Kickoff Strategy

[UteBaron89]

Does anyone know if the strategy was to kick short and force a return or if the kicker was supposed to kick to the end zone, but wasn’t capable? Another thing; I’ve always been frustrated with who is put on kick-off team. If you kick into the end zone, go ahead and put your walk-ons, coaches sons, etc. on it. If you actually have to cover a kick, I’m in favor of putting the best 10 out there to increase your chances of not giving up TD’s (we’ve given up more than our share in recent history). That’s just me, though.

[jshame17]

Utah appears to be the only team in the country that can’t kick touchbacks… at elevation…???

Has to be planned that way. We can’t be that bad at finding kickers that can kick deep, but who knows.

It must be analytical to try to pin them inside the 20, but do we really ever do that? Just let them start at the 25 and not risk the game winning return

[Tony (admin)]

Had a deep discussion about this with some folks who claim to know Whitt’s strategy, and they despise it. LOL. “The analytics” say that the average starting field position for kicks that are inside the 5 is inside the 25. So the reason we INTENTIONALLY don’t kick touchbacks is…. the analytics! What the analytics seem to ignore, is that 100% of touchbacks are not returned for touchdowns.

[RoboUte]

Oh my god I’m going to necro the fire whitt post again just for this

[UteBaron89]

If this is the case, it’s a great example of analytics being stupid or used incorrectly. All analytics should be is weighing risk/reward ratio. If the analytics are telling them that kicking inside the five, by average, rewards you a few yards of field position WITHOUT weighing the risk, then throw it out. I’m at the point where I believe the staff is failing him or he’s not listening. They really need help with this stuff. They’re making it more complicated than it is. Last thing: would Shah be on kickoff team, or the team at all, if his last name wasn’t Shah? Have to believe they have at least one young cat who’s faster and more talented on the roster who’d love that spot and would make the unit that much better. He’s not the only one I’d replace on that unit either. The one guy who had a shot on the TD was tripped up by the turf monster and fell on his face.

[Charlie Foxtrot]

What do the analytics say about fielding a competent offense? Apparently Whit doesn’t pay attention to that information. Take away the kickoff returned for a touchdown and we win that game even with the second half offensive turtle mode.

I don’t think our special team kick coverage is good enough to risk the potential big return on short kicks. Apparently there isn’t a way to shoehorn that information into the analytical model that Whit is using. I’m all for getting the edge how ever you can and I’m sure analytics plays a part in informing decisions, but Whitt sure seems to lean on them heavily and I’m not so sure that is a good thing. In fact I think a 5 game loosing streak is a good indication that it’s not a good thing and maybe we should start coaching by feel of how the game is ebbing and flowing instead of looking at some probabilities on a stat sheet and play calling off of that.

[SteelUte]

I yell every game, “you have one job, kick the frigging ball out the back of the end zone! Lift weights son and build the muscle to kick the ball into the crowd! Seems like a pretty safe philosophy-

[utefansince79]

I’ve always favored kicking into or past the end zone. Seems like a time or two a year someone takes it to the house against us.

[hbUte]

You.Got.To.Be.Kidding.Me.

Whitt is actually telling the kicker to not kick it into the end zone?!?!
He’s gotta go, he’s killing this program.

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