No one disputes that USC has higher ranked athletes than Utah as recruits. What the coaches do with that talent is what counts in the end, not the number of stars affixed to a name coming out of high school. There is absolutely no question that Utah’s coaching staff does more with less than most teams in the country. Certainly, Utah outperforms SC on a player by player basis and has since Utah joined the Pac-12.
Utah’s performance over the last decade has been hampered by being a one-sided team. Utah has strong defenses year in and year out. But the same cannot be said for Utah’s offense. Utah does put together enough strong offensive performances each year to be in the hunt, competitive. But the lack of a true offensive identity has keep Utah a second tier program in the Pac-12, in my opinion.
It is as clear as day that Kyle Whittingham knows this. The frustration with the offense has been visible on his face for many seasons. He would not be changing out offensive coordinators like diapers on a new born if that were not the case. We can argue that KW did not know what he wanted, but I don’t believe that either. He wanted the dynamic offense that propelled Utah to undefeated seasons in 2004 and 2008. He has his own boundary conditions that may have suboptimized his selections; he needed to know them, trust them personally. I have no idea how deep his search was, but he knew of Troy Taylor years prior to offering him a position, in one example. And he got to know him in that process.
Arguably Utah has an OC with the mind for that side of football that KW and his disciples have for the defense. If we take the players and coaches at face value, the issue has been putting it all together, executing the plan. Utah absolutely needed the bench test of a handful of games to understand what the lack of execution meant, Washington and WSU, and also NIU. Now they know. And the players on offense have had to dial it up to the level appropriate to win.
From that perspective, 2018 is a watershed year for Utah offense. Assuming this team remains creative in play calling and in understanding how to beat opposing defenses, the team will be more than competitive. Assuming Troy Taylor can do on offense what Morgan Scalley et al. can do on defense, there is not reason to believe that Utah will have a November slump. I’m as excited for this year as I was for 2004 and 2008. I think this team “gets it”. And they get it with mostly 3* recruits.
If the progress continues, better HS players will want to come to Utah. If the offense is exciting, Utah will have choices of HS QBs to sign.
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