My Whittingham report card

[ProudUte]

Player Development – A

Recruiting – B

Defense – A-

Offense – C-

Special Teams – A

Public Relations – C+

Academics – A

Game time X & Os – B-

I understand that these are very subjective and are only one old man’s opinion.  They are neither right or wrong.  Just something to stimulate conversation while we wait for fall camp to begin.  Four As out of eight categories aint bad.  His biggest weaknesses IMO are the offense and public relations.

 

[gUrthBrooks]

I’m a bit of a K-Whitt homer. Running a clean program, A+, means 3 times more than public relations, IMO. So does getting guys degrees and getting them NFL ready. Urban Meyer was a winner and was great at the superficial level of public relations and selling a program and its recruits but which coach would you rather have your son go play for? Kyle Gunther can answer that question. He hated life under Urban Meyer, whereas Kyle Whittingham taught him to love football again.

[Anfernee]

“Anybody can coach five stars, but you take kids who aren’t highly recruited and make them winners? That’s a great coach. You aren’t getting another coach like Kyle Whittingham.”- former running back Eddie Johnson 

[Hellhound152]

Public relations?  I can’t fault Whitt for his no nonsense personality.  I kind of like that he isn’t a snake oil salesman.  I think Whitt does a good job being visible.  He appears regularly on national radio shows like Jim Rome and Collin Cowherd and is highly respected by national pundits.  Heck, the “best coach in college football” handles the media and his own fanbase with the emotional maturity of a toddler who wants his stuffed animal back.

Not sure how much weight to give that category.

[Central Coast Ute]

I agree. I think he does a good job with public relations. Yes he’s a no nonsense kind of guy but he takes time for the media and the fans. He knows without them, he doesn’t have a job and he acts accordingly.

[whitlessham]

Pretty much agree with your grades.  I would also add half time adjustments. inwhich kwitt would get no better than a C.

For this reason (and others) kwitt will forever be Chris Petersons bitch.

[Central Coast Ute]

Dude you must toking on a crack pipe. The Utes have been really good at half time adjustments for a long time now. Go back to cougarboard zoob.

[EagleMountainUte]

Grading Whitt as the best football coach Utah has ever had is easy. I don’t count Urban because of his career path. 

Whitt is A+ the standard that all Head coaches for Utah football should be graded by. Are there areas he could improve on? Sure not saying he is perfect just saying he is perfect for Utah. He is a top ten coach in the NCAA and we should leave it at that. 

[UtahFanSir]

Thank you, enjoyed your post. I do have a comment about recruiting, where you give KW a solid B. We must be willing to entertain the notion that KW is actually securing the best players possible for Utah. By that I mean, Utah is not USC or Oregon (yet) in the Pac-12 or a national perennial top 10 program where the best all want to go. The program, however, has steadily increased the quality of players, now several deep with kids who could start at other places. If your measure of a B compared to an A- stems from the number of 4* and 5* players, that may not be fair. Not yet anyway. I think a fairer measure is to look at the trajectory and ask if it could be better.

But you could be talking about KW’s ability to close. That is a different matter. And it is a personality trait. Is that what you are saying in the B? For example, Chris Petersen has recruited better than Utah. Arguably he has because he is a better closer than KW. I just wanted to understand your sense of this, and why you give KW a B.

Thank you.