[2008 National Champ]

Just goes to show that if the goal is to make it to the league, you should go at your first opportunity. Kuithe and Rising should have both gone after 2021 and would have been mid-rounders

[2008 National Champ]

Rick, I think you’re making my point with the 2020 injury. Whitt didn’t have to announce Rising’s injury, but it was made clear that it was season ending. We all moved on to the next option instead of speculating on when QB1 would be back.

Counter that with 2023 where after 4 weeks of “he’s splitting 1st team reps” and “we’re doing everything we can to get him on the field”, they went to the extreme of suiting Rising up at Oregon State for pre-game warmups. Which, as we found out ~ 3 weeks later, was all a ruse because he still hadn’t been fully cleared by his surgeon.

I hold no ill will towards Rising and I am still glad Whitt is coaching Utah. But this has all been a self-inflected error. So, to circle back to @Asmitty, both Rising and Whitt were willing participants in the subterfuge(s).

[2008 National Champ]

I’m not sure that’s necessarily true about making his life a living hell, but if it was it was enabled by the way his injury and his previous injury were handled. Both in 2023 and 2024 the word from Whitt and the rest of the staff was that he was always a game-time decision. And since a “large group of our fan base” takes every word that comes out of Whitt’s mouth as holy writ, when he wouldn’t play in games he became the focus of those same fans’ ire.

The policy of not talking about injuries unless they are season ending has bitten Whitt on the tookus the last 2 years and I’ve never seen it be the competitive advantage that he seems to think it is.

[2008 National Champ]

I think you’ve found the secret sauce: teams who are winning are happy and enjoy playing together while teams that are losing do not. 🙂

[2008 National Champ]

2. A coach leaving a program has a far greater effect on the program, both positive and negative, than any individual player. Rather than making kids sit out a year when you don’t have the same requirement for coaches, attach a buyout clause to the contracts everyone is expected to sign starting this fall so that you at least get something in return and attempt to discourage poaching.

Two things of note:

A: the House decision hasn’t been finalized. All of the current changes to the system are based on what the powers that be expect it to be but nothing will be implemented until it gets done. So we are in a kind of weird period where kids are using what little leverage they have until it gets curtailed.

B. this is more to @TheMiamiUte than you but pro athletes hold out for more money all the time. Sure, not every pro can get away with it, but you’ll never stop people who have leverage from trying to exploit it to their benefit. And it doesn’t even take a holdout. Coaches and Players alike use the potential for better money elsewhere to renegotiate their deals whenever they can.

[2008 National Champ]

I had to keep dropping the dividing line just to get the list that big. Over the course of a 12 game season, those benchmarks would equate to 4.1 catches and 58 yards per.

For comparison with other former Pac-12 schools, to get the same list of 22 you have to go back to (2013 would average 2 per season):

Arizona – 2009 (The RichRod offenses were very run heavy), 7 from 2021 on
Arizona State – 2009 (This surprised me but the last few years haven’t been good), 3 from 2021 on
California – 2011 (even with only 8 during the Wilcox years from 2017 on)
Colorado – 2003 (weird case. 20 from 2009 on, none from 2004-2008. some truly bad offenses)
Oregon – 2005 (the Chip Kelly offenses didn’t produce impressive passing totals)
Oregon State – 2006 (3 years of nothing from Gary Anderson)
Stanford – 1998 (someone had to offset WSU and make Whitt look pass happy)
UCLA – 2008 (another surprise. always seemed to throw more than the results show), 3 from 2021 on
USC – 2013 (came close in the 6 game covid year which would have made it 2014)
Washington – 2010
Washington State – 2017 (24 in 7 full seasons? nuf said)

The average would be 2008 so four less years than it took Whitt’s offenses.

[2008 National Champ]

2024 – Dorian Singer, 53 catches, 702 yards, 1 score
2017 – Darren Carrington, 70-980-6
2013 – Dres Anderson, 53-1002-7
2009 – David Reed, 81-1188-5
2008 – Freddie Brown, 77-900-7
2006 – Derrek Richards, 60-717-6
2005 – Travis Latendresse, 55-810-8

Depends on what you consider impressive but that’s the entire list of receivers during Whitt’s 21 years who put up seasons with greater than 50 catches and 700 receiving yards. Receivers who hit only one of those benchmarks:

2022 – Devaughn Vele 55-695-5 (TE Kincaid 70-890-8)
2021 – Britain Covey 52-514-3 (TE Kuithe 50-611-6)
2018 – Britain Covey 60-637-1
2016 – Tim Patrick 45-711-5
2011 – Devonte Christopher 42-663-5
2010 – Jereme Brooks 51-633-4, Devonte Christopher 39-660-6
2009 – Jereme Brooks 56-696-7
2008 – Bradon Godfrey 56-556-4
2007 – Bradon Godfrey 50-524-3, Derrek Richards 57-635-3
2005 – John Madsen 55-672-6, Brian Hernandez 39-702-3

[2008 National Champ]

weren’t they also 4 points away from setting (instead of just tying) the program record for futility with 8 straight losses?

[2008 National Champ]

They’ve already tried him as an LB. He’s now on his 3rd room before his RS Freshman season which makes it seem like his athletic ability is getting him chances that his football skill level isn’t cashing in.

Based on the stats in the OP, I’d say his next spot will be D-End where they try to replicate Connor O’Toole.

[2008 National Champ]

to be fair to Ludwig he ran Barnes and Johnson out together in the Baylor game and was obviously trying to set up what you are talking about. Then he tried the same thing against SC with Jackson and Vaki.

[Author]

Posts