Yes, we can hire another good football coach.

[Utesbyfive]

I’ve been seeing this notion that Utah can’t hope to hire another coach as good as Whitt. “Utah can’t hire anybody to replace Whitt. He’s the best we can ever hope for.”

This is a small time attitude from small time fans. Utah is, for now, in a P5 conference, (I don’t know how long the PAC-12 stays in P5 at this rate,) and Utah’s coaches salaries are in the middle of the PAC. There is a young coach out there ready to jump at the opportunity this program would offer.

Regardless of whether you think Whitt is still the right man for this job, he will leave some day. Utah will find a decent replacement.

How soon that happens may well hinge on this offense’s ability to find some way to improve. If it doesn’t, and he’s looking for a new OC next year? Well, my vote will be for a new Head coach at that point.

[EagleMountainUte]

Well Chris Hill stayed with Whitt for super long time. It isn’t just fans saying stay with the Whitt. It is the a small time AD. So the person who will make the hire disagrees. So now we have a new AD his first year. Maybe we will see what this former G5 ad will do right?  Because that is the attitude around here a general superior attitude with an inferiority complex??

Ok which young hire do you want??

[Utesbyfive]

You’re assuming that Hill’s motivation for “staying with Whitt” was the same notion you have. You’re projecting your inferiority complex onto him. 

Small time thinking has gotten us exactly nowhere. 

[EagleMountainUte]

What other reason could it be for why Hill stayed with Whitt for so long?  

[Utesbyfive]

You can’t be serious. The range of possibile answers to that question is endless.

[EagleMountainUte]

So is a bad hire with the seemingly endless supply of coaches you perceive to exist. Utah is a very unique recruiting situation. Macbride dialed it in and created something, Urban cashed in on it and Whitt built it up again and maintained it. Watch that 70s Utah Football video they played during halftime or the seemingly endless media timeouts. Utah Football is no power house who can just hire a home run. 

[UteThunder]

I hate this response: “Who ya gonna hire?” 

As if asking that question is a great argument for keeping the current guy. It actually would be a good argument if there weren’t dozens or hundreds of coaches to choose from. But there are options out there, so it’s a ridiculous question to ask. 

Every time Whit has made a change at OC, do you think he thought “I’d like to fire this guy, but who am I gonna hire?” NO! 

I’m not sure I’m ready to fire Whittingham yet, but I 100% understand the folks who are calling for change. Taylor on the otherhand, needs to be gone today. His offense is too high school/mickey mouse to win anything in the Pac-12. 

[EagleMountainUte]

His plays worked on a top ten defense. Wide-open players going for touchdowns but a single break down of execution. It is weird how you see it.  “A better OC would know that his players would drop and sail passes so he should call a play that they can execute….”.  

[UteThunder]

If everything else had been going well, I would actually agree with you. But you can’t just look at a couple of isolated plays and say “Look! He put them in position to succeed but they just didn’t execute.”

We’re not executing on dozens of plays. And when we do execute, we’re running a QB dive for no gain or read option into a defense that it doesn’t matter if the QB keeps it or gives it, the play is going nowhere. There is no rhyme or reason to Taylor’s play calling, and yet, what he does is predictable.

You can go ahead and keep your head in the sand if you want to, but I was concerned about this offense after the Weber State game and people like you scoffed. I grew more concerned after NIU and again, people like you scoffed. Three games in and this offense is clearly a joke, but there are still people who think Taylor is doing a good job, the players just need to make plays.

These offensive problems are bigger than that. They are systemic and only thick reg goggles will keep you from seeing it.

[EagleMountainUte]

Huntley had four from my memory passes that were not even close to wide-open players. Five dropped passes one for a touchdown. Plays are being called to score. 

[UteThunder]

Of course they are.

Taylor is clearly a great OC as evidenced by 16 games of his offense performing worse than A-Rod’s. 

[EagleMountainUte]

Ha ok Arods playcalling never made sense to me. So invoke a better example. Idk what makes players lack execution. I see the correct read and play being made through two games. Drops drops drops. Covey makes the catch you have one kid who you can count on. 

[UteThunder]

@BattleGroundUte – I’m not pointing to A-Rod as a good OC. I’m pointing to him as a bad OC who our current OC is proving to be worse than.

[TheOCUte]

But, the point is that if you’re the coach of a unit that was inconsistent last year, and looks to have regressed in terms of execution in year two with several returning players…it’s on you.  The OC hasn’t fixed any issues from last season or from games one and two.  The offense is a mess. Play calling is a portion of his job, the other part is getting his guys up to speed to properly execute those plays…it’s not happening, it’s a myriad of mistakes, by multiple players…these aren’t isolated incidents…it’s constant. And, yes he should know that his QBs miss is going to be high, and that guys are going to drop passes…he’s watched them practice daily.  Plus, I’m in utethunder’s camp about his play calling too…lacks balance.

[crazyute]

I don’t think you’re going to see any coaching changes right now.
But with the bye this week maybe some changes in personnel is warranted.
I liked Ford at RT. His holding call was soft. Washington was holding much worse and not one was called
I also think Simpkins might need to see the bench for a few games. He is the main culprit of dropped passes. And he isn’t getting much separation in his routes. Maybe he should go back to the slot?
And then there is Huntley…I believe the QB position should be re opened this week. Maybe Huntley does better with competition. But he isn’t getting it done and doesn’t look like he has progressed. He is slow on his reads. He is slow on getting the ball out. He has no touch on his passes. Everything is a fast ball. He has no concept of what the defenses is doing, evident by him throwing the 5 yard out to the slot all game when Washington was sitting in a cover 2. Those corners squatted on that route all game.

There are open receivers Huntley isn’t seeing them. And I think part of it is that he pre determines before the snap where he is throwing it.

[EagleMountainUte]

I think this is the best response I have seen so far. I wouldn’t mind seeing what all of the QBs could do against Utah’s ones before Wazzu. Whoever scores gets the job.