The need for elite/explosive outside WRs to win the pac12

[Ghost of the HEB]

Losing BT hurts. He had the most nfl potential of any of our WRs, and it’s a shame he was so underutilized the past couple years. Looking back, no team has won the pac12 title without elite/explosive WR play since 2015 Stanford — who just so happened to have the Heisman runner-up at RB.

2020 Oregon had Jaylon Redd, Johnnie Johnson and Devon Williams
2019 Oregon had Juwan Johnson, Johnnie Johnson and Jaylon Redd
2018 Washington had Aaron Fuller and Andre Baccellia
2017 USC had Deontay Burnett, Tyler Vaughns and Michael Pittman Jr
2016 Washington had John Ross, Dante Pettis and Mcclatcher
2015 Stanford had Christian McCaffrey, who was also elite in the passing game

Does our current WR group have what it takes hoist that trophy? I’m not so sure. Was really hoping for another portal WR.

[Trailgoat]

Honest question. Is Utah recruiting and developing WRs at the same level of the other positions? Off the top of my head, not counting Carrington, is Patrick the only current Utah WR on a pro team roster in the 5 years or so since Holliday has been WR coach? Are the WRs being developed at the level to compete with the top P12 teams?

Hopefully Utah figures out a way to establish a passing threat against USC, UW, UO, and ASU when these teams load the line, slow the run game while locking down the WRs in man coverage allowing safetys to keep an eye on the run game first. I know the Oline pass blocking, QB, and new system play a role. Regardless, Utah needs to present a mid/deep pass threat if they want to contend for the P12 championship. This appeared to me a common theme in the last few games against USCX2, UW, and UO. 

[UteBacker]

You nailed it, Trailgoat.  Stack the box against Utah and you have a pretty good shot at beating them, especially if you have equal physical talent.

It’s the chicken or the egg dilemma: does our offensive identity, QB’s and pass-blocking stop us from getting the ball to our receivers or are our receivers not good enough to get ample separation?  

[noneyadb]

Oregon- Hubert starting NFL QB
USC- Darnold NFL QB
UW- Browning NFL QB
Stanford- Hogan NFL QB
Jackson, Rising, Costelli, and Brewer is the best QB room Utah has ever had. Utah really needed to land some elite WR’s and Oline players. Not sure why they have signed so many DE’s and LB’s.

[MDUte]

I agree with you guys to an extent but, IMO, I believe the bigger weight/importance rests on the shoulders of our QB play. A great QB can make good WRs look amazing. Whereas the best WRs on the planet will be nonfactors with poor QB play. We don’t have the elite WR corp that a USC does, but I don’t think our offense needs this to be highly effective (ie. just look at our 2019 offensive production for proof). What we do have are solid WRs that are quick enough & fast enough to be effective route runners. For me it all comes down to our QB being able to make the right reads and hit the open target. And by saying this, this assumes that our Oline takes a step forward this year in it’s development to provide the protection needed for our QB to play at his best. I’m just hoping that by having our deepest and most talented QB room ever in the program’s history, that 1 of these 4* QBs will emerge as the clear leader of our offense and ball out. That’s what I believe we need more than anything. 

The other thing I would say is that teams can stack the box all they want against us but I think that’s why Whit leans towards dual threat QBs so we can utlilize effective RPO where we aren’t 1 dimensional, thus making us harder to defend. This allows us to take whatever the defense gives us…run when it’s open, pass when it’s not.