Got to speak at length about our offense with a former player this week.

[Ute Bc]

He’s been to several practices.  He’s excited about the Taylor offense but says we have a pretty glaring weakness at wide receiver.  Said, he expects every team to double Carrington and make the others try to get open.  He mentioned if we didn’t get Carrington – we would have been in a world of hurt.

Just one guy’s opinion.  Seems he’s more than a little down on our receivers this year…

[Tony (admin)]

If Carrington is doubled someone else has to be able to get open.

[Ute Bc]

That’s the logic.  However, he wasn’t convinced that will happen. Just one man’s opinion but it threw some water on my fire…

[Chidojuan]

Yeah, have to agree with Tony.  Don’t let it get you down.  Maybe doubling someone and daring a receiver to get open worked in High School, but it won’t work at a D1 level.  I thought I heard Whittingham say somewhere that the current group of receivers are more talented than the 2008 group, so I don’t really understand the reasoning behind that.  We had people get open last year with our mediocre offense based on the run, so you’d think with more coaching and a new scheme, we’d have a lot more people get open.

[Anonymous]

Conceptually, yes. However, (1) the other WRs would have to be able to recognize the defensive scheme and find open space and (2) QB has to recognize and execute the same, assuming the oline is giving him sufficient time, and (3) WRs would have to actually catch the ball. In the recent past, I think we had issues, in particular, in #1 and #3.

From a broader perspective, with a few exceptions (e.g. Covey), I’m just not sure good WRs were interested in Utah. Why would they be given the combination of our conservativeness and ineptitude. I know if I were a prized WR recruit, within the Pac 12 territory, there are other top programs to consider.

If Taylor is able to make some meaningful improvement to our existing offense, then I would think Utah should be able to start getting more interest from higher level WR recruits. Of course, in the interim, I’m hopeful Taylor and Holliday can improve our current personnel and those players have enough latent potential to step-up.

[Sweetness]

My counter to this would be that Taylor coached Cooper Kupp last year, the most dominant receiver in FCS history, and he continued to get open time and time again. Much of that I’m sure can be attributed to Kupp, but also I think it’s a good sign that Taylor is able to scheme for his best players to get open.

[noneyadb]

Kupp is an NFL level receiver. How many NFL DB’s did EWU play against last year?

[gUrthBrooks]

Yeah. Ask Brent Casteel where’s his Heisman Trophy?

[RiseasUtes]

Casteel was part of our last undefeated team and had some good plays against Alabama.  No need to talk bad on him.

I think WRs are actually one of our position of strength.  Wilson, Simpkins, and Singleton all showed promise last year.  Add in Hampton, Thompson, Fulks, Dixon, and Dana and we are looking pretty solid.  Get Carrington to take some double teams and we should have some wide open WRs this year.

[FtheY]

The best was the hook and ladder with casteel flipping off the defender as he ran in the td. One of my favorite Utah plays of all time. So tacky, yet so funny. 

[Duhwayne]

We’re gonna win a lot of ballgames if this group can perform like Reid, Brown, Casteel and co.

[Author]

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