Zion Steptoe decommitment highlights a major problem

[Ghost of the HEB]

We focus a lot on the o-line, but there’s another major problem area that has stuck out all season: WRs.
When I sit back on a CFB Saturday and watch the offenses of good teams, it’s very clear that 1: they have very talented receivers, and 2: they are good at utilizing their receivers in their offense. The hope was that changing WR coach would make a difference, but to this point it has not. Let’s look at how many receptions were made in each game by WRs (I’m excluding Covey receptions because he’s not used in a typical downfield WR role)
vs Weber St: 6 receptions total, 3 different WRs
vs BYU: 4 receptions total, 3 different WRs
vs SDSU: 11 receptions total, 4 different WRs
vs WSU: 2 receptions total, 2 different WRs
So far, the longest reception by a WR this season (including Covey) is the 25 yard TD in overtime to Dixon vs SDSU. And, to my memory, the 4th Q/OT of that game is the only time this season we’ve even attempted downfield passes to WRs. I would venture to say there aren’t many teams in the country at this point in the season whose longest completion to a WR is 25 yds or less.
Simply put; our WR passing attack is currently nonexistent, and it’s not surprising at all for a high 3* WR recruit to decide to look elsewhere.
So where do our problems lie? Is it a talent deficiency? Is Ludwig/our QBs incapable of integrating the WRs? Is the poor O-Line play preventing us from having a WR-centric downfield offense? If this problem doesn’t get fixed, teams will continue to focus solely on our RBs/TEs, and our offense will continue to look bad — Not to mention the recruits we are going to miss out on.

[SteelUte]

As I watched that Wash. St game, I sat and thought, how can their offense line up every down and complete pass after pass on little slant routes, and we can’t throw the ball downfield to a wideout.  Just about every team out there has figured out how the “throw” game, and we can’t.  I love Whitt, and we’ll ride him out a few more years and see where we can get to, but it just baffles me how the “throw” game eludes us every single year. Obviously, no baller WR is going to want to come here and get 5-10 receptions in a season.

[Larry B]

This isn’t a “fire Whitt” post, but at what point do we start blaming him for our p**s poor offense? How many different OC’s have we gone through with the same results? I feel like he is so set in his run the ball and play great defense philosophy that things aren’t going to change until he retires.

[PlainsUte]

You can’t throw downfield if the QB doesn’t have a pocket long enough for the WR run downfield.  On the OL, IMHO.

[EagleMountainUte]

Sometimes Utah QBs have a pocket and they don’t step up into it for the play to develop. It could be that they know they are going to get hit later with s**tty Oline play. It is some sort of weird relationship between those two things. 
At this point I don’t expect it to change much until Whitt leaves. 
Utah still drops very catchable balls on a regular basis. Kuithe hasn’t overcome that at all and is horribly inconsistent in blocking. Fotheringham sometimes worst. 
I personally would prefer Stanford type TE group. Guys that are huge former basketball players as the announcers like to repeatedly say each game. 
WR you need a speedy deep threat with good hands and body control and a few versatile slot guys. I will say the Wideouts have got better blocking this season. Very few holds as per usual. 
/end rambling 

[noneyadb]

If you can’t throw vs Weber, Wazzu, or BYU who can you throw against? It’s a complete team personnel coaching issue.

[chinngiskhaan]

HOLY S**T YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!!!

Are you seriously passing judgement on our WR coach that we just hired (late in the offseason I might add) ? He’s been on the staff for a grand total of THREE GAMES! GTFO with that bulls**t take. Just go

[Stone]

I may be wrong, but I don’t read the original post as critical of the WR coach, only saying that the change there has not resulted in more catches by the WR group. Hence, the issue is not the WR coach, the issue lies somewhere else.

[RustyShackleford]

Our WR coach has no control on having an oline that cant give the QB enough time to get the ball out… Glover and Johnson are the cornerstones of this recruiting class. If we can keep them we will be in good shape. They are going to be next level.