I don’t know what offense they want at Utah

[EagleMountainUte]

You want to run the ball. Whitt says this all of the time. Yet you have Bernard and..Vincent or Stanley or Mitchell? It isn’t enough. Bernard is doing what he can but holy s**t it is a big ask. No change up. Other than Kuithe or a weird double fake triple reverse. Another play with Kuithe on that sweep that was like a wave pattern. Kuithe has lost 2-3 steps. He is done. The rehab and repair didn’t fix anything. He isn’t even in game shape.

Where are the tight end sets? Where are the things we wanted. Singer is doing what he can but you can’t even get him a timely throw in single coverage. Best you can do is one where he is being blanketed late.

Defense did enough to win. Remember when we thought if Utah’s offense could score 30 PPG it would lead to more wjns? Well now we are expecting the defense to hold teams below 10 to even have a shot. The common denomitor for this team? Yep Whitt. Or maybe Harding. Harding is the number one person who needs to leave. Offensive line is ass. Blocking sets are wildly inconsistent.

Three game losing streak. Better call another team meeting.

Wilson is regressing for sure. The long touchdown is a fluke.

Harlan might go get his nut sack from Whitts key chain and force the head coach to make tough decisions.

[Utegator]

Did Ludwig buy a new book on offensive play calling in the off season? I really don’t know what’s going on.

[Utecity]

I appreciate you mentioning Harding here, the offensive line has had good moments but feels terribly inconsistent overall. There were some egregious misses on blitz pick ups tonight that got Wilson absolutely killed

[jshame17]

You are not wrong, but the oline is actually playing better than I expected given every person in the universe, including Helen Keller, knows what the play calls will be…

Hard for an oline to block 8 in the box that are rushing every snap. We have zero ability to switch it up and make them pay.

It’s like Lud is from Waterboy, with his top secret notebook of plays that are just scribbling

[EagleMountainUte]

You had some good pockets in the pass protection. Wilson wants to pass and his instinct to run is sort of held back. A few times he should have bolted and didn’t. The rush protection is bad.

Bernard had a really good hole on about two plays. Usually he is being contacted at or behind the LOS.

I am not tallying it but that is my impression for sure.

[RoboUte]

This is an old issue. Moss was good enough to make it happen anyway but it was the same story then. Well you don’t get a Moss every year. The oline is the reason we didn’t stand a chance in the 2019 pac12 championship.

[jshame17]

Correct.

I have been calling for Harding for years. His oline’s always have massive issues and cannot work as a unit.

Some of them turn into good individual players, but it always takes multiple game sea h season for them to “gel”.

Like how is that possible every season?

He gets WAY too much credit and I think the “F’n fire me then” moment with Whitt was very telling and should have happened. Especially when Utah can’t get 1 yard when needed majority of the time, when we’re supposed to be the tough running power football team.

[Ute Dub]

So, in the AZ State game both guards PFF grades were in the teens in pass blocking. That’s horrendous. They’re in the 60’s in run blocking. Have you noticed how much pressure on the QB comes straight up the middle?

[Rick Walker]

One of the biggest problems I have with Oline is we literally have only recruited tackles the last couple of years. No inside lineman at all.

[Charlie]

The OL is a big issue, I am just wondering if bad OL play is the cause or the result of other issues or both. However the current state is bad enough to lose our best recruit for next year. First, Defense 101 will tell you to attack a young freshman QB relentlessly until they give you a clear reason to rebalance the defense. Last years experience reinforces this approach. Not at all helpful is each time we play someone coming off a bye week which gives them the opportunity to refine this attack rather than use the more simple week to week adjustment. We are now playing teams with a base defense set of a loaded box with various plays of run blitz.

In the past, Utah has had a physical runner that was able to sometimes exploit this defensive position when the RB broke the initial rush. Utah also has had RB options that allow changeup and put some pressure on this attack to force more thinking. Bernard is a great RB and is clearly our bright spot in the offense, however we do not have the physical RB or the complement RB options which is almost overwhelming given that I think Bernard is on a pitch count of about 20.

I have been looking for options to counter this attack like screen passes, quick 2 second passes like slants and TE routes, or more run plays following TE doubles to find spots with numbers. Wilson seems to be comfortable with quick throws to help counter these defenses.

Ludwig needs to avoid the collapse that can result and was witnessed in the complete failure of Brewer. I think Wilson is actually doing quite well given the situation. We need a reset like we had when we replaced Brewer but this time we can’t get it done with a QB replacement, we need to get it done with play calls. This will be much tougher without RB options. The loss of JJ without replacement may just be the biggest problem we have faced in years and I mean that with zero disrespect for Bernard which is an awesome RB option but can’t be the sole option.

Back to the OL, sadly they can’t focus on the majority of their practice book for a balanced offense, they need to refine becoming the defense from an attacking loaded box pressure package and Lud needs to refine the attack of a defense out of position. We are already inviting this attack big time and will have it in spades until we punish this type of attack.

The defense is fine for the most part even without dominate line play, lack of a stud cover back, and LBer and safety play that we have become accustomed to. They will come to life at a different level if the offense can simply score at a league average pace.

[2008 National Champ]

welcome back Charlie. I hope you took a couple of weeks off for some reason other than me being a complete jackass to you for which I sincerely apologize.

[The Miami Ute]

You were a jackass to Charlie? Why? He’s one of the nicest regulars on here.

[2008 National Champ]

Which is why I took away my posting privileges for 10 days after it happened. I just hadn’t seen him post since and didn’t want to do a private apology when the issue happened in public. I’m 100% team Charlie

[Charlie]

Actually, I have had time off and Ute Nation seemed to go somewhere. Recently I had my prostrate removed by the roots to hopefully resolve prostrate cancer. If needed, I can make health recommendations for our adult men health topic. For now just get an annual PSA. I also weaved in some back surgery since they were feeding off each other. A friend offered a Costa Rica home to take some R & R and I thought I could exit a few weeks between home games with only an easy ASU game to miss. Unfortunately all has seems to be in disarray now at home.

Football is much like war and politics (sadly all three are at cycle high chaos levels currently) in that you must be prepared for when things really are not going your way. We always seem to quickly divide up onto a group that wants to stay focused and be clinical and another that lean more to the emotional side and can’t believe we have to deal with difficulty. I simply enjoy the task level thinking about what to do next to improve our team. Honestly, I don’t recall any jackass situation but would not at all consider disagreeing with me to be such. Still, I have been offline and would not know but I have recently watched monkeys in jackass behavior around the restaurant. I expect I would need to research what we may have possibly disagreed on but just maybe it might have something to to with me being somewhat of an optimist or sympathetic to the plight of coaches. Either way all is good here.

[2008 National Champ]

wow, I’m sorry you’ve had such an eventful month or so. puts into perspective arguing about kids playing a game.

Welcome back and speedy recovery

[Charlie]

No worries.

[EagleMountainUte]

Ludwig can’t do much when the base RB room is bad. Bernard is not being utilized to his strengths. He is doing what Bernard always does and performing well enough. You take that away from Ludwig and he can’t pivot at all.

Spot on Charlie for sure.

[stbone]

I have been fascinated over the years (the past ten years) with how unable we are to attack the edge of a defense. This has remained the same regardless of personal and OC. Given our players and team personality, I can’t understand why we don’t run stretch and a healthy dose of option. Our personality is perfect for a Shannahan-style offense (any Shannahan or Kubiak), I am amazed that we have not picked up parts of that offense.

[Caliman]

ludwig came back to utah with the hopes of getting the HC after wit. retires, now that Scalley has been named the HC in waitting, AL has said fck. it!

[Tony (admin)]

Did he? I don’t think so.

[The Miami Ute]

Ludwig has always struck me as one of those guys who doesn’t have HC aspirations and is happy just being a coordinator.

[2008 National Champ]

look at the source Tony

[The Miami Ute]

Here’s a stat for you…with yesterday’s loss, and the remainder of the season still ahead, Lincoln Riley already has more losses in his first three seasons at USC than the so-called disaster Clay Helton. If it wasn’t for his 10 year x $110M contract, he would be toast.

[2008 National Champ]

he already had a worse record over his previous 13 games than Helton had in any 13 game period during his tenure. Amazing the damage losing to Bryson Barnes can have on a program 🙂

[The Miami Ute]

Half of USC’s fanbase is livid and the other is suffering from Battered Fan Syndrome (BDS). They’re in a complete state of shock that, with the amount of blue chip athletes that they have and the financial resources they’ve devoted to football, they’re getting such a poor return on investment. Expect to see 10K at the next home game at the Coliseum.

[2008 National Champ]

Pete Carroll, when he took over the SC job, knew that he could get all the skill players he would ever need within a 2 hour car ride of campus. What he did that fixed that program was he made recruiting the best line players in the country his top priority and then ran a scheme that allowed those players to impose their will on less talented opponents.

Riley runs a really innovative scheme which is what is necessary for the East Carolina’s of the world to compete against more talented schools. But if I was in his shoes, I’d be running the most technically sound scheme since the need to trick someone is lessened when you are just better than your opponent. And there’s also an adage that you should run the type of offense you most want your defense to be able to stop since that is what they will see the most often in practice. Well guess what, when you have Caleb Williams breaking every rule of assignment football and demoralizing your D every day in practice, there’s a lot of things they aren’t going to get good at.

[The Miami Ute]

Hear, hear…well said…

[UteThunder]

No he didn’t. When he came back, Ludwig made a comment about this being his last coaching stop and when Whit goes, he will too.

[Author]

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