Tin Foil Hat Time

[Utah]

Ok Utah fans, go get your tin foil out of the kitchen and very carefully place it on your heads. 

How long did Taylor know that he was leaving? Onlyu claims that Taylor talked to Lisk a few weeks ago about going to the FCS level and putting up video game numbers. 

Look at our rushes per game when Harding took a more prominent role in game planning: 

Since he took over, we ran the ball an average of 47 times a game vs Colorado, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Arizona, Stanford and WSU. 

In our losses, or the terrible BYU game where we only ran the ball 10 times in the first half, we averaged 31 rushes a game (vs BYU, ASU, UW). 

Here comes the conspiracy: 

If Taylor knew “a few weeks ago” he was leaving, when exactly was that? Was it before the BYU game? Was his last two games a chance, in his mind, to “prove” that he was right to throw the ball 60% of the time and not run the ball almost 50 times a game? 

Our offense changed those last two games. It was not the same as it was during our winning stretch. I wonder if Taylor knew he was out, so he decided to do things his own way on the way out to prove how right he was, only it blew up in his face, because it was not the right thing to do and we lost to UW because of it and almost lost to BYU. 

Anyhow, just the Monday morning ramblings of a guy with too much time on his hands.

[EagleMountainUte]

Well the spin on the TDS at the time was mainly overlooking them for the CCG. Heavy first half rotations on the defensive end. Utah dialed in tightened up the rotations and stomped TDS. Coupled with key injuries to TDS playmakers Utah won that game. Depth won that game. 

Washington did almost exactly what they did to Utah the first time. TT had successful plays at times but drops plagued the Utes all game.  Shelley hang onto the ball a lot to my memory. A few times he could have scrambled for a few but chose not to. I believe Shyne was not healthy and Brumfield was hurt. They tried to use Covey as a rusher which I hated. That offensive game plan was well let’s just throw s**t up and see what sticks. Covey injured in the second half eliminated so much. Shelley also didn’t get any tight ends or bunch formations either during Utah’s success. 

 

As far as OnlyU goes.. I kind of scratched my head  at him on this one. He obviously isn’t a TT guy. When he assumed TT was going to be making a s**t ton of money at Sac St I was like HUH? 

[Utah]

The BYU game…I agree with you defensivley. They were successful because we had players in who hadn’t played all year. 

But offensively? We should have put up 35 each half. We should not have been shut out in the first half. I wouldn’t be surprised if Whitt had a talking to Taylor/Harding at halftime and told Taylor to run the damn ball. 

The UW game was awful both times. Just awful So dumb. We went away from everything that made us good that game. I just wonder if Taylor knew he was out and said “F-it, I’m running my offense, they can all go to hell.”

Sometimes the simplest explanation is the easiest and Taylor knowing he was out and doing his own thing is pretty simple of an explanation. 

[EagleMountainUte]

Washington game was like two offensive coordinators called the game. That is the only game where you could see Whitt cutting TT off. First half all these bombs to take the top off a very good Washington secondary. Second half come back routes short intermidiate strikes. The pick six wasn’t a bad play call it was a fluke pick off a kids hands. Even the ASU fluke Int not on TT or Huntley. 

Shelley tried to air out against TDS as well but his arm strength seems suspect. 

[pedro]

Only U has been way too accurate on all of his other posts to scoff at this one.  He\she may not know salaries, but obviously knows the program inside and out.  

As for the Consipiracy Theory, my bet is that the truth lies a little in between.  I think TT was looking to get out and had been talked to.  However anyone who knows the program could also see in the BYU game that we were doing things we otherwise would have never done (rotating players, paying different defensive schemes, etc…)

[EagleMountainUte]

Agree. OnlyU has an insider perspective that I do not even come close to having. I just kind of thought his statement to the TT rumors as telling to what his perspective is. 

[sweetgrass]

interesting. I also wonder how much Daniels decision swayed him?

[Puget Ute]

It is almost a virtual guarantee that the Sac State AD called Troy Taylor before firing their head coach.  He must have put a contingency plan into place before firing Jody Sears (sorry, he ‘resigned’).

Anyway, onward and upward.  I hope we can figure out a solid Oh-fensive scheme and playcalling for the bowl game.  This is a must-win.

[EagleMountainUte]

Two weeks was the length of his search. 

[Stone]

Hard for me to imagine Whitt would be fine with Taylor just going rogue like that for the last two games in a change of course from the previous games. And I do not see why Whitt would approve this change when the team had been so successful under (supposedly) Harding’s approach. 

If Whitt had put Harding in charge of play calling and that is the reason for the midseason success, why would Whitt suddenly be okay with putting TT back in charge for the biggest game of the year (the Pac12 Championship)? I think it is just tinfoil hat stuff, like you said.

The easiest explanation is that UW is really good, and Utah was hobbled, and Utah was trying every which way it could to score, so multiple approaches were used during the game.