Whitt, Scalley and my random thoughts.

[Utah]

I think something lost in this terrible season is the defense. Now, the defense isn’t bad, but it different. And it isn’t creating turnovers.

I mentioned this in another post, but Whitt hates offense, this much is clear. He wants the offense to run the ball, bleed the clock, have big plays off PA and score off turnovers. He doesn’t want the offense to be able to thrive on it’s own.

We can’t run the ball this year. If you can’t run the ball, PA doesn’t work. If PA doesn’t work, Ludwig/Whitt’s offense doesn’t work. And we’ve seen that this year.

Also, we are terrible at TO’s this year. Bottom half of the country. If we don’t get TO’s and give our offense short fields…well we can’t run the ball and PA doesn’t work so our offense can’t do anything.

That leads us to the defense. It is vastly different this year. This isn’t Whitt’s defense. We are playing so much zone, we can’t get to the QB when we blitz, and so on.

I think we have too many cooks in the kitchen. I think this is why you don’t name a head coach in waiting. This is why you let Scalley leave if he wants a title and control but Whitt isn’t willing to give it up. Scalley can always come back.

But we have two HC’s on this team – Whitt and Scalley – and we know offensively they have different philosophies.

And defensively…this defense ain’t Whitt’s.

So what happens when an offensive player doesn’t like the scheme Whitt runs and hears that Scalley wants to change it up? Does that player maybe slack off, knowing that a change is coming and he will try then?

And same defensively. What defense are we running? What’s it’s goal? Is it Whitt’s attack, attack, attack? Or a bend don’t break?

Utah is a great school and what Whitt, Urban, and McBride have built is awesome. We don’t need to worry about keeping Scalley. If Whitt left, we’d have a line out the door of coaches wanting to take over. I really think a lot of what is wrong with this year is that we have two HC’s with two different styles of what they want to accomplish.

p.s. and this is what terrifies me about Scalley. His whole career has been here under Whitt. But what he wants to do is not what Whitt does. Whitt is a 4-3 blitz heavy, man outside guy. Scalley really seems to love the Vic Fangio style of defense. And we know offensively they are different. My problem with Scalley is that what he wants to do…hasn’t been done here offensively since Urban and defensively…ever. We have no idea how good/bad he will be because we have never seen his style anywhere.

[Anfernee]

Nothing is more terrifying (and I mean that no one is terrified of it) than our offense currently . I’m excited for Morgan. These last two years have been absolutely brutal. Some of the most unenjoyable football I’ve ever seen. I love Scalley’s passion and energy.

[HeyyyUguyyys]

I am not convinced that Scalley is going to be a home run. I think he will, but will need time to bake. If you are Harlan though, I think you have to stay with Scalley as the next coach no matter what. I love Utah and I am proud to be from Utah, but we have to be real- Utah is not going to be a landing spot for an elite coach. A stepping stone maybe, (cough..cough..Urban) but is that what we want? If Scalley gets his system in place and it hits, he’s not leaving. We could be looking at another Whitt-like run of 20 years with a guy that would run a highly respected program and would financially stabilize the entire athletic dept for decades. Why would you roll the dice on someone with potentially more upside that would be likely to leave as soon as his stock rises?

[stbone]

@truffleshuffle – I 100% agree with your. I think Scalley will end up being a great head coach, but it will likely take him a couple of years to grow into it, just like it did with when he became DC. But, once he grows into the role, he isn’t going to leave. We will be able to have another 20 years of stable and top-notch coaching. We can’t risk the coaching carousel, and Scalley keeps us off of it.

[NarfUte]

We haven’t been creating TO’s because we havent’ been getting in the backfield effectively. The limited run O’Toole got vs. Houston you could tell he’s our best edge rusher. And Van plays up and down – If he plays up and O’toole is healthy, the defensive scheme should create turnovers.

I’m most worried about not continuing the Pick 6 streak. we have 4 games left to get it done

[Xanthis]

Isn’t it mandatory BYU throws at least one of those?

[thirtyfour-thirtyone]

I think the defense really went in its current direction under John Pease, and Scalley has more or less stuck with the general philosophy. Scalley blitzes a bit more that Pease did, but not overwhelmingly so. Getting pressure with just the front 4 is the goal, but that only works if the front 4 are able to consistently beat the opposing line. Regardless, I think the defense has been pretty solid, all things considered. One of the more frustrating things about the offense this year, is that is has moved and held on to the football pretty well at times. It just can’t make it very close to the opposing end-zone.

[Caliman]

KW needs to bring Brennan Marion as OC ASAP, before someone ELSE snatches him away from UNLV.

[Trailgoat]

Solid post. Next 4 games should be interesting. KW goes out on his terms of course, rightfully so.

Does MS really want to wait around a couple years while KW ponders his retirement trying to fix what he has stated he doesn’t know what to fix?

MS may find a better growing experience outside the Utah bubble, starting fresh at a well supported G5 team committed to success where he can build his own system and have flexibility to make mistakes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bagging on Utah, just the opposite. No way the program should be in its current state.

If KW retires after this season any HC candidate needs to strongly consider the success potential stepping into a weak NIL support, a slippery, shmoozaholic AD, and the previous HC hovering over you as a consultant? Utah is and always will be a sought after high profile program, is the right leadership in place to maximize the potential especially with the pending conference realignment?

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