It’s time to be honest about the Ute Oline

[Anonymous]

Kwhitt has no excuse for having a below to average Oline on his watch – none.

The access to elite OL talent is sitting in his own backyard (i.e. Poly’s) but they all seem to go to OR or USC and get drafted in the first round.

THIS cronic screw up has keeped the Utes from two (maybe three) Rose Bowls…and will most likely derail the Utes again this year. 

Pass protection: is it coaching or talent?  Answer – yes.

The fact that we’re all crossing our fingers on that kid from across the pond (do they even play M’rican football there?) as R/L tackle is mind blowing.  Utah should be 2-3 deep with elite tackles.

It’s been over 10 years now in the Pac12  – no excuses. 

[RedRocks]

If you want people to take you more seriously, try being a little less hyperbolic.

Are there questions? Yes. Has the line underperformed at times? Yes.

[Anonymous]

Has the line underperformed at times? Yes. Lol, i think you’d find it much easier to find the handful of games when the line performed good/great with pass protection.

[chinngiskhaan]

Harding is a decent offensive line coach, but he is clearly the worst recruiter of all the position group coaches. I keep hearing that we have more talent than ever at that position group, and that it just needs time to get coached up, but it’s still the least talented position group we have (outside of WR maybe, and Bumphis seems to be changing that).

Like it or not, the top OL talent in the state (the last two guys from Orem HS) have fathers who have better relationships with the offensive line coach at Oregon.

If we can hire an OL coach who can get the best Polynesian offensive line talent in the state to stay home, we need to hire that person.

I keep hearing the excuse that the offensive line SHOULD be getting beat in pass protection by the better talent of the USCs and Oregons of the world. However, we have less talent at every other position group than those schools as well, and we seem to do just fine in other areas. Also, if the talent at OL is so deficient, who is to blame for that? Harding.

If I’m Whitt, Harding has until the end of the USC game to prove he knows how to coach an OL group to pass block against the top of the conference. No excuses, do your job to the same level as everyone else on the staff, or you get replaced.

Harding has a number of built in advantages over other position coaches, yet he still consistently fields the worst position group on the team (which luckily is still pretty solid occasionally). He’s one of the longest tenured position coaches on the team. One of the most experienced. He has 1st round talent playing HS ball right here in Utah (no other position coach can say that).

GH had the distinction of worst position coach last year, and he got canned (hopefully not just because a couple of dudes transferred). If this new “super talented” group doesn’t show up this year in a big way, I don’t see how he keeps his job much longer.

No more excuses, every football coach deals with the same problems that have lead to excuse making in behalf of coach Harding, but the successful ones make it work regardless of those issues. It is time.

If his group plays well against USC (win or not) I’m fully on the Harding train. If they force our QB to (once again) run for his life all day long… He should be let go.

Whitt has shown several times over now that he can find position group coaches that are improvements over the previous guys. I’m sure there is a former UofU offensive lineman from Utah that would be a good fit.

[Anonymous]

Agree with most of what you said.

Based on Utah’s demographic/culure footprint – O/D line should be a slam dunk strength of the program. Clearly kwhitt has figured out the Dline.  Oline should be a no brainer,…it shouldn’t be this hard.

What’s most mind blowing is that Utah actually excels with CB’s and RB’s.  Two groups that require out of state and culturally different talent – and yet they beat out Ohio State and Florida  for these players.

 The buck stops at kwhitt. The coaching and talent is waaay below what they need to win the conference and it doesn’t need to be that way.

 

 

[chinngiskhaan]

disagree… Harding was a good hire, and is a solid coach. Whitt is justified in keeping him this long, if he underperforms again, and stays on staff, then it’s on Whitt. Not until then IMO.

[UtahUtesRock]

My thoughts are I sure hope it’ll be easier to replace a football coach than it is to replace a basketball coach. Are you kidding me? Coach Whitt led us from the Mountain West to the PAC 12, an undefeated season, two PAC 12 South championships. I mean look at Arizona, Colorado. People can complain but I think it’s going to take us a while to fill his shoes. Hope I’m wrong. 

[Charlie]

I agree that there is lots of pressure on Harding. But I don’t think we understand just how hard it is to get every single position group solid and wining the majority of their matchups all while playing 9 games against conference teams that mostly have more resources, much more developed programs, that all want to desperately win games as much as we do. OL is the position group most needed to improve but it is not as simple as ring up the next great position coach by slapping leather. OL groups don’t blossom quickly. Let’s hope the organic process is already under way.

[ALUF]

Very frustrating to lose consistently in recruiting our top in state linemen to other outside powers like usc and Oregon…

[Central Coast Ute]

Keeped?

This account was created yesterday and wreaks of Pace.

[ayoriver]

^^^
I was thinking the same thing. Pointing the figure at Coach Whitt, along with the spelling errors. He can only really point to Oline because every other position has players highly recruited/ the transfers. It’s the only position he can go after now.

[Central Coast Ute]

It’s him.

[Tony (admin)]

Or another user I’ve banned about 100x. 

[Waybackutefan]

I think the bigger question Phoenix is who do you you think your teams starting QB will be? Monty Hall or the Mitt Romney kid?

[Johnny]

Pace is back, or is it Moose?

[ironman1315]

Moose at least could spell. This is pace. 

[chinngiskhaan]

Well, his name is Phoenix rising so… yeah, it’s Pace