I love coach Whit

[ProudUte]

BUT – I have never liked his style of conservative play when leading by only 5-10 points.  I believe it has cost us a number of games.  If we are ahead by 21 with ten minutes to play, I believe playing conservative is the right thing to do.  However, when leading by 10 points or less, I think you have to do what got you there.

Everyone in college football knows that Whit will run-run-run when holding a late lead.  They stack the box and make it very difficult to get first downs.  We end up losing momentum and it has backfired on us.  The same can be said for our defense.  We end up playing prevent defense like we did against UW last year and they scored late and won.

I am not suggesting that you put the QB in a position to make a game-busting mistake like a pick-6.  However, I believe there are things we can do to exploit the 8 guys they put in the box.  Kuithe comes to mind.

I love coach Whit and I am very happy he is here.  He is a great coach, but every fan has their issues and these are mine.  By the way, I highly doubt he is going to change.

[ProudUte]

I meant this to be a response to TrailGoat’s post below.  Sorry.

[Dwight89]

slightly agree. However, devil’s advocate would say that we don’t know how many games Whitt has won for Utah because of that conservative mindset when we are ahead. Controlling the clock matters bigly, as they say. 

[Tony (admin)]

Hard to argue against Whitt’s success. 

[Uphoric]

Depends upon the personnel on the field. . . Whit does a fantastic job of making the best use of the skill sets he has available decreasing risk. He plays the percentages as well.  

[Ute Dub]

Remember when we lost to Northwestern in the 2018 Holliday bowl after leading big-league 20-3 at half time? Yeah, 5 TO’s in the second half that all occured on called passing plays by Coach Taylor not being conservative. That was the most un-Whittingham second half of a football game I have ever seen. I think it was 2 interceptions and 4 fumbles (0 by running backs, 2 by QB, 2 by receivers). Northwestern had 1 INT and 0 Fumbles, won by 11, and killed us in the TO margin. In hindsight, should have ran the ball and punted. 

https://www.espn.com/college-football/boxscore/_/gameId/401035250

 

[chinngiskhaan]

I love these posts. I understand you are only saying you don’t like it. However, many posts of this ilk are done suggesting that Kyle does what he does because he’s afraid of making mistakes. That simply isn’t true. I know Whitt better than most, and even those who don’t would say he isn’t afraid of much of anything or anyone. He cares deeply about winning, and about doing things the right way. If he didn’t know that doing things his way gives him the best odds, or if he knew there was a way that would give him better odds, he’d do it in a second.

he does what he does because it’s statistically the best way to ensure his team wins football games. End of story

[Dallas]

I wish I knew Whit better than most.

[chinngiskhaan]

Lol… yeah, we aren’t super close or anything but my father considers him a good friend, they spent a lot of time together at BYU. He knows me, and basic get to know you stuff about me and mine. Like I said, more than most people, which isn’t really saying a whole lot. It’s enough that he goes out of his way to talk when we see him.

and Yes, I will allow you to kiss my feet if we ever run into each other (provided you are sanitized and vaccinated of course).

[Dallas]

Doesn’t every team play conservatively when holding onto a lead? Isn’t that the generally accepted best strategy?

[noneyadb]

It’s college. Chillaxe and have a beer.

 

[pedro]

Here’s my problem with this argument, it’s outdated and show’s that fans let preexisting biases affect their judgement of the hear and now.  

Whit USED to do this, no doubt.  But if YOU have watched any of the last couple of seasons with any sort of objectiveness, you will see he is most definatley NOT doing it now.  If fact, there were several games where I wondered why some of our best players were still in the game.  

You’re a great fan Proud, but time to relenquish the old perspectives and embrace new.  

[ProudUte]

Just one old man’s opinion.  Nothing more.  I am not saying that I am right and others are wrong. It’s just the way I see it.  I hate it when we lose momentum.  Oh well, it appears that many do not agree with me and that’s totally fine!  In the end – I just want to win. 🙂

[CincyUte]

You’re good.  You’re saying what a lot of us were already thinking.  But I think a lot of good points are raised in this thread that makes me feel a lot better about the topic.

[Charlie]

When you think in the context of just a game that can appear to be the story. However, if you remember, in those years Utah was wearing down and had great difficulty in November. It has taken us a long time to build Pac-12 depth in the 2s and 3s which if needed with little drop-off to win as the year runs down. I think a big part is pacing the team to get to Thanksgiving, then oddly, with rest, Utah was always fired up for the bowl game. The conservative play runs the clock to require fewer plays and is friendly to exhaustion and injuries (counter intuitive). As depth improve Whitt has less need for that gamble. I think.