Up and coming coaches to keep on the radar

I’d bet Utah would be more likely to hire Jay Hill or Kalani Sitake. Start the down votes.

*cracks knuckles*

MDUte, first I want to applaud your homework of finding so many potential candidates. Well done good sir (or ma’am….or whatever your preference 😉 )

Here are my 2 cents:
What Cristobal has done at Oregon truly is awesome. I am jealous of all these ridiculously talented players, several from our own backyard, that he is bringing to the program. He is rolling in the talent and it is clear that that was a major factor in us getting destroyed by them last year.

However, I have no desire for a firework coach. PJ Fleck, Urban Meyer, and (hopefully) Mario Cristobal are good examples. Hear me out.

A firework coach per my definition is someone that comes in and just revolutionizes the program and brings it to a completely other level within a short period of time. Within 3 years they bring it from somewhat competitive to beating some elite program. A relatively short amount of time and a whole lot of flash and show. Firework coach.

This impact, however, is not sustainable. That’s why the elite programs are more or less the same handful of teams year-in-year-out. Over time, they have slowly improved and joined the elites and stayed there. I’ve seen too many programs throughout the US get a coach and a team that performs way above expectations for a few years and the program gets all this attention and such. But then, the head coach gets bought out by some bigger university (Urban from Utah→Florida→Ohio State, PJ Fleck from Western Michigan→Minnesota, and Mario Cristobal from Alabama→Oregon→Miami (hopefully)) and when he leaves, he usually takes his staff with him which leaves the program scrambling to fill the holes and it’s usually in a sorry state the next few years. It may or may not recover. Utah has been lucky. It took Florida years to get back on track and still aren’t really competitive yet. Western Michigan is done for.

Now, if this happens multiple times, it becomes this brutal coaching carousel of heartache and rejoicing. I want no part in this.

No, I’m looking for small, sustainable progress to the future. I’m perfectly fine trying to give the coaches you mentioned a job so they get buy-in to the program, but I want to join the elite programs of the country. To do that, you need sustainable improvements that compound on each other over time and personnel that stay. I am fine with setbacks as long as we are improving over time. This requires a lot of patience and a lot of trust.

So how does Utah get there? I believe it’s another head coach that can commit to 15-20 years. Someone that will stay even if the big universities come calling with their massive wallets (this happened to kwhit multiple times but he’s declined it all). That person is Morgan Scalley. He has been a Utah man for decades and will continue to be. He will continue to improve and the staff we have is stable and generating NFL talent with the kids we have better than anyone in the country. It’s only a matter of time on our current trajectory that our average recruiting rankings are mostly 4-star talents.

TLDR: I’m all for progress but it must be sustainable over decades, not just years. I think Mario will be offered a job he can’t refuse somewhere else. I think Morgan Scalley is our guy for the next few decades and I trust in him and what we’re building. I’m all for bringing on talented staff but Utah needs talented staff that will STAY and continues improving the program every year. A talented staff that will stay cannot be bought. They must be made.

Thanks, gents. I’m obviously passionate about this stuff.

MDUte, you’re absolutely right that these next few years are crucial. In reality, every year is crucial but these next few will be rather interesting. I believe Morgan will more than make his point in proving he is ready to take the head coach job. I think the real question is, can we have the best of both worlds?

Ideal situation: a head coach that stays with us 10+ years in the program that recruits better than Mario Cristobal, coaches better than Kyle Whittingham and has the results of the Urban Meyer era of Utah football or better. Is this possible? What are we missing?

Here’s what I think needs to change:
#1: With the passing of the baton, no more of this “underdog” garbage. We will not practice like the underdog, we will not believe we are underdogs, we practice and play like we’re the best in the country. Period.
#2: We learn how to recruit the elite. We offer some really, really talented kids but it doesn’t seem like the top of our offers list grade-wise take us seriously. This requires being a ridiculously good salesman. Marion learned how to sell, then ‘Bama came knocking. He then was the #1 recruiter in the nation. Oregon then called him up. If we don’t already, I would like to see consistent recruiting/sales training from some elite recruiters to our guys. This may not be possible, but there has got to be some recruiter out there turned consultant that will cost a pretty penny for a weekend but what we learn in that weekend may just bring us from a few 4* talents and mostly 3*s to a few 5* talents, mostly 4*s, several underappreciated 3*s and some conference championships and playoff berths to boot. That is something like a 10x return if you ask me.
#3: Training change. It seems that Utah football is at it’s best from Oct-early November. This month and a half is a really wonderful time to be a Ute fan. After November however, especially recently, Utah seems to slump. I’m not sure if our guys’ bodies just can’t take the punishment as in we’re pushing them too hard or we lack motivation or sleep or something but it is clear that we run out of gas. When we run out of gas, the more talented team on average wins. That’s been Texas, Oregon, Northwestern, and Washington. It didn’t use to be this way. Utah used to bring the freaking pain come the last game of the year but it seems that lately that isn’t the case. This may be because the final game is against some really great opponents. I’m not certain.

We were so close to the playoff. Given our recent end-of-year slump, I don’t think we would have competed very much with any of the other teams. It would have been an incredible experience even if we were humiliated on the big stage but still, I’d rather be on the big stage and humiliated than not on that stage at all.

like it! I know kwhitt would like to have a local (bubble) who he can relate to for the next head coach.  But a national search that can pop the Footloose bubble is what’s needed.

Was Footloose filmed in Utah?

Utah needs Urban Meyer to come back. He was all over national tv claiming how his best time coaching was at Utah. He is the #1 option. He solves every issue stated by others. Recruiting is the lifeline and as much praise as Coach Erickson received for opening up the Florida pipeline, Meyer would create a national 4-5* pipeline overnight…

He’d be the HC. He’d choose his own staff. Consultant position isn’t going to attract kids like the HC.

Must take care as this is determined. There are 11 other schools in the Pac also doing everything they can to get to the top, most of them trying to overtake our position. Almost all have more resources, history and offer some great things. Many have swung for the fence and come up short of where we are at currently. Think of what UCLA has going, what they have done and how much they would like to catch us. It is like George Patton said, the other side has plans too.

With that said, we need to avoid the results others in the conference has experienced, even with more money, and not take a step back. Next, is finding something that can make the break thru to a conference title. It can be done but that step is beyond the understanding of almost every fan and beyond the ability of all but a few coaches. If it was more simple more would get it done.

Our AD needs to keep the progress going, the coaches need to keep the improvements in recruiting going. I would love to see Meyer come fill a roll like Erickson if that is even possible. If we do end up looking in house, at least that house is already in the top quartile of the conference. I’ve been here since the 60s and have seen great overall improvement, I expect to see that continue. Anderson may have a chance to get his hat into the ring but Sitake and Hill will have difficulty getting consideration. National guys will be looked at. When the AD pulled the HC in waiting, both knew Scalley had time to overcome this setback.

5 years is a long way down the road.  I don’t think Whit knows for sure if he’s going to retire or not.  By then the available coaches will be totally different.  Thread is very premature right now.

Seems like we aren’t the only ones thinking about the future. four-candidates-to-be-utah-footballs-next-head-coach-in-waiting/amp/

Haha.. someone’s keeping track. No one cares.

^ Mormon hater

^m0rmon

Keeping track are we..???