So what should Utah football be?

[ProudUte]

Many have posted that they are just happy to be playing with the big boys.  There is nothing wrong with that.  We could be like Purdue, Northwestern, Indiana, etc. of the Big Ten.  They play some great teams, go to bowl games every now and then and even upset some of those big names teams every once in a while.  But, they never really compete for the conference championship.  There are many happy fans from those schools.  They realize who they are and seem generally content with that.

Or, do we want to be Oklahoma or a Nebraska of the 90s.  I use these two as examples because these schools are not in highly populated states much like Utah.  Niether of these states produce as many D1 prospects out of high school as we do.  Could we be like Oklahoma is today or as Nebraska was for 30 years?  I say we could.  But, we cannot leave things the same.  It will take change and sometime painful decisions need to be made to take that step.

Is Whitt the guy that will get us to the top?  I guess it is debatable.  He is a very good man and a great defensive mind.  But, I would say the answer is – not likely.  He has had his chance in the PAC 12 and we haven’t even been able to win the South.  Every other school in the South has done it.  Will we fire Whitt?  Not a chance.  Should he be fired?  That is a matter of opinion.  But, look what has never happened with our offense under Whitt.

Does Whitt have the balls to do what needs to be done and done now?  I doubt it.  I know Bronco was and is a bit of an oddball.  But, I give him credit for at least one thing.  A few years back when BYU lost to USU and the defense was floundering – he fired the defensive coordinator that weekend.  He knew changes had to be made and he made them.  It takes guts.  Bytheway, the team started playing much better immediately.  Being the man in charge is not fun and making decisions like that in mid-stream is very difficult.  I have had to do similar things before and it is painful.

So, I am not saying that Taylor needs to be fired.  But, when your offense can only score 2 TDs in your last 25+ possessions – something MUST change if you want to be competitive.  What is that?  I will leave that to those who know better than me.  However, I learned one important thing after many years of managing organizations – “Don’t expect to see improvement unless you make the appropriate changes.”  Why would you expect to see our offense perform better if the coaches remain the same, the 2-deep remains the same, the play calling remains the same, etc.?

If you are content with playing with the big boys, going to some no-name bowls, getting an upset every now-and-then, then we should stay the course.  (Some are okay with that.)  If you want more – then changes need to be made.  They shouldn’t be made just to make changes.  You need a short and long term plan.  The AD needs to review his goals with the school president.  Whit needs to evaluate everything on the offense because it is currently pathetic.  (I don’t think anyone can say differently.)  What should change?  Everyone has an opinion.  I am not an expert, but I know we cannot expect to be a better team without some changes.

I hope Whitt has the balls to make some changes during this Bye week.  Failure to do so will lead us to a very disappointing season IMO.

Go Utes!!!

 

[jrj84105]

Great post!

[UtMtBiker]

He does have a former HC on staff that is capable of calling an offense even though it’s not what he’s known for.  

[User Suspended]

Good post.  But are you suggesting kwhitt take over the offense?  LOL, that would be an even bigger train wreck

[ProudUte]

No.  If you let Taylor go, I would suggest that you turn the offense over to Gary Anderson or Jim Harding.

IMO – Taylor is not cutting it.  But, I do not know all of the facts – so I can’t suggest that he be fired today.  However, it should be on the table IMO.

[User Suspended]

I get it, Taylor has not shown well.  But isn’t this the same knee jerk reaction us Ute fans have every year in regards to the offense…. fire the OC!

It’s like putting a band aid on a infection.

[sweetgrass]

we are currently recruiting between 5th and 7th almost every year in conference, essentially we are the equivalent of Kansas State in the Big XII, Iowa in the B1G, Pitt in the ACC, and Ole Miss in the SEC.  Occasionally Utah might out punch its weight and finished 2nd or 3rd in conference, but even those occurances are going to be rare.  If we want to make a serious run for a conference title we need to recruit better.  I just don’t see Utah ever out recruiting 3-4 teams in this conference and honestly bringing in another head coach risks us losing ground.

 

[User Suspended]

depressing

 

[ProudUte]

How did Nebraska end up in the top ten for over 30 straight years and win 4 national championships?  They went into Texas and out-recruited Texas, A&M, Baylor, TCU, SMU, etc.  You build a program where top recruits want to play.  Oklahoma has done that.  They can recruite anywhere in the country and be in the mix with any kid.  Is Utah there?  Heavens no.  Can we be there?  I say it is possible.  But, I don’t think we are headed in the right direction right now.

What do we have and what do we not have?

– We have the facilities

– We have the academic programs

– We are in a P5 conference

– We have a great location; i.e. mountains, big – not huge city, sell-out crowds, etc.

– We do not have the right coaching staff IMO.  We need an offensive coordinator who will draw in kids.  We had that with DE, but he is now gone.  Taylor is a great high school coach.  

– We do not yet have the name recognition or the tradition.  We are close IMO, but we need to get over the hump.  Oregon was not in the mix a decade or two ago.  But, they became a big name football school.

Can it be done?  I say yes.  But, we need short term and long term plans to pull this off.  We need to use our many current and former NFL players as ambassadors.  We need to hire Eric Weddle the day he decides to retire.  

 

[sweetgrass]

Nebraska is definitely an outlier.  I think most of us are still scratching our head how that happened, and it seems over the last decade that the universe has corrected itself and that Nebraska is trending back toward the mean.

[Skywalker11]

As a non Ute fan, I cannot wait for the day that Utah loses patience with Whittingham and fires him (or mutually part ways)

The rest of the pac-12 will rejoice.

[EagleMountainUte]

Most teams in the PAC would say that sans zona and ASU who haven’t had problems with Utah. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if Whitt is picked up by USC if Utah fired him. 

[Stone]

I see your point, but the Mendenhall comparison doesn’t work because he was a defensive player/coach. If Utah’s D sucked, it would be acceptable for Whit to fire the D coordinator and take over. But I would definitely not want Whit taking over offense, that is not his space (as I think he would admit and is amply demonstrated over the years). Frankly, I don’t think there is anyone currently on staff that I would want suddenly taking over the O coordinator role.

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