Utah is now 0 for 2 on OC candidates.

[Larry B]

I have a feeling that it means Whitt isn’t retiring and no OC wants his reputation tarnished by having to run Whitt’s offense. Ludwig was one of the highest paid OC’s in the country, so pay shouldn’t be a reason we’re missing. Hopefully we can lock down Marion or else it’s probably going to be another one of Whitt’s buddies.

[Rick Walker]

According to OnlyU, Leftwich will be the third we’ve missed out on. At this point we might as well have two defensive coordinators and just play defense twice

[MotherJabubu]

Feels bleak
Might as well just bring back Ludwig

[Utah#1]

Unfortunately the radio silence can be interpreted as, or an indication that Whittingham has failed to lock down the 2nd top OC on the market. OU has theirs and now TT. At this point Utah’s failure to hire a good OC is beginning to look bleak and i seriously doubt any other top candidate is coming to Utah because of Whitt. He’s not going to hire an outsider, but will hire his friends or an associate who will follow his commands whether they work or not. We will see another 5-7 season next year if not worse. I feared this would happen, but many of you Whitt apologist will adamantly disagree.

[DataUte]

I hope for 8-4, but just because I have hope we can’t have that many injuries 3 years in a row. But when Whitt announces Rising is coming back for 8th year, my projection goes to 4-8. QB management has been a disaster.

[ProudUte]

This is all bad news. It makes me sad where this is all going.

[2008 National Champ]

I’m not sure why Whitt failing on offense should be a surprise.,,

He’s had a two month head start to find Ludwig’s replacement and is still playing katsup.

[Utesbyfive]

And you know for sure that Utah wanted to hire the ones who’ve come in for an interview? You do know that interviewing candidates can actually rule them out of the running. That’s how interviews work.

[jshame17]

Is this where we are at now to defend Whitt? 😂😂

Just like when a player signs with another school. “Not a loss, we didn’t want him anyways. Probably didn’t have the grades”

If we passed on some of the hottest up and coming coaching talent in the game, it’s not the flex you think it is.

[Utesbyfive]

DOOOOOOM!

[Holladay Ute]

This isn’t surprising. And I’m not sure it increases the level of concern either (at least relative to where we were already at). Of course Oklahoma is going to beat us out for an OC. As for Texas Tech, definitely more of a bummer, but why wouldn’t he go there unless Utah was willing to offer meaningfully more money? And I would be a little nervous about offering a ton of money to a 30-year-old coordinator who has shown some promise, but is still fairly unproven.

[DataUte]

Agree and he has been in Texas his whole (short) career, so TT might be easier for recruiting, especially if they offer more than Utah. Hope he wasn’t expecting the $1.5M Ludwig got, but likely we lowballed and offended him.

[2008 National Champ]

Ludwig was up to 1.85 with a bigger than normal buyout because Notre Dame came sniffing. In retrospect, the worst decision Utah could have made was to go all in on Kyle’s buddy instead of taking the Notre Dame cash and using it to upgrade.

Right now, potential OC’s know that Utah is desperate and will force them to pay a premium for potential knowing that someone they prefer more will match. Never negotiate from a position of weakness is rule #1 and Utah has put themselves in this trap.

[DataUte]

Yep. TT OC made 825k (took FAU HC for 5 year $6M). Leftwich was making $280k. I’m sure we lowballed and TT will pay him as a Broyles finalist and Texan (UTEP qb, coach, Incarnate Word, Texas State).

[2008 National Champ]

It’s such an easy conversation/sales pitch to imagine.

Utah: we know you had a top 10 offense the last two years. We’re willing to pay you half of what our last guy made to produce two offenses around the top 100 and if you produce to your standard running an offense completely different than you want, we’ll pay more in your next contract.

Everyone else: how much can we pay you to bring your top 10 offense to our school?

Prospective hire: Well, Utah is willing to go to 0.9 MM per for 3 years.

Everyone else: A million one sounds about right but you have to bring your QB with you.

Prospective hire: Thank you Utah for considering me but it’s better for my family and career to go anywhere else. Good luck in your search to find the next person who will do the same things the last 10 have done for you.

[DataUte]

Sound familiar?

Penn State looks nothing like the wide-open, take no prisoners offense Kotelnicki built at Kansas and Buffalo and all those championship seasons in the NCAA lower division with Lance Leipold.

The Penn State offense looks like – and I know this is going to shock you – every other offense we’ve seen from Penn State under James Franklin. Play smart, don’t force plays, let a great defense set the tone.

[2008 National Champ]

system works great against less talented teams. What is Franklin’s record against top 20 teams?

[lgt4141]

How do we know any of the candidates were even given an offer? Just because someone looks great on paper doesn’t mean they will be the right fit. I would imagine they approach coaches much like recruiting to make sure they are a good fit for the culture.

[Rick Walker]

Insiders/beat writers report that the guy is expected to be hired if he wasn’t offered

[Utah#1]

That maybe true, no doubt about that, BUT in Whitt’s 20 year head coaching tenure he’s gone through 10+ OCs and if you’ve followed Utah football over that span of time, most of the offenses Utah ran were pretty much the same with 10+ different OCs. You can’t tell me or anyone 10+ OCs all want to operate the same offenses year in and year out with no creativity or change of direction or pace or anything else. Unlikely to believe that! That’s why not many of us who know what Whitt don’t want to get our hopes high because we know Whitt, he’s not going to change, at all! We’d like to be hopeful and give him the benefit of the doubt because he is a stellar coach (unfortunately not as of late…), but not surprised if we don’t secure a good outsider OC. Go UTES!

[jshame17]

So, the “you become us, we don’t become you” mentality may be a deterrent to coaches?

😱😱

[lgt4141]

How do we know any of the candidates were even given an offer? Just because someone looks great on paper doesn’t mean they will be the right fit. I would imagine they approach coaches much like recruiting to make sure they are a good fit for the culture.

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