Mixed feelings on Ludwig

[ProudUte]

The thing that bothers me is that this hire is once again – someone under the KW/Utah/BYU umbrella.  I hate that most of his hires are people he knows.  He keeps things so close to the vest.

Now, if KW did indeed try to hire RRod, Sark or McCoy and it didn’t work out – good for him.  But, does anyone really know that?

On the other side of things, Ludwig is a long time, proven offensive coordinator who recently has done well at Vandy.  I was one that liked him when he was here.  I am not upset with the hire, but also not jumping for joy.

The toughest job in college football is the offensive coordinator.  If your offense scores 4 touchdowns – the fans want 6.  The fans think they all know what a good offense should be (score everytime you have the ball).  That of course is not realistic.

In the end – we have some talent coming back next season, the schedule is in our favor, the coaching staff is now in place, Moss and others decided to stay – I am optimistic about next season.  I totally expect us to be in the mix for a conference championship.

Go Utes!

[Puget Ute]

The inner circle narrative needs to be put out to pasture.

The following coaches are from “Whitt’s inner circle”:
Norm Chow
Aaron Roderick
Brian Johnson

The following coaches were on staff with Whitt at another program at some point in the past:
Andy Ludwig (Idaho State 89-91, Utah 92, Utah 05-08)

The following coaches were hired from well outside Whitt’s inner circle:
Dennis Erickson
Dave Christensen
Jim Harding
Troy Taylor

Outside hires were either sole OC or co-OC for 8 of the last 14 years.

Andy Ludwig is coming back home with another decade of experience than he had after he left in 2008, with experience as OC in the PAC-12 (2 yrs), MWC (2 yrs), Big 10 (2 yrs), and SEC (4 yrs).

[Anfernee]

If you coach long enough, which Whitt has, you’re going to have a “circle” or coaching tree. It’s a lazy argument.

[gUrthBrooks]

True. And Whitt can’t count Norm Chow. Norm was well established before Kyle.

[Puget Ute]

I only counted Norm Chow in the inner circle-byu list because of his ties to byu (he was on staff when Kyle played and Fred Whitt coached).

[EagleMountainUte]

RRidiculous logic and simply not true. Is Pease Whitt’s inner circle?? 

[pedro]

I couldn’t agree more.  Everyone, repeat EVERYONE hires primarily from their inner circle first.  I don’t care if you’re a D1 program or the McDonalds on 7th..  That’s what we do.  WHY?  Because those are the people we are comfortable with.  When you are with people you are comfortable with you speak your mind more freely, you have better communication (as the non-verbal is there), you have more respect for one another and so on.

This is a tired and weak argument.  If someone wants to argue the quality of this hire, fine.  But not because of the inner circle BS.  If that was the case Andy Reid could never hire anyone as practically the entire world of football coaches have some sort of connection to him.  

[belli1976]

This is not a coaching phenomenon. I happens at the C level of corporations all the time.