Scalley to be ‘very involved’ in process to hire future OC

[Anfernee]

Lots of interesting titbits from Whitts presser today.

“It’s going to be a heavy shopping season for us in the portal.”

“That’s going on right now. Evaluating what we’re doing, what attractive candidates outside the program, and evaluating everything right now and getting the short list ready. But, yeah, that’ll be job one as soon as the timing is right to get that filled. Recruits want to know who the coordinator is going to be and that’s something that we will need to have solved sooner rather than later.”

“Very involved,” Whittingham said of Scalley being involved in the hiring of a new OC. “Yup, very involved. And it would be an injustice if he wasn’t. And so, given our situation, he’s working side by side with me.”

Also talked about the next offensive system needs to be less “complex” basically because of players coming and going so often now.

“With the turnover and with the way the portal is now, that system is — I don’t want to say it’s a dinosaur — but it is very hard to continue to have it work. And that also plays into, you’ve got to take a hard look at your schemes, because your schemes better be plug and play. You can’t have a scheme that’s so complicated and so in depth that it takes a guy two or three years to learn it, because you don’t have that time anymore. That’s another conversation we’re having, another facet of what we’re doing that needs to be streamlined. You collect all the talent you can in the offseason and just hope it gels and has chemistry, and they better be able to assimilate the offense and the defensive schemes in that short period of time in order to function. And so that’s something that we’re looking at hard and making sure we get corrected.”

[Roy Rangum]

I wish I knew how to read this, but my knee jerk reaction is that after reading it, Whitt is not planning on retiring at the end of this season. (Which is too bad IMO.)

But, maybe not. And at minimum because the incoming OC would know that Scalley is the soon to be boss, maybe some OC’s would consider Utah that wouldn’t otherwise?

[jshame17]

Whitt says all the right things where he is acutely tuned in to what is needed in the modern landscape , and then the results look the same every year with a few outliers.

He almost won me back in this interview, especially saying that maybe he should open practices back up so we can see what the team is actually doing and working on..

DO IT!! We need real sports reporting again!!

[Utah#1]

I believe when Cam went down after his second injury he locked down everything to save his ass from the media and fanbase knowing the truth. He failed the players and failed the fans who pay good money to watch the program on the field only for us to say WTF is going on? When Whitt’s and the media’s pre-season hype wasn’t matching the results on the field.

[Red Rhino]

If there’s going to be a major overhaul, it makes much more sense to let Scalley take over at the end of the season with Whitt in a consultant role. Utah did this for Scalley after John Pease left for and for Brian Johnson after Norm Chow left.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Anfernee thanks for the breakdown. The offensive scheme comment stuck out with me. He said it takes 2-3 years to fully understand the offense. He has made comments in the past about Rose not fully grasping the offense. So Wilson must be doing a crash coarse to figure out the offense.

Again that’s old school development where it takes 2-3 years to be ready to play. With the portal you don’t have time to develop talent. You find guys that are ready to play now. Like Whitt said plug and play. Schemes should be simplified so they’re ready sooner.Sounds like Ludwig was running a complicated pro style offense. Great if you have a 6 year senior.

[Tony (admin)]

Am I on drugs, or is it completely ridiculous for an offense to take 2-3 years to learn? That’s just crazy.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

It blew me away. These are high school kids. Maybe a problem with Wilson is he thinking too much?

[stbone]

This is how every high-level offense used to be. Even for skill positions, it was very rare to see a newly drafted player in the 80’s and 90’s immediately transition to NFL success, rather, it usually took a couple of years for players to learn the system. (Also, it was fairly common for a new coach to not have their offense fully in place until their second year). Now, offenses have been dumbed down, and we are seeing top WRs and RBs that are fresh out of college. It is part of the NBA-ification of football.

[NashvilleUte]

Especially when half the fans themselves can more or less guess what general type of play we’ll be running half the time…

[China Rider]

How hard is it to run it up the gut. Everyone in the world has it figured out. I’ve never understood the “it’s complicated” thing. From my perch the Ute’s offense looks Pop Warner simple.

[Utah#1]

I hope Whitt leaves at the end of this season to start the rebuilding with Scalley! At this point with the dsyfunction in the program that he’s a liability for the team and if he still decides to coach he will run the program even further into the ground.

I’m sure lots of players ready to jump ship once the season ends. Especially on the offensive side of the ball. I wouldn’t be surprised if on the defensive side if Cam Calhoune left for money! He’s a talent.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

You hear all the time about college QBs going pro it takes time to learn the pro system and how it works. Isaac’s brother Zach commented on Ludwig’s pro style offense.College style offense is easier to learn or just simplified?

[2008 National Champ]

College style offense is easier to learn or just simplified?

I’d say both. Pro passing games are built around having 4 seconds for the QB to read the field. College you get 2. So the decisions have to be built into the play call and be simple enough that if a QB can deliver on time, he will be successful.

There’s a 2nd aspect that I don’t think many realize. Whittingham is so risk averse on offense that it funnels down to the QB’s decision making. We see QB’s complete 50/50 balls all the time on Utah’s very good to elite defenses. But we rarely ever see a Utah QB throw a 50/50 ball. And that’s a direct byproduct of it being hammered into their heads to not turn it over.

Add in an apparent allergy to the quick passing game and corners know they don’t have to respect the first move a receiver makes. All an opposing DB need do is stand at the sticks and eventually the receiver will end up covering himself.

[SteelUte]

Want to hear the GOAT, (or at least top 2 qb of all time) talk about this?
Basically with the portal, college football programs don’t exist anymore. They are teams.
They don’t have time to have complicated schemes and identities, because the player turnover is too frequent.
A program had an identity, and was able to develop players to match that over time.
Tom says he began at 7th string at Michigan and slowly learned and developed. Same thing in the pros, he didn’t start right away, was able to learn and grow under Belicheck.
The quality at the NFL level is dropping because the quality at the college level is dropping.
I saw this on instagram today and thought it tied in to what Whit is saying here.

[UteBaron89]

Makes me feel bad for a guy like Damien Alford. I watched him at Syracuse and he’s talented and could’ve helped us. Apparently, the offense was too much for him to grasp in his one year here. His Senior year!

[dleto]

This is so bizarre to me, if our offense is just so darn complicated, why do we not see essentially any evidence for that on the field? Was it so complicated that literally no player has been able to master it? When I hear Whitt say things like this then look at our offensive production under Ludwig, and our record, it really just doesn’t add up. Where’s the disconnect?

[Zigziggler]

If I were the UTES I would move heaven and hell to get Alex Atkins to come over of the UTES as OC. He has had a down year with Florida State which has resulted in him being let go. But in all reality he is a victim of the inept Mike Norvell trying to save his hide as head coach. Alex Atkins is an ace recruiter and any solid players Florida State has had recently has come from him. All the recruits that have left were there because of Alex. He would bust the Florida pipeline wide open and would build on our run heavy approach, as he is the OL coach as well.

[Anfernee]

Even just your double capitalization of UTES deserves a thumbs up.

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