Should Whitt stay or go?

[ProudUte]

Since Saturday I have talked to many of my fellow Utes. (Some I know and others I met yesterday who I do not know). 100% of the people I talked to feel Whitt should go at the end of the season. I know this in no way is a valid poll. But, I found it interesting that everyone loves Whitt and what he has done for Utah football. However, they all think it is time for a change and there is a need to rebuild the program now.

As for me, I think Whitt has lost his edge. These last two seasons have been painful to watch. We could have a QB in a wheelchair and get more offensive production that we have most of the last two season. 3 TDs in the last three games is terrible, especially since all three of these teams have serious defensive issues. Ultimately, Whitt has to take responsibility. We aren’t the only team to lose a QB.

So, even though I love what Whit has done, I think there is a time to move on and I think the time is now. However, if he stays – I will support him in anyway that I can. I want him to leave on his own terms. He deserves that.

What say you?

[The Miami Ute]

There’s the way things are and the way you wish them to be. Cruel reality will tell you that Whitt has three seasons remaining on his contract. In addition, if you watched yesterday’s press conference, you’d have seen a guy that’s firmly entrenched in his job and has no plans to leave any time soon. I mean, when asked if Bajakian was the permanent OC going forward, Whitt said words to the effect that they’d reassess everything at the end of the season and select the best person for the job.

Now, I could be wrong and maybe Whitt is a better actor than a football coach, but my sense is that he feels that the team’s troubles can be fixed and fixed quickly.

If the Utes end up the season on a high, say 8-4 with a victory over the TDS, I have zero doubts that Whitt will return and do so for multiple seasons.

[Utah#1]

IMO, he is the #1 problem! I believe he is now in survival mode putting on his poker face to show there is nothing significantly wrong in the program despite what we see on the surface. After some players went to Twitter and voiced their frustrations with the program, anything positive Whitt says could be further from the truth. Whitt’s problem is keeping any problems he created under lock and key from the media and fanbase thus far has been a recipe for disaster when it three consecutive weekend loses in a row spilled over into the streets and since been in damage control mode and seems like he’s ordered players to remove their twitter posts. That just tells me he’s covering his ass from further fallout.

Even with a new OC, I seriously doubt things change now and in the future until he is gone.

[RoboUte]

We know what Whitt does to OCs. Makes them all play whittball then they leave. We have been down this road before. I’m hopeful that the team is energized for this weekend but a retirement age coach isn’t going to change his stripes.

[pedro]

Ludwig and others have all disputed the claim that he interferes with the O. I don’t know why this won’t die. Do you really think he would pressure the OC out if he was in fact pushing the play calling on him?

[RoboUte]

Lol. Whitt disputed the fact that Cam wasn’t ready to play ball in august of 23. 15 months later he still wasn’t. Why would you buy an ounce of coach speak when you have dozens of examples of it being outright lies.

It won’t die because it’s based on a lot of observation. This is something people have been tossing around since norm chow. by the time Troy Taylor threw his hands in the air and left it became fairly clear that no matter where we begin every offense we have under whitt ends up displaying the same tendencies for risk averse lead-clutching cowardice. Which works when your defense is world class. But our defense was as good in the mid 2010s as it is now or better. And when you get behind it’s a death sentence. People just engage the ol noodle and say “oh, who is the common denominator” and they come up with the only solution available in reality.

[pedro]

Sorry, it’s based on BS from fans looking to place blame. BJ said it wasn’t true, Chow said it wasn’t true, Erickson said it wasn’t true, Cam said it wasn’t true.

The only guy who alluded that it was, was Smith. And maybe he did with smith. But I would have too. He was careless.

[Utehoopsfan]

Don’t think contract length has anything to do with when Whittingham will step down. Coaches rarely get to the end of their contract anyway. They are either fired before or retire. Nick Saban had several years left on his deal, but walked away for example. National Champion basketball coach Tony Bennett did the same thing last week.

Whittingham might not retire, but contract length won’t be a reason either way. The struggles this year probably will play a part in him coming back. Had Utah lived up to expectations, I could see him retiring with a Big 12 championship and a playoff appearance and leaving on a high note. On the flip side, he might not want to try and build up this thing especially if the team continues to struggle. This was supposed to be THE YEAR and it not being so probably is really mentally draining for a guy in year 20.

[Tomasina]

Last year and this year have been tough, and it is hard to pinpoint exactly why. We have had a ton of injuries that could be impacting this more than is apparently, or it could be a coaching issue. I am not sure that a change at OC is really going to change much… but I guess we will see. Overall, whether it is time for Whitt to go or not… I would never call for him to do so. As you said, he has earned to right to hang it up when he is ready. If he stays I am curious to see what he can do next year without all the QB controversy.

[RoboUte]

“hard to pinpoint exactly why”

Not having a quarterback jumps out to me.

[UTE98]

Not preparing a QB is how I see it. But by not preparing a QB you don’t have one. Riding the Rising train too long (20+ months too long) also has been a huge drag.

[RoboUte]

It was evident we couldn’t prepare alternate QBs in the Terrance Cain days. By the time you go through Corbin Louks, Kendall Thompson, and Jason Shelley (bless his heart the only alternate that deserved the field) you’re looking for more.

Then you have to suffer through Whitt starting Charlie Brewer over Cam Rising. Then you have to suffer through the hard reality of Drew lisk absolutely obliterating Jake Bentley’s output. That Washington State game was a highlight of my Ute fandom. We hit the transfer portal and the best we could do was a dude that was a fraction as effective as our local walk on. That. Is. Beyond. Pathetic.

Then we lose rising and guess what. SAME STORY AS THE LAST 15 YEARS. there is not a single shred of evidence that Utah under Kyle Whittingham has a single ounce of wherewithal in QB management, decision making, and utilization. We have one QB IF WE’RE LUCKY. Two? Hasn’t occurred in Whit’s tenure. The closest we got was underclassman Huntely under williams. And Huntely needed 3 years in the program before he learn to slide. CHRIST.

[2008 National Champ]

The Legend of Drew Lisk can’t ever be understated.

[Tomasina]

I get your point, but QBs today are finicky and want to start. By having Rising play 7-years we have limited options. Had he been healthy, and with a freshman learning from him, no one would be complaining. It would seem we rode his train too far, but this is also 20/20 hindsight. Having watched the games this year, I am still not sure this all hangs on the QB. The run defense has been atrocious at times. Injuries seem to happen left and right. We’ve had some special teams issuers as well. So is QB an issue… of course… the only issue… I don’t think so.

[2008 National Champ]

It’s not hindsight. A few of us were very clear that bringing Rising back for 2023 would cause people already in the room to transfer. Which is exactly what happened. Johnson, Barnes & Howard are now gone leaving a 6 year gap in experience between Rising and Wilson. Costelli left, Jackson was moved to running back, Rose apparently isn’t allowed anywhere near the field of play and Huard, who has 3 years of experience at the collegiate level, was brought in to redshirt only. That’s your QB room since 2020.

There are some who will say good riddance on the transfers since they weren’t cutting it anyway. Fine, I’m all for upgrading whenever possible. But there haven’t been any upgrades. And the same coaches everyone wants to give a pass to were the same ones who brought those kids into the program in the first place.

I’m even willing to give a pass for the 2023 mistake. Yes, I wish it would have been handled differently but I can understand thinking they could cobble together enough out of the rest to cover until Rising hopefully came back. Now it’s 2024 and there was no real result to whatever effort they put in trying to have a stopgap between Rising and Wilson. And let’s not forget that at some point in the future Wilson is going to have surgery on his knee and the expectation is a 6 month recovery. So the only people claiming hindsight are the ones who did not want to acknowledge the semi coming directly at them at 80 miles an hour.

[RoboUte]

I got torn to shreds for suggesting that Cam was injury prone 11 months ago. Oh if only they could see themselves now

[2008 National Champ]

Even insinuating that he might not be better than ever or lead the team to an undefeated record was worthy of no less than 10 down votes.

[Utehoopsfan]

He has literally gotten injured(or missed the whole season) every year. Nobody should have pushed back that he was injury prone. The biggest recent failure of Whittingham was not having a QB ready to go for 23. Rising to Barnes is such a colossal drop off.

[AZUTE]

The game has passed him by. He’s not evolving with the changes he’s to set in his ways.

He was supposed to ride off into the sunset after a big12 championship and playoff run but now these last two seasons are going to tarnish his legacy.

If he can beat byu at least he’ll have scoreboard over the Zoobs when he retires.

[Roy Rangum]

At the beginning of the season, I thought this would be Whitts last season as he would want to go out on a high note. Now that things are falling apart, I still think it’s likely Whitt will want to be done at the end of the season, but for different reasons.

That said, Miami has a good point. I doubt Whitt gets forced out at the end of this season, and if Whitt is motivated by the money, he might stick around longer.

[Tednab]

I want to see him end on a high note .. never underestimate whit .. the dude pulled out 8 wins last year on a team without any offense. We HAVE more talent on this years offense than last.. I just want to see buy in from the team going forward and play to the level they’re capable of.

[Charlie]

The reality is simple, even very good football programs at all levels will have down years where they drop out of competition for the championship by midseason. Even the best. At the Power level we should recognize that Utah is not at that top elite level, not in the Pac and too early to say related to the Big 12. If you want to follow college football you may need to recognize this reality. I do agree it would be nice to never again not be a contender throughout the season, I just don’t expect it. Most often the dip out of contention is two or more seasons. Realize if we were a mix of fans across the Pac and Big 12, the group consensus would be Utah is sitting in the top quartile as having more success than most the last half dozen years. The last 2 season have been awful for us but many of our piers wound wonder why we are so despondent.

If you have been involved with a football program you know their are years you are 4-3 at midseason. And it can be so upsetting following an 8-5 season. But what do you do? You can put you focus on getting better and winning the next game, or you can fall to various levels of giving up. I have seen a flavor of each outcome and have become convinced that the best approach is to simply hope for the best with the next game. I hope that is the approach by the players and coaches, I expect that they will need to do that without much of the fan base doing the same.

As fans, it is easy to give up on a year. For an upperclassman player, not so much. For the coaches, they fail in their careers if they do. 2017 was a tough year for us. We went 7-6 and I remember 4 straight league losses. So much of Ute Nation wanted to move on from Whitt, so many were clearly convinced to do so. There were calls to slap leather (someone else not those that suggest) and break the bank to bring in an elite coach like others in the Pac. Some were willing to stick with Whitt and watched us run with a coach that is the envy of pretty much every other Pac school. And we exceeded the success of many that enjoyed much greater resources.

I don’t at all intend to lecture, I just want to make the case for trusting in Whitt as reasonable. What coach in the Big 12 would you trade for? Would any other Big 12 school refuse a trade? Another hot coach on a roll can easily be less effective, new is not always better.

In the interest of full disclosure I also supported Mac at the end. I worried about the coaching turnover. The first day Meyer came to campus he requested a tour of Utah fraternities and sororities to build support. My son, as a student, made those arrangements and took Urban around campus. At the end of the night he gave me a call and told me ‘Dad, this new coach is going to be real good for us’. It is possible we can catch lightning in a bottle again, but it is also possible we still have some already. I tend to lean the same way I did in 2017 and can still support Whitt.

[RoboUte]

“the best approach is to simply hope for the best with the next game. I hope that is the approach by the players and coaches”

Charlie I love your replies but this has got to be some of the worst advice I have ever read if you’re trying to win something. This isn’t how greatness or even a few levels below that is achieved. No champion in the history of sports simply hoped for the best.

[Charlie]

I am sorry for the lack of clarity in context. My head drifted to the binary choice of giving up on Whitt to start over or continuing with Whitt and hope for the best. Continuing on and hoping for the best can and should include doing everything possible to win. In this context, sticking with Whitt has actually led to championships and I think could do so again. Then too, anything any of the other programs are doing including changing the HC also have about a 7% chance of winning the next championship. I can be wrong, just an opinion.

[AlohaUte]

I’d love it if he stayed. He’s awesome, despite our frustrations of the last two seasons.

That said, I think he retires after this season.

[pedro]

I really don’t understand Ute fans. This is literally our first bad year in how long? Last year wasn’t great, but considering the injuries, it wasn’t bad either.

If we look bad again next year, I agree, Whit should go.

BYU fans forced Lavell out after a few average years and their program took 20 years to recover. Yet here we are doing to the same to ours and this is based mostly on the high expectation we all put on the team ourselves.

Flame on!

[RoboUte]

“This is literally our first bad year in how long?”

Nine months. The covid year was going to be a disaster too but we got saved by essentially not having a season. And I’ve mentioned it before in passing but I do have a family connection in the coaching staff and the coaches knew it too. We got saved from a disaster season by the covid year. It was going to be ugly.

[pedro]

So we’re basing judgment on could’ves now? Well, we could’ve won the rose bowl if Cam hadn’t been knocked out. So does Whit get credit for that win?

[RoboUte]

This makes me feel like you didn’t watch any of the games that year.

[pedro]

We played the equivalent of 3 games. 2 of which were decided on tuesday that we were playing. So please, tell me more.

[RoboUte]

Other than the coaches themselves and the product on the field disagreeing with you? No. I think that pretty well shuts the book on the matter.

[pedro]

Sure, as long as playing what if’s count. I’m all in.

[crash11]

Last season, most said was Whitts best coached season with how depleted the team was by injuries. The grass isn’t always greener…

[Utehoopsfan]

20 years to recover? They won the MW Crowton’s first year and Bronco had some very good teams.

Whittingham isn’t being forced out. He is probably the furthest coach from the hot seat in college football. He might call it quits though. He is 65 and this year has to be extra hard on him with the super high expectations. He already has named a coach in waiting, so he isn’t going to be coaching much longer anyway. You don’t name a coach in waiting if you are going to be around a long time.

[pedro]

What happened in Crowtons 2nd year with his own guys? 3rd year? And Bronco had good team, but did he meet or excel what LaVell had done? No! No one has since LaVell left. No ONE!!

BTW, Scally was named Coach in waiting 3 years ago. It was taken away and then reinstated this year. Not news.

[RUUTES]

If Whitt leaves, I don’t think it will help us. CFB has changed and it’s kind of an ugly greedy gross thing these days with few things left that defined the early Whitt era. But I don’t see anyone radically better in the wings waiting to jump into his shoes.

If he wants to leave though I won’t blame him at all. We just won’t be getting better for it. Utah is too small market to attract the top talent mercenaries that are going to populate the perennial top 10 teams. Sure, there will still be some Cinderella seasons for some teams (including us and BYU) that come along now and then. But that’s a once every 5- or 10-year thing. The new landscape of college football isn’t’ what Whitt signed up for and it’s not where his strength is. And most of all its not where his (or a lot of other great older coaches) have their passion.

He can hang around another year or two if it serves his purposes. But I don’t think it’ll get better next year. I think we’ll have a bunch of transfers who don’t gel as a team and if we pick some diamonds in the rough the chances are they will transfer out for real NIL money before we can do much with them.

Should he stay? I think overall he still helps our team with a bit of recruiting and probably some discipline for some kids that can benefit from him. Should he go? Maybe for his own peace of mind since CFB has evolved into something that really isn’t what he spent his career supporting.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

If you’re a recruit and the head coach you want to play for is retiring possibly before you even get there. Head coach in waiting has no HC experience. Lots of seniors leaving and not much talent to build on. This year is the beginning of the end for a few years. Good time to step down and let Scalley start the rebuilding process. I expect lots of transfers after the season and that will speak volumes if they want to play for Scalley or not.

Whitt has the program in limbo right now and it would be best for the program if he lets the Scalley era begin.Let Scalley pick the new OC and the direction he wants to go.

[2008 National Champ]

well said Jim. The future can’t start if Utah is going to be stuck in the past.

[pedro]

Simply not true in any regard. Players come bc of the coach who recruited them. Whit doesn’t personally recruit anyone one on one. He is the closer. If anything, players who are considering the U should find more comfort in the consistency having a coach in waiting provides

[Jim Vanderhoof]

HC being the “closer” is exactly why Whitt should retire. Let Scalley be the closer with a new direction and energy. Ludwig resigning and disgruntled players are a crack in the armor of the culture that has been our best recruiting tool. Scalley is the coach in waiting to continue the culture Whitt has built (which in my opinion is his greatest accomplishment). If Whitt wasn’t contemplating retirement and openly talking about it wouldn’t be an issue. Offense needs a new direction and leadership.

[Uteanooga]

Would Witt leaving help NIL funding- no.

Would Witt leaving make recruiting to Utah easier- no, it has always been hard.

Would Witt leaving put Utah into a better conference- no.

Would Witt leaving increase Utah’s athletic budget- no.

Is Utah’s next coach going to be better than Whitt- probably not given that Whitt has been Utah’s best coach, we will likely see regression towards the mean.

Will Utah win more games without Whitt than with him- regression towards the mean says probably not. Whitt has won a lot of games.

That is a lot of no and a little probably not. P12 championship game 4 out of 5 years and suddenly he has no idea of what he is doing. He may well be tired of listening to you wankers and move on.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Wankers?
Nobody’s questioning what Whitt has done. Nobody is forcing him out. He has built a solid program with a winning culture that attracts recruits. Two questions you forgot to ask “is he going to retire soon” yes “ does that affect the program “yes. We already have the next coach in waiting. It would be different if we were hiring an outsider who could clean house. Harlan has chosen to keep the culture and staff Whitt has built in place.

Now we need a new OC and there are a few disgruntled players. Who hires the new OC? Scalley has made it clear he likes the old Urban style offense. He might go a different direction than Whitt. What’s best for the program? If Whitt stays will defense be better? Not sure. Will offense be better? Probably not (can’t get much worse).

[Author]

Posts