Coach Whit

[pedro]

It boggles my mind how much disrespect coach Whit gets.  IIRC, he is the winningest active coach in the PAC right now.  Has us in the top 25 every year (but 2?).  Yet everything he does get’s scrutinized and questioned.  There is always room for improvement, but that shouldn’t detract from the respect the man truly deserves, yet it does.

The press had to make a point yesterday that it was Taylor who made the call on the starting QB.  Why?  Because even the moronic press know’s Whit takes a ton of underserved sh^$.  Of course the same moronic press cannot stop running stories about how great Sitaki is, though he has yet to prove anything.  Whit goes unnoticed and unadorned.  

For years everyone blamed Whit for the anemic offense accusing him of Micromanaging.  Yet a terminated Arod, muiltiple players, Norm Chow and Dennis Erickson all came out and stated that it simply wasn’t true.  Yet the accusations still persist.  Those who complained about the O then complained about the constant TO at the OC position.  Leaving Whit in a no win position.

Mac resesitated a dead program then stagnated.  Meyer comes in and is a flash in the pan.  Installs new hype, exciting brand and great new traditions and used it as a stepping stone to more prestige and fame.  Whit inherted a program that had hit it’s pinnacle.  Many of us had concerns about his ability to keep the program where it was.  None of us dreamed he could improve on it.  

Whether it’s improved or not, I suppose, could be debatable by some.  In my mind, there is no doubt.  Each year our recruiting class out does the last.  We are now recruiting players that wouldn’t have answered our phones 13 years ago.  We are playing in the 2nd toughest (if not the toughest from top to bottom) conference in the country and contenting every year.  Most PAC teams cannot say that.  Yet whenever a decision of any sort is made concerning a player or the program, MANY will question Whit.  

I vote we let Whit do what Whit does.  If he was our stock broker, we’d all be rich right now.  You certainly would quible over losing 2% last month if your YTD gain was over 10%.  Yet we fans do.  It is certainly in everyone’s right to do so, but then it’s within my right to contest it.  

My two cents.  Go Utes!

[GameForAnyFuss]

Bottom line is, if Whit went 9-4 and the average scoreline was something like 45-42 instead of 24-21, he would have about half the critics that he currently has.

There’s a certain portion of our fanbase that thinks a coach is an abject failure unless he runs the Playstation offense and puts up 500+ passing yards, winning or losing be damned. Those fans were made that way by Urban Meyer and Dan Mullen.

They remind me a lot of BYU-P basketball fans.

[sweetgrass]

^^^ truth ^^^

even our own AD was ready to pull the trigger on him a few years back.

I think most fans are ok with having that 8% net return every year, but every once in a while they want that kick ass 22% year. I’d argue he gave us that 22% year in 2008, and I fully expect we’ll see it again in the next few years.

[Tony (admin)]

Great post. I think no matter who the coach is, people will question him.

[Puget Ute]

You are exactly correct. Winning in a P5 conference is damn hard, and Whitt has made improvements every year. I will state it is probably harder to win consistently at Utah than it would be at many other schools, and the success we have is based on the family atmosphere Whitt has fostered among the players and the fanbase (also the tremendous investments in facilities certainly helps). He does take an unfair amount of criticism. I have to wonder how much of it is based on certain local people who would love to see him take a job elsewhere.

On the other side of the coin are the fans who booed Chris Hill at the basketball game a few years ago when Whitt’s contract was in upheaval. That was one of the worst things I have ever seen from a fanbase, let alone ours.

The unfortunate truth is we just happen to have some s**tty people in our fanbase, who are unable to enjoy the good times.

[Utah]

Puget makes a GREAT point. 

How many P5 schools have half the media ACTIVELY root against a very successful coach because his success hurts “their” school? 

Thos people will stir anything up to help their team. 

[pedro]

I think you’re both being generious in saying that only 1/2 root against us.

[EagleMountainUte]

[Anonymous]

Whitt takes undue s**t from the local slack jaws, but gets huge respect nationally. Same with Chris Hill. Any AD who does the things that Dr Hill has done here would have a street, building, holiday or astronomical feature named after him. We have to overcome the local theocratic dunderheadism in our own market. We will always have to walk the uphill path.

[Wilson’s Mustache]

Its going to be a very sad day when Kyle retires from coaching football at Utah. I don’t think he will easily be replaced.

[Duhwayne]

Amen, Stache.

[PlainsUte]

I think winning a Pac-12 title or even a division will get him over the hump with some fans and media.  Yes, the Utes have shown consistent progress, but fans have been left disappointed when hot starts turn into late-season fades and games are lost that seemed winnable (Cal, Colorad9).

[UteFanatic]

He does take a fair amount of criticism, but so does every other coach in America sans a select few.  Fans aren’t always rational.  Go on ANY team’s message board and listen to the criticisms.  It seems like you are implying that Utah is worse than other schools in this regard.  It’s simply not true.

I love KWhitt as our coach, and I think he’s doing a great job.  There are, however, some legitimate complaints against him.  For example, the 9 OCs in 10 years debacle.  Why has it been so damn hard for him to keep a decent coordinator around?  This is a systemic problem, and it all falls on the HC.  Again, I really like KWhitt, but this the one area where he has shown some weakness, and is one of the primary reasons why we are the only P12 South team that doesn’t have a division title yet.

KWhitt is well paid and can handle the criticism, it’s LITERALLY his job to do so.  Relax and don’t worry about it.

 

 

[Puget Ute]

Aaron Roderick was in the mix in 5 of those 8 OC changes, with Taylor being the 9th. (Ludwig, Schramm-Rod, BJ, BJ/DE, DE/ARod, Hard/Rod (x2), and now TT).

Taylor may very well be a home run hire. There is a good reason why Cal wanted him so badly.

Of the other OC hires, Norm Chow is a mandatory hire. Same with Dennis Erickson.

[UteFanatic]

I think you missed Dave Christensen somewhere in that long list of OCs.  🙂

I hope you’re right and TT stays around for a while.  We desparately need some continuity and consistency at the OC position.

[Puget Ute]

I can’t say that I missed DC, but you are correct that he is not on the list.

I hope TT blows up and gets offers to be a HC, starting after next year. If so we need to lock him up with a big, long-term contract.

[eastcoastute738]

Will love Whitt to my dieing breath. But he does need to take some criticism for how horrible this offense has been. Fans are frusterated because we have had a A+ D and A+ special teams with our D- to F O crushing our dreams every year. That being said local SLC media has dumped on him in the past. Nice to see the Trib getting better writers hope that turns around.

[Author]

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