What I think needs to be done with Utah football going forward

[ProudUte]

First, let me clarify that I realize that there is much I do not know and will likely never know behind the scenes with the Utah football program. I am a just long-time fan who would love to see Utah get to that next level.

Second, I think Utah is in a great position to be relevant in the 12-team CFP in 2024. Here are the things “I” would do:

1. Recruit current key players to get them to remain at Utah. If a kid like Vele wants to go to the NFL, that’s great. I am talking about re-recruiting kids so they do not jump to other programs.
2. I hope Kuithe stays. I think it will benefit him and the program. If he decides to leave, good for him. But, make sure there are reasons for him to stay if he wants to like NIL opportunities. The same can be said for Bishop, Tafuna, Elliss, etc.
3. Relieve Shah of his special teams responsibilities. He has failed. Maybe Freddie Whittingham can take over. Someone else would need to become the recruiting coordinator.
4. Find a QB coach and let Ludwig focus on being the offensive coordinator. We need a QB whisperer who can develop future QBs.
5. Hit the portal hard, especially for Corner Backs. This seems to be our biggest weakness.
6. Spend the bowl practice time developing young talent. The focus should be on QB2 (Rose), and our freshman corners (Snowden and Blocker). Also, we need to see which of our freshmen running backs are ready to move into the rotation in 2024.
7. Move Vaki to the offense (if he is willing). He showed again on Saturday, that he is a special talent on the offensive side of the ball.
8. Try to keep the coaching staff intact (except for special teams). This will help continuity.
9. Get Cam involved in taking as many reps as possible in spring ball. This will help him with his confidence going into next fall. Of course, we need to focus on QB2 as well. If Rose stays, he should be the guy IMO.

If most of our key players stay around, next year could be a very special year for Utah football. I hope we never see an injury situation like we experienced in 2023 ever again.

Go Utes!!!

[Ute Dub]

I agree with a lot of what you say, however, there seems to be a common sentiment among fans that Utah is not a good pass coverage team. If I am reading the below link correctly utah is ranked 2nd behind Oregon in the PAC 12 for passing yards allowed. I thought Vaughn played awesome this year. One mistake Shaw made is that he let it out of the bag that Utah DB’s would face guard the opponent and not turn their head to find the ball. That’s a fine tactic but maybe don’t voice that out loud to media and other teams. That would give me a lot of confidence as an opposing QB that I can take chances on one on one matchups with low risk of an interception.

https://stats.pac-12.com/sports/fball/2023-24/teams?sort=ptspgopp&r=0&pos=def

[The Miami Ute]

I just checked and, using national FBS stats, Utah is ranked #3 versus the run but #64 versus the pass. Combined, the Utes’ defense finished #16 in the nation, trailing both UCLA (#11) and Oregon (#15) in the PAC. Not too shabby for a team that suffered as many injuries as they did and played a large number of high-powered offenses.

[2008 National Champ]

The pass numbers look worse since sack yardage goes against the run game.

It’s not a secret that the passing defense suffered after Fano went down, and then further when Barton did. Of course, that also coincided with playing against the better QB’s in the league. A lot of passes that missed open receivers the first half of the season were finding their mark down the stretch. Not to mention the number of times opposing receivers made plays against great coverage.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

All good points proud Ute. We go back to the late 60s early 70s with Utah football. The program is completely different in all aspects. I would never dream we would be in this position. It’s been an amazing ride!!

10. Evaluate the physical play at practice. Maybe tone down the physical play rhetoric just a little. As our reputation for being physical has increased so have injuries.

11.Upgrade the passing game. Seems like we play in a 10-15 yard radius on offense. I’d be surprised if we don’t lead the nation in fewest pass interference calls on offense. The four yards and a cloud of dust works against Colorado but not the top teams.

[ProudUte]

I agree with both of your additional points. I really like our passing game in 2019. I hope we can see a solid passing game with Cam in 2024.

[Jake]

It’s not a coincidence that our passing defense suffers when our D-line fails to get pressure on the quarterback. We put guys on islands, and no matter how good they are they will get picked apart if the quarterback has too much time. We also played some of the best passing attacks in the country in Oregon, UW, and Arizona.

[chinngiskhaan]

– Why do you think Shah failed? Special teams was not an issue this year at all. Our kicker got hurt. When he played, he played great. Our punter had a good year as well. Some areas need to improve I guess, but Shah did not fail. I don’t know when you turned into Mr. Negative Nancy.

– We can’t just add a coach (unless we’ve gone all this time with an open spot). We would have to remove one of the other position coaches. I see no reason to believe that Ludwig isn’t doing a good enough job with the QBs. What coach would you fire to make room for a QB coach?

– We have two stud young guys at CB. I agree Broughton in particular was disappointing this year. I would hope at least one of the two new guys would be ready to start next year.

– Vaki should play at whatever his best position is.

I think a bigger issue that you did not mention is WR. We need NEED NEEEEEED a deep threat. We do not currently have a deep threat on the roster. Kincaid was somewhat of a deep threat last season. We need to find someone that can stretch the defense out. Throw all the money we have at them, and get them here early to develop chemistry with Cam. Vele, Kuith, Parks and co are decent, but we NEED a deep threat.

Another big issue – How much of JJ’s lack of effectiveness at times (he was mostly effective) was due to injury? How much of it was due to lack of experience? How much can he improve by next season? If he can be a true workhorse back, that will be great. Is Bernard coming back? His ability to catch the ball out of the backfield would have been a huge boost to this year’s team. We should not need Vaki to run the ball. We should have enough competent running backs to let our defensive stars play defense. I’m fine with Vaki playing offense, but he shouldn’t feel the need to play offense.

I think pretty much everything else will sort itself out just by guys healing up.

[Roy Rangum]

It’s a great point that we couldn’t hire a dedicated QB coach without letting go of someone else (as the NCAA limits it to 10 assistant coaches).

However, while I love Andy Ludwig for many reasons, QB development is not one of those reasons. QB is by far the most important position on the team, and developing QBs is something we have really struggled with for a long time. I think bringing in a QB whisperer would be the single most important coaching change we could make.

As for who do you lose: I would ask, do we really need 2 coaches for the D line (one for defensive ends and one for defensive tackles)?

[2008 National Champ]

It’s set up so you have 5 coaches per side with the coordinators also having positional responsibility.

Safety, Corner, Linebacker, DE, DT
WR, TE, OLine, RB, QB

If you make Ludwig or Scalley coordinator only, you don’t get another assistant. But if 10 isn’t enough, I’d look at who is the weak link instead of trying to add to the responsibilities of the other coaches.

[Utephoria]

I don’t think Proud is being Mr. Negative Nancy about the special teams coaching. The kicking and punting have been great this year, it is the team coverage on punt and kick-off returns. I was probably one of 52,000 fans that were disappointed and frustrated with the long returns that Colorado had, luckily the 95 yard punt return was called back for a penalty, which could have been the game winner for Colorado. Let alone the 30 to 50 yard kick-off returns Colorado peac**ked about.

Special teams coaching needs to improve a great amount on team coverage for next year, cause Big XII refs are not going to bail us out every time with a flag. Whether it is still Shah or not, they have to get better in the third aspect of the games.

[Zigziggler]

I totally agree we need a deep threat! We need to be able to take the top off the defense regularly to open up the run game. Eric McAlister the WR from Texas playing at Boise State is in the portal. He is the type that we can pull and he can run it deep!

[ProudUte]

Let me try to answer your points in bold below.

– Why do you think Shah failed? Special teams was not an issue this year at all. Our kicker got hurt. When he played, he played great. Our punter had a good year as well. Some areas need to improve I guess, but Shah did not fail. I don’t know when you turned into Mr. Negative Nancy.

Have you seen our punt and kickoff coverage? It was horrific and we allowed a blocked punt to be taken into the endzone. Kicking and punting has improved. I think Shah is a very good CB coach. But, he has not proved to be a good special teams coach IMO.

– We can’t just add a coach (unless we’ve gone all this time with an open spot). We would have to remove one of the other position coaches. I see no reason to believe that Ludwig isn’t doing a good enough job with the QBs. What coach would you fire to make room for a QB coach?

I am not stupid. I know we cannot just as as many coaches as we want. So, what could be done? Moving coaches around, or assigning a top grad assistant to the QB. Regardless, we need to do a better job of developing QBs.

– We have two stud young guys at CB. I agree Broughton in particular was disappointing this year. I would hope at least one of the two new guys would be ready to start next year.

I agree with you here. I hope the two 4-star freshmen can step up. But, as a friend said to me this weekend. If they were good enough, why didn’t they get more reps this season? This seems like a good question to me.

– Vaki should play at whatever his best position is.

I completely agree.

Another big issue – How much of JJ’s lack of effectiveness at times (he was mostly effective) was due to injury? How much of it was due to lack of experience? How much can he improve by next season?

I think/hope that his problems were mostly related to his high ankle sprain.

By the way, I am VERY positive about the potential for next season. But, we should look at our weaknesses and try to get better.

[Zigziggler]

https://247sports.com/Video/eric-mcalister-azle-2019-junior-season-highlights-9614491/

[Stone]

Regarding coaches, are we prohibited from having a paid consultant (not officially a coach). Not sure of Klingsbury’s role with USC (maybe he is officially a coach), but he has been seen at many practices and likely provides valuable input and coaching.

[2008 National Champ]

There are no limits on consultants or analysts. There are rules regarding what contact they can have though. They can’t recruit, they can’t coach, I don’t believe that they are allowed to participate in practices other than observing.

Saban gets as many as he wants on the cheap since he hires recently fired head coaches who are being paid their buyout from their former school(s).

[Yergensen]

Thanks Proud.

#4 – Whit has to value the QB position differently than he has in the past, if he wants to get different results. QB is clearly not Whit’s specialty. He needs to get a dedicated SME on staff or something like this.

#5 – IMO pass rush is our biggest weakness assuming we are at full strength. We get lulled into believing that this year over year issue has been resolved when Elliss and others feast on subpar lines and QBs. We get upset with the secondary when we go against better lines and QBs when at the same time the pass rush goes missing. It’s simple, give Nix, Williams and Penix too much time and they will pick you apart. What’s more we have young talent in Johnson, Snowden, Blocker and Malaska that should make us feel better about that room.

#7 – assuming we have JJ, Micah and Glover returning along with Randle and Stanley, this shouldn’t be necessary and isn’t best for Vaki. Safeties get paid more for longer at the next level than RBs. Use him on offense in spots, but not long term/permanent.

[ProudUte]

I understand your valid points on Vaki and our running backs. Also, I stated he should be moved only if he is willing to make the move. I would NOT require him to move. The same was done with JJ from QB to RB. JJ chose to make a permanent move and it has worked out for him.

I am not a coach. I am not even a former player. But, from my untrained eye – Vaki is a very special offensive player. He could play RB, slot, and wildcat. But, I do believe it is his choice.

[DataUte]

It appears DBs was a weakness due to long plays given up. I would say it was 1) we didn’t get enough pressure on some pretty top-notch qbs, 2) those qbs/wrs are some of the top in the nation. We took our licks, but in the big picture wasn’t as bad as it appears. But sometimes if you know you are burnt, PI on purpose! 15 yards is better than 30-40+.

Having a deep threat would be great, but it also isn’t our identity with so many 11 and 12 personnel sets. But it would be nice to add that 4-5 times a game. Just doesn’t seem like we had a ton of ‘chunk’ plays this year. But we also need a qb that will get it there. I mean, 1st play vs Florida was nice, but that’s a 1 or 2 out of 10 throw (double covered).

We obviously need good qb play, healthy RB stable (which I think we have), and continuously improve the trenches – OL and pass rush (run protection was pretty good, sometimes).

It feels like we need to re-load, but much of that is just getting the walking wounded back and healthy. A few more pieces here and there, but moreso for depth than swapping out talent.

[Ghost of the HEB]

Word is that we are allocating a lot more money to portal targets this offseason, so should see some wins there.

[Utah5410]

Bernard is coming back. And everything I’ve heard and seen is Kuithe and Pittman are also..

Vele, Bills GONE

Laumea, Bishop 50/50 But my guess is Utah Throws a bag at Bishop (Which they should) and he comes back for one more year. Bishop is worth the bag that guy with O’Toole, Ellis. Barton, Reid, Vaki OMG

[Author]

Posts