Whittingham is a top 10 coach coaching at a top 30 school, and the only reason we are a top 30 school is because of him and Urban Meyer. Before those 2 coaching hires we were barely a top 50 program.
The things that Whittingham has accomplished at Utah are amazing. He took Mountain West players and established a culture of winning in the Pac12. Then he took low end Pac12 recruits and made Utah a consistent contender in the South. Now we’re actually starting to recruit in the top half of the league because of his consistency, and we have a young team with ridiculous talent. This team is already better than I expected, and they are going to be a Pac12 contender next year…after losing 12 players to the NFL draft in 2 years!
Now, about the play calling. We are ahead late in the game and we get 8 or 9 yards on a first down run. Of course OSU thinks we’re going to run, but we should run, and we should pick it up. And we should pick it up the next play, and the next. That’s on the players, not the coach. The O-line improved a lot this game, but they are still young. That’s what happens when you are starting this many freshmen. The thing is, when you have this many talented freshmen it should be cause for optimism, not dissatisfaction in coaching. We are young because we lost all our players to the NFL! And then we recruited well! These are good things!
I also want to make a point about Harding. I’ve heard a lot people stating that we’ve been bad on the line for years. That’s just not true. He’s consistently produced elite run blocking and decent to good pass protection. Our offensive line was truly elite just 4 years ago, and people have completely forgotten because of one and a half bad years. It’s college football, that can happen with a little bad luck. Utah has put its last 3 starting running backs in the league. They were all good players, but that doesn’t happen without good line play. Joe Williams straight up doesn’t make it to the league without semi-truck sized gaps to run through. He was held hella fast, but not great after contract. Moss last year was the exception, not the rule.
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