They’ve decided that Rising is the best chance for the team to achieve it’s goals which is fine. At the same time, it was incredibly shortsighted to not have a package ready for Wilson and give him a planned drive in the 2nd quarter so that you can continue his development with a set script of plays that he is comfortable with. Questionable decisions are okay in the moment. They become a cascading problem when you keep chasing lost outcomes. i.e., going for it on 4th down because you passed up a FG the last time and now you are chasing points.
Even with a healthy Rising, there’s no reason not to continue keeping Wilson involved. And with a Rising coming off of injury, who sustained another one in the first couple of plays in the game and was 2-9 for 11 yards in the first quarter.,, it sure seems like Whitt thought he could flip a switch and 2021 Rising would show up. Which is something I thought was limited to the Utah fanbase and didn’t realize it had infected the coaching staff.
We had two contestants tied for first this week at 9-3, joshsmith and NorthernUte. You can see the results here on the website, or on the Ute Hub app by tapping Pick Em on the home screen, then the Latest Results tab at the bottom. I went to the Predict the Score standings for last week’s Utah at ASU game as the tiebreaker. Hats off to NorthernUte, who will collect a $25 Amazon gift card from @UteBacker and Company Vitals.
Week 8 is open.
It has long been considered established fact that Utah is a great developmental program. And it is true that Utah routinely finishes higher in actual polling than their recruiting rankings would suggest.
I thought I’d take a look to see whether that development mantra was true when it came to the Blue Chips Utah has recruited. My premise is that there are X number of plays in every game and someone has to make them. And a team full of 2 stars should have roughly the same amount of results available as a team full of 4 stars. So is the lesser talented team truly better at development or just distributing those plays to what they have available at the time.
I chose the 2019 HS class for the start date since that is the first one both current coordinators were involved with recruiting. I’m including transfers in during those years if their HS ranking has them as a 4 or 5 star (247 composite). And I’m using my usual highly scientific and not in any way personally biased opinion to rank them based on their time at Utah:
A) starter who played at an All-Conference level
B) consistent playing time with some starts
C) “Just A Guy”. Got playing time but easily replaceable by lower rated talent. A slight step up from roster filler D) Bust. Transferred w/o playing, continually injured or just roster filler
RB Jordan Wilmore (.8921): C
OL Sataoa Laumea (.9011): A
QB Cameron Rising (.9096): A
LB Manny Bowen (.9069): D
DB Clark Phillips (.9744): A
DE Van Fillinger (.9276): B
DE Xavier Carlton (.9100): D
DB Nate Ritchie (.8967): B although a case could be made for C. borderline to date
QB Jake Bentley (.9068): C
LB Ethan Calvert (.9652): D
LB Mason Tufaga (.9027): D
RB Ricky Parks (.9014): D
QB Peter Costelli (.9095): D
LB Josh Calvert (.9144): C
DB Brandon McKinney (.9060): B
WR Theo Howard (.9533): C
RB TJ Pledger (.9543): B
RB Chris Curry (.8924): C
QB Ja’Quinden Jackson (.9663): D as a QB, B as a RB. I wouldn’t argue with anyone who chose either
(here is where we start getting grades that could change down the road but as of today)
LB Lander Barton (.9587): A
QB Nate Johnson (.9124): C
RB Jaylon Glover (.8976): C
LB Mohamoud Diabate (.9510): B
(I’m only giving grades to those who have made it on the field or already transferred out)
OL Spencer Fano (.9564): B
DB CJ Blocker (.9151): Jury is out
OL Caleb Lomu (.9458): B
DB Smith Snowden (.8976): B
RB John Randle (.9000): Jury is out. Bust as a RB right now but could earn grade at DB or move back to RB
RB Dijon Stanley (.8920): Jury is out
WR Mikey Matthews (.9095): B
DE Hunter Clegg (.9196): Jury is out
WR Mycah Pittman (.9578): C
DB Miles Battle (.8958): B
DE Logan Fano (.8933): B
I’m actually really glad I did this. The pessimist in me focuses on that 2021 class and decides that Utah is overrated when it comes to attracting Blue Chips and turning them into ball players. And there is a case to be made that the list is bloated with transfers who just ended up being role players at best or “one and dones” so should they really be included when trying to evaluate Utah’s development ability. Ultimately, I’ve now had it reinforced that the talent level (to the extent that recruiting ratings matter) is actually as advertised and the obvious misses don’t represent the true picture.
Is anyone calling for him to step down or be fired immediately? I think even his biggest detractors would say that is silly.
I think all anyone wants is for their to be a cold eyes look at 2023 & however 2024 ends up and compare it to 2021 & 2022 (both 9-3 seasons even if the allocation of the losses allowed Utah to play in the CCG) to see if there were structural issues which should have been identified before those seasons and/or in the moment. And then Whitt and Harlan need to have an honest conversation after the conference season ends on whether Whitt is the right guy to fix it and whether he really wants to. Just like they’ve done every year.
There is nothing wrong with averaging 9 wins a season. But if the program decides they want to swing for the fences and go for broke there needs to be some changes in the staff below the HC and some new ideas are going to have to be allowed into the conversation.
Did I say I root for players over the team? No. Actually the opposite. You can read anything I wrote during the game or after about how they made a huge mistake to stick w/ him for as long as they did.
Did I say I expected 2021 vintage Cam Rising to play in this game? No. I said I hoped he would play but that I was planning on Wilson. I did think that if Rising played, he would be far more himself than he was tonight (I didn’t think it was possible for the coaches to allow him to play like that).
Did I say I am hurt by your “I told you so.” Haha, absolutely not. Let’s be clear, you were never speaking to me when you said “I told you so”…there’s nothing you said to me before the game that is now worthy of an “I told you so”. And even if there was, I wouldn’t care b/c A) I don’t mind admitting if I was wrong, B) like you said…I don’t know you, C) we’re talking about a football game that is entertainment at the end of the day, and D) my preference is generally to be more optimistic w/ the Utes…and I recognize this will inevitably result in “I told you so’s”. I’m not sure why you think I am hurt by what you said.
I responded to your comment b/c A) I thought the way you said it was rude and B) it didn’t make sense to me. He wasn’t blaming you for anything. He was accusing fans that say “I told you so” of finding pride in a Utah loss. For what it’s worth, I didn’t say if I agreed w/ that or not. I did question your assumption that he felt better about the loss by making that accusation (I said “we” b/c I was inserting myself into the conversation). And I did imply that one way people (like you) could feel better about and cope w/ a loss is to be able to say “I told you so” to other fans who had higher expectations.
I’ve read a lot of your posts and I think you share a lot of educated thoughts that I often appreciate. I also find that you sometimes make assumptions and put words in peoples’ mouths.
I root for the name on the front of the jersey. I don’t give a rat’s ass who gets the job done as long as it gets done.
The idolatry of individual players is the problem. Would 2021 vintage Cam Rising have won tonight’s game? Very likely. But if you expected that to come to fruition, then you were allowing your want to override objective reality and deserve an I told you so. The fact that it hurts coming from someone you’ve never met and would never take advice from (so why would you worry about criticism from the same source) is a you problem that I can’t help with.
There is that component also but I was just referring to the utility in going for it on fourth down.
Ludwig has been an OC for over 20 years and his patterns are very well established. The other team still has to be able to stop his offense and having a good idea of what he is going to call in any situation is only half the battle. Penn State, Ohio State, Oregon in 2019 and last year, Washington last year.,, those were all teams with better talent that were able to take advantage of his known knowns.
What really makes Ludwig’s offense work is a QB that can bail him out with his legs. The number of times Huntley sidestepped a rush and completed big plays downfield on 3rd and long in 2019 was the key to that season because the play calls were getting blown up. 2021/2022 Rising kept a ton of drives moving that were initially stalled with timely scrambles.
Barnes last year – think of the last drive against SC – and to a limited extent Wilson this year have shown that they are capable of doing it but aren’t able to do it as consistently as Rising or Huntley so the offense bogs down. The play calls haven’t changed over the last 6 years. There’s just been different levels of execution.
And no amount of pleas by the fanbase is going to get Ludwig to change what he does. Every year we complain about poor red zone execution. Every year we complain about how easy it is to diagnose plays based on personnel and formation. These aren’t new issues. They can be overcome with top level QB play. And they can be exposed when only getting above average or worse QB play.
That video is from 2021. Some BYU fans thought they could pay Urban to say that he secretly loved BYU before The Holy War.
What an insane week. I thought I’d be “smart” with my picks and I picked all my winners based on the percentages/odds. For that, I was rewarded with a 6-6 result. Somehow, perhaps through witchcraft, UtesRule (great name) went 10-2! That’s amazing considering all the upsets.
Congrats to UtesRule. You’ve won a $25 Amazon gift card courtesy of sponsor Company Vitals and @UteBacker! Thanks UteBacker!
Florida A&M @ 
Utah 
