The OC

[pedro]

Let me first say that I am a Whit supporter.  You don’t win 8, 9 or 10 games a year in the PAC 12 without knowing what you’re doing.

Now, I have watched probably 3 hours of Eastern Washinton games since the hire.  It was fun to watch.  However, I do wonder if that style of play will translate to PAC 12 caliber games.  The offense seems to be build on keeping the D on it’s toes.  Quick tempo, fast hitting plays, short routes, just bang, bang, bang.  PAC12 D’s are fast and mean.  Thus my concern.

Just wondering what everyone else’s thoughts on it are.  I love what Whit’s trying to do and that he’s taking action to try and resolve the offensive issues.  But I am a little worried on how much success we will have.

One other note, I am less worried than I would be due to Tayler’s attitude.  I’ve heard a couple interviews with him now and I think the one thing he has that people like Arod doesn’t is he get’s “it”.  Arod could call a game but it never meant or led to anything.  Very few plays were set ups for other plays.  We just lined up and went.  Under UM, a lot of our plays were setting up other plays.  UM got it.  I think Tayler gets it.  He understands there is purpose to the offense and that each play and each player has to have a purpose as well.  That makes me more optimisitc.

Thoughts?

[UteThunder]

“Quick tempo, fast hitting plays, short routes, just bang, bang, bang.”

Isn’t that what Oregon was doing under Kelly?

I think that type of offense will work just fine in the Pac-12 as long as we can get the athletes to run it and Taylor can teach those athletes to execute it the way he wants it to be run. 

[Larry B]

My BIL who is a big Duck fan has an interesting point when it comes to Chip Kelly. He says he’s relieved that he didn’t come back to coach Oregon because his type of offense has been figured out by Pac12 defenses. He said that when Chip initially brought that offense to Oregon, it was new and therfore defenses didn’t know how to defend it. Nowadays it wouldn’t work nearly as well.

 

I’m excited about our new OC but let’s see how he does against Pac12 defenses.

[UteThunder]

Your BIL isn’t very smart.

Chip Kelly’s last year at Oregon:

Overall Record 12-1

Pac-12 Record 8-1

Points Scored by Week(Pac12 in Bold) – 57, 42, 63, 49, 51, 52, 43, 70, 62, 59, 14, 48, 35

It is clear that the Pac-12 defenses had figured out Chip Kelly’s offense, as evidenced by the measly 50 points per game they averaged in Pac-12 play. (Insert eye roll here)

Maybe your BIL thinks that way because Helfrich hasn’t been as successful as Kelly was, but he would still be mistaken. Helfrich might have been Kelly’s OC but he wasn’t Chip Kelly. I have zero doubt that Kelly could ramp that offense right back up to where it was if he were to coach at Oregon again.

For him to be happy Chip Kelly isn’t coming back would be like Ute fans being relieved that Urban Meyer wasn’t coming back. 

[deleted]

Wait, Oregon (in CK’s last year) only scored 14 against a world class defense? So are we affirming that it doesn’t work against the best defenses? 

I’m skeptical, but fully support KW’s hire at least until he’s had a couple of years. 

[PlainsUte]

Ask WSU how well that scheme could work against a Pac-12 team.

[deleted]

WSU played in a similar bowl to us and lost to a team whose D kocked them around. I’ll withhold judgment until I see the product on the field, but I’m skeptical right now for all the reasons pedro brought up.

[Anonymous]

Utah does have a pace of play problem. I think it cost Utah the Cal game because they would line up for what play was ran. In that goal line situation a little change of pace would have punched it in. 

[Puget Ute]

If we tried a different play on those 4th and 1 plays in the 4th quarter, or kicked the FG instead, we would have been ahead with 1 minute left and trying to plunge in the dagger/run out the clock rather than trying to orchestrate a miracle comeback.

[leftyjace]

Agree with Beehive.

Our lack of pace caused time out issues at the end of games early in the season.

We need to be better prepared to get plays started quicker – not only to increase the pace, but also to get ready as quick as possible in those instances where the play may come in from the sidelines with a small delay due to being careful with the playcalling.

[AZUTE]

Let me say I had no problem with Arod and his offensive schemes. I believe is greatest deficiencies were his play calling / in game adjustments and his lack of QB development.

Taylor can run the same O as Arod for all I care I just don’t want to see the same lack of imagination in play calling and I’d like to see a QB actually progress during the season and get better.

[noneyadb]

Taylor is only going to improve the offensive IQ, and QB accuracy. There’s no need to come in and completely change it to an up tempo high powered offense running 100 plays/game. If Troy Williams is a consistant 60-65% passer, Utes are in a NY6 game.

[Utemachine]

Two points. I have to assume Whitt has watched endless footage of Troy’s offense with his Defensive hat on. He had to see an offense that would cause issues for the defense. Kyle doesn’t hire Troy if he thinks he could easily stop that offense.

I also have to assume Troy adapts his offense to the PAC like he presumably did when he took his Highschool offense to Eastern Washington. I haven’t watched any film and admittedly know less about football than most on this board. I’m a pragmatist and this is what makes sense to me.