Comparison of Utah's DLine Coaches 2014-Present

I wanted to take an objective look at Utah’s 2017 DLine in comparison to years past. I used S&P metrics, because I felt they provided the most comprehensive picture I could find. I made a pretty sweet bar graph, but since I have no way of posting that here, I’ll cut and paste my spreadsheet cells. The numbers are percentile of FBS teams – so, the lower the number, the better.

……………Tuiaki (2014)……Pease (2015)……Powell (2016)……Powell (2017)

Def S&P+……..29…………….18…………….38……………….36
RushS&P+……..51……………..4…………….46……………….28
HavocS&P+…….21……………..6……………..5……………….50
Front7Havoc………15……………..7…………….11……………….68
OpportunRate……..91…………….66……………106……………….27
PowerSuccRate…….92…………….12…………….78………………118
StuffRate………..72…………….19…………….30……………….36
Best……………..0……………..5……………..1………………..1
Worst…………….2……………..0……………..2………………..3

Pease was by far the best DLine coach we have had in recent times, but Powell has improved some areas and regressed in others. One really interesting stat is the ‘Front7Havoc’ which graded highest under Pease, despite not putting up gaudy sack numbers.

One takeaway from this, is that if Powell is indeed implementing Pease’s system, the players aren’t executing – evidenced by the Havoc and Power Success Rate stats, specifically.

Another takeaway from this is that I don’t think Tuiaki is an upgrade from Powell; the overall Defensive S&P+ grade out lower, but not a lot lower, and I think maintaining Pease’s system will be most beneficial in the long run.

TL;DR – Utah’s DLine is not as good as it was under Pease, but let’s give Powell some time to put the system in place.

Cheers!