Love this coaching staff, but…

[NorthernUte]

That was the worst coaching job I have ever seen out of the team as a whole.

Offense- Why tf are we throwing the ball 40 times with a freshman when our back is averaging 5.7 a carry?? Didn’t love not kicking the field goals, but that was slightly understandable. I’d hate to know if Cam split reps this week with Isaac resulting in less time playing with the offense this week. I can keep complaining, but I’ll start with defense now.

Defense- Every fan on this chat board knew exactly what Arizona was going to do in this game, every person in America knew it… so what did we prepare all week for? Could not stop McMillan for s**t, his stats don’t show it, but anyone watching the game knows exactly what role he played in that game. So clearly we didn’t focus on the best wide receiver in America… hopefully we at least prepped for the run, right?? Wrong, awful, terrible rush defense tonight. The score is not indicative of how bad the coaching was this week, but I genuinely don’t know what the coaches could have been prepping for this week.

Still go Utes, but that was excruciatingly hard to watch!

[Xanthis]

Whitt is getting out coached a lot more often these days. That combined with the secrecy behind injuries is losing him a lot of good will. It’s a bummer really.

[The Miami Ute]

What’s shocking is that tonight he got out coached by a guy that, at this time last year, was the HC of the glorified community college known as San Jose State.

[Breux41]

I also love this staff.

But they failed the team. Not only the way you said, but if Wilson is literally our best option right now they’ve failed either at recruiting or at evaluating talent. Great kid. Not even close to ready. Questionable passes and decisions and bobbled snaps. They screwed up.

[TruckStopTerrors]

I think they’re worried about Bernard’s durability. Especially when you have nobody else seemingly able to be even adequate as a backup for him. Mitchell had 2 carries tonight for 0 yards…. That was it…. That tells me all the other backs aren’t at all playing well when they’re practicing or in game when they get the ball. From what I’ve heard, they don’t believe Bernard will stay healthy if they’re giving him the kind of attempts they have JJ last season.

I also won’t be sad to see Ludwig go after the season if Whitt decides to hang it up. I would like Morgan to go out and get his own guy. 4 straight runs on 1st and goal ending up in a turnover on downs. No attempt at a little misdirection hitting somebody like Kuithe like something AZ did for their first td. I just think often the playcalling is unimaginative and predictable. This goes beyond players not executing said playcalls too. Jmo.

[Xanthis]

Mitchell is unplayable. He can’t pass protect so if he’s in then he’s getting the ball. The RB room is empty after Bernard.

[TruckStopTerrors]

Exactly

[22Ute22]

Yup, our RB room is terrible outside of Bernard. Mitchell has no vision and can’t pass protect. Stanley is too light to pass protect and be a between the tackles RB. Vincent is a walkon. Bernard is literally our only good RB. The dropoff from him to the rest is a CHASM.

[cj13]

Arizona also made plays when it mattered. 3rd and longs, 4th down stops. We don’t lose this game every time if we played it 10 times. Hopefully we can fix things and get back on track. If we win out the season will have gone better than expected. Onto the next (we need Cam back).

[GameForAnyFuss]

You nailed it. If Utah had converted on those first two drives, they win the game. At some point you have to give Arizona credit for stepping up and making plays in the big moments.

[Utegator]

Yes, Fafita is a monster. Every year we have the same issues and it’s all QB related.

[Rick Walker]

Mcmillian wasn’t the problem, he wasn’t even the biggest problem in the passing game, the problem was giving up over 200 yards to their running backs. That game was beyond frustrating watching our normally stout run D just give up 15 yard gain over and over again.

[TruckStopTerrors]

Agreed. Pretty bad showing by the D Line and LBers.

[jshame17]

There isn’t a single player on defense that opposing teams fear or game plan against. First time I can remember saying that about a Utah defense.

No Llyod
No CP3
No Johnson
No Fotu
No Star
Etc
Etc

[homer]

The poor arm tackling let them get huge YAC. Utahs D-Tackles are soft. How many times do you hear linebacker names called? The LB groups took a huge step back. Barton is a shadow of the player he was last season before the injury

[Holladay Ute]

I feel like they were a little arrogant heading into this game. Playing against a good team (possibly a top 25 team) w/ your true freshman QB. You should kick the FG on a good opening drive and let your defense play w/ the lead. Instead, we call the same exact stupid play that we called on 3rd & short.

Also, I was frustrated listening to Whitt’s interview w/ Bill after the game. Yes, 3 YPC in the run game was bad. Why were we not feeding Micah Bernard more though. The reason we had 3 YPC was b/c of the sacks and b/c of those dumb QB design runs that got stuffed every single time. Micah Bernard had a pretty good game and we just seemingly didn’t go to that nearly enough. I get that we’re worried about his durability, but we gotta play to win this game. Very disappointing we literally have nobody behind Bernard in the RB room.

[RustyShackleford]

Yeah the situation with the RB room is unacceptable. How the hell do we have no one behind Bernard. I can’t remember the last time we didn’t have a bruising power back that could get 2-3 yards every time

[Yergensen]

You want a bruising back that gets 2-3 yards every time?

Yeah, let’s not bring back Armand Shyne.

[RustyShackleford]

On 3rd and 2 you’re goddamn right I want someone who can get it every time.

[RUUTES]

the RB situation is both puzzling and the #1 reason I think we’re in trouble. If we can’t rely on a stud RB to consistently take the ball 25-30 snaps a game we are not playing Utah football. And with a freshman QB we aren’t going to win it all in the air. Wilson is fine and shows promise but he’s not nearly ready to win games for us with his legs and its INSANE to have him run up the middle on a designed play. Give Bernard 100% for trying to do what he could but he only got 16 snaps? Seriously? I got no answers to what was going through Ludwig’s mind last night but I am concerned…deeply concerned.

[jshame17]

If the money spent on Cam, went to JJ and Bernard, we’d be just fine yesterday and every other game.

I am not impressed with Q’s RB room and that needs to addressed during fall camp when no one was stepping g up

[BD]

Lots of talk about the running backs and I agree. We have nobody behind Bernard.

Is Ganther an issue? Something else?

Just seems like with Utah’s history at the RB position we should be much better off.

[Holladay Ute]

I’m kind of blown away that they talked about “RB by committee” for so long. Basically until a week or two ago. How could they not see that Bernard was our only capable option? It feels a lot like how the coaching staff picked Charlie Brewer over Cam Rising a few years ago. I have major questions about our ability to assess talent on the offensive side of the ball. Were we really banking on Glover as RB2? Especially if we were concerned about Bernard’s durability? Glover gets blown over if he gets breathed on. That’s how he’s always been. Mike Mitchell, at least for now, doesn’t do anything well. Tunnel vision. Doesn’t help that he has one role and every other team knows it. I know we got that transfer from Idaho. Maybe that guy was the solution and we got unlucky again. Injuries sure are getting old. Why can’t we stay healthy? It’s not just Cam. We aren’t even halfway into the season and we’ve already seen a huge number of important contributors miss significant time. Karene, O’Toole, Damuni, Kenan Johnson, Simote Pepa, the Idaho RB, etc. This year is turning into last year. Ugh.

[Charlie Foxtrot]

I can’t help but think that both our offensive and defensive game plans are built around Rising running the offense. To think that a true freshman in Wilson can step in and perform at the level that is required is crazy. Wilson has talent and has a huge upside, but he is not currently in a position where he can make the right reads/throws especially under constant pressure.

If there was even the slightest question that Rising couldn’t go this week he should have been shut down from the start, not the day before. Give Wilson the entire week of prep with a game plan that he is capable of executing. These last 3 games are a repeat of 2023, which makes me question if anything was learned with the QB situation last year at all?

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