2024, and that comes to fruition, then, to me, he’ll ascend to the level above legendary. Because, while I was playing checkers, he was playing three dimensional chess.

[RoboUte]

He should’ve kept Ellis, Bishop, and Vaki on that chess board if he was thinking natty.

[ProudUte]

I was thinking the same thing.

I we still had Vaki, Bishop, Jackson, Vele, etc. – a national championship “may” be in reach. As it sits now, I think we may have a good season and possibly a Big 12 championship.

[Utah]

Ha ha. I don’t think that’s what I’m saying…I’m just saying it was more important to keep Rising than to win 10 games with a transfer QB and have Rising leave.

But damn, we should have beaten Northwestern and ended up with 9 wins and ranked. S**t.

[Charlie]

I agree. How many of the top teams last year could win 8 games without their starting QB? As an example, where would Washington finish with our injuries? Whitt could have had a better option for QB2, of course a mistake, however it is difficult to have all contingencies covered every year. My expectation allows for a great coach to get caught by a similar issue in a season with so many things going wrong. Outside of Rising a normal year with injuries across the team would have produced better results. As I look forward to a better year, my hope is the injury bug is gone, I don’t at all wish for a better HC.

[RoboUte]

It’s hard to say because other teams just go ahead and get other starting QBs when theirs is injured. We’d have to have a data pool on teams that not only don’t replace their QB but refuse to give the backups first team reps for half the season to know if this sort of a win total is really anomalous. There’s a lot of really good reasons we’ll never get that data.

I love that we beat USC and UCLA, great parting gift. But really we lost to every other team with a pulse that we played.

[Utegator]

I agree with pretty much everything that has been said in this thread, to certain extents. It just really confuses me that Arizona can have their starting QB go down and then Fifita comes out of nowhere and Utah cant even pick one of 3 back up QB’s to start a game. Of course, maybe Fifita was a diamond in the rough, but also Utah doesn’t have a great QB track record.

[Utah]

This is Whitt’s Achilles Heel. He can’t recruit HS QB’s. I don’t know what it is. If he can’t get them interested in Utah’s scheme or what. But outside of Huntley, he’s been terrible.

He can get solid transfer QB’s, and I guess that is where he needs to butter his bread (which he has done). The problem with this route, is you can never get a HS QB or a second QB to sign on, leaving your depth extremely thin.

If Whitt could get a top three round QB to sign on…he’d be Saban or Carroll. But he can’t and here we are. An imperfect but still pretty amazing coach.

[stbone]

For what we are, I think we do a shockingly good job recruiting HS QBs. (Travis Wilson is listed as a 96-four star QB)

I think the problem is that we can’t recruit enough high-ranking volume to consistently develop QBs. Putting it a bit differently, so many top recruits don’t pan out at QB, and so to consistently get top notch QB play, you probably need a couple of Isaac Wilsons per year. We aren’t there yet.

[Charlie]

I agree, QB has been our most difficult recruit. With NIL I think it will become quite difficult for teams that are not top 10 to keep a second QB that looks ready to play. It is the nut Whitt needs to crack. At UofA they were surprised that they had a second QB ready to go so soon. It is what you dream about but is hard to replicate. I am hoping in ’25 we can get competition for QB2. To do so I think we need to have high prospects for that year.

[stbone]

I think NIL will make it nearly impossible to keep a 2nd QB who is nearly ready. I think you will have situations like we will have next year with a high-ceiling freshman and a multiple-redshirt backup who may grow into the real deal. But, I can’t imagine a scenario (without a season ending injury) where any high-ceiling QB decides to sit and wait for multiple years.

[RoboUte]

Lmfao. Sure we did fine with the number of injuries we had but there’s no excuse for the earth shatteringly pathetic QB debacle that directly lost us our QB3 and RB1 (as well as a few games). Nor is there any excuse for the pale lifeless corpse of a team (from players to coaches) he brought to the bowl game.

Given that Whitt’s tenure has been so successful in general I’m not sure how you even make the case this isn’t one of his worst seasons, if not his worst. It convinced me without a doubt that he’s no longer his best.

[EagleMountainUte]

Dead horse. Disagree for lots of reasons. I have moved on though.

I am excited for another year of Whitt led football. I am hopeful they can somehow sign a qb soon.

Personally I think what did after the death of two players was even better. I will forever remember those teams.

[Gilly Boy 94]

i would agree to some extent. as a ‘whole’, yes, this year should be considered a success considering the amount of talent that was sitting injured on the sideline. any of us would have gladly taken an 8 win season had we known the massive amount of injured players this season would provide. my only complaint comes from the miserable performance and loss in the Las Vegas bowl.

Barnes is a warrior, but a below average QB at best. i am still a fan of his and hope for his success. with that said, i was not supportive of Whittngham’s and Ludwigs decision to ride Barnes through that entire bowl game. It was very clear about halfway through that game that our below average QB (Barnes) was having the worst game of his career, and still with the game in reach and victory very possible, they chose to ‘die on that hill’ with Barnes. Barnes gets a little dinged up and sits out for a couple of plays and Bottari comes in and throws a simple screen pass and suddenly doubles Utahs offensive yardage. why not leave him in for a bit? He could not have possibly played any worse then Barnes was playing………something needed to change……a spark…….anything. and they chose nothing. the fans, especially those that traveled to the game and paid a lot of money to support the team deserve better than that. i get the loyalty shown to barnes because of his awesome story and his toughness. but in the end, the program, the other players and the fans deserve the best product that can possibly be put on the field. just felt like that day, the coaches decided not to do that. that was perhaps the most frustrating loss i have watched in a very long time. it just seemed like the coaching staff didnt care…..i am sure they did care…….but the message i felt during that games was that they didnt. ‘lets just get this over with’ is what i felt.

[UteFanatic]

From a fan standpoint, no. But, there is something to be said about getting to 8 wins in a really good conference with a scout team offense.

[Tony (admin)]

Good and bad. Getting 8 wins with the players that were available was very good. The way the QB situation was handled was completely botched.

[ProudUte]

My feelings exactly. The QB situation was botched.