USC’s Defense is a Dumpster Fire

[The Miami Ute]

Oregon is going to drop 50+ against them.

[ArcheryUte]

What’s worse, our offense or USC’s defense?

[RedUte14]

our offense.

[Tony (admin)]

Correct, unfortunately.

[bombastic]

If we get defensive turnover we’ll score 20 on them.

[2008 National Champ]

so Utah will hit it’s season average? Shouldn’t they do better if SC is as bad as we think?

[SalUteopia]

Watching a true freshman backup QB do that to their D should give us hope, alas, we’re nowhere close.

[22Ute22]

Fifita is a redshirt freshman, but still. He’s barely played and CFB. I know USC’s defense is terrible, but he still looked damn good. Utah has no excuse for having such poor QB play. It’s unacceptable.

[Utesbyfive]

Johnson is a RS Freshman.

[The Miami Ute]

You want to know why Fifita looked so good the last couple of weeks? He’s got an offensive savant/mastermind as a head coach. Prior to taking over as the Wildcats’ HC, Fisch served as the quarterbacks coach for the New England Patriots and as an assistant offensive coordinator and senior offensive assistant for the Los Angeles Rams. It’s really all about what’s important to you as a program. Whitt emphasizes defense while Fisch emphasizes offense.

[Tony (admin)]

Why do they have to mutually exclusive? How about we emphasize offense and defense? Hell, let’s throw in emphasizing special teams too!

[2008 National Champ]

That is a coaching decision. Meyer wanted to attack in all phases of the game. Whitt, even though he learned under Edwards, believes in a stifling defense, great special teams, and an offense that doesn’t make mistakes. In that respect he’s more Woody Hayes than a modern head coach, “three things can happen when you pass the ball and two of them are bad”. Why win 24-0 when 3-0 accomplishes the same thing.

There is a reason why Utah always seemed to have great QB’s from the mid-80’s through 2004 and have been defined by subpar QB play since. Sure Huntley had flashes and Rising has been able to make the most of Ludwig’s scheme. At the same time, I see underrecruited kids all over the country look like Heisman contenders every week. It’s not a mistake when WSU is able to take a two-star transfer from Incarnate Word, pair him up with a couple of G5 receiver transfers and have a top 5 offense.

[Charlie]

Whitt learned from Edwards, Mac, and Meyer but at the top of the list, I believe, was and is his dad Fred. He also played defense. Every football coach has a strength on one side or the other and it is often best for them to lean on another coach for the less familiar side. There are plenty of examples of great defenses winning championships but it is not automatic. Utah has had a recent run with great defense and prior Stanford did as well. Oregon has had runs with Offense first. It can happen either way. Maybe not as frequent it is nice to win a championship with great offense and defense combined. Nice to see that Utah, as a new P5 is one of 4 in the Pac 12 to win multiple championships. Utah is not the cream of the now fading Pac 12 but we could be considered top quartile. There have also been some some teams with very explosive offenses that would like to trade up to one of our championships.

It is hard to be great in all aspects of football. It is also difficult to be great when your team has so many key injuries. Of course Utah can improve, especially on offense. But I like our chances of our coaching staff getting the total package together as much as others in the league. Arizona is the other Pac school I graduated from. I was very impressed with the QB there and, of course, had the thought about how much their QB could help Utah. Arizona has often had very explosive games but has not been able to put together the total package.

I am hoping we just experienced a low point for the team and the offense last week with significant improvement to come soon. I agree that conservative strategy clearly bit us with a loss.

[The Miami Ute]

I’m all for it Tony. I just don’t think it’s going to happen under the current administration. As 2008 noted, the priority is defense and having a zero-defect offense. Hard to make mistakes on offense when you keep it real simple. But, it’s also hard to be explosive.