I agree with Job #1. 5 TO’s plus we gave them the ball on downs. 6 TO’s. The only team you can beat playing like that is BYU.
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I agree and that was the point I was trying to make as well. A lot of youth started due to Covid and the five of them were faced with trying to block six or seven defenders on every snap. I don’t see why everyone wants to fire the Oline coach, USC is talented.
I think firing the o line coach would be idiotic at this point. We are just football fans sitting around commenting on what we saw in the game, and what might be vulnerabilities going forward, but that we hope won’t be.
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Our OL has been absolute patchwork the last few years. We had two recruiting classes that came up with essentially no OL after injuries, missions, etc.
We have insane talent and depth at the OL right now. They are all just crazy young. To fire Harding now…is just silly. I won’t say he’s done a great job the last 2-3 years, but he has done enough piecing together an OL and has recruited amazingly enough that he is NOWHERE near a hot seat.
He gets this year, next fall and the next before I even listen to replacing him.
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Lol yeah, let’s keep giving him excuses. I’m fine waiting till the end of this season. He has been the worst performer on the coaching staff, that is pretty much inarguably true.
If we can’t pass block better than last year by the end of this season he needs to be canned.
We were told by everyone in the know that this was the year our offensive line wouldn’t suck… and here we are in November with another round of excuse making on his behalf.
We’ve had COVID issues, but we’ve also been practicing a lot more than we would have in a typical offseason. The offensive line we had last year has had more than enough time to improve. Get it right by the end of the season or find a new job.
Harding isn’t the only guy out there who can recruit 3 star players then not teach them how to pass block.
Who knows, maybe if we had a better OL coach we would not have lost out on the two best recruits to come out of the state maybe ever. Sewell and susmataia may have been Utes.
So, the coaches practice hard and injuries happen and/or we struggle late in the season because the kids aren’t fresh and we complain.
So the coaches don’t practice/hit as much and we are rusty the first game but we still win 9+ and do well in November and we complain.
At some point you feel like we just like to complain, no matter what.
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You are really terrible at this arguing thing. Try addressing what I actually said for once. Harding has finally recruited players that will allegedly some day be good enough to stay in front of someone for a few seconds. Why has it taken him longer than every other coach to recruit pac12 talent?
I’m willing to give him till the end of the season to show that he isn’t at best a mediocre pac12 position coach.
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Swanton, cunalingiskhaan has made some good points here.
Wait! Are we somehow trying to call this a season?
This is not a season. This is a 2021 exhibition schedule…nothing more. Anyone who puts more of an emphasis on it than that is going down a rabbit hole of self-flagellant torture chasing a 2020 mirage. History is going to slap a big asterisk on 2020. Whoever wins any championship will have about as much validity to claim the reward as the 1984 East Provo Post-Secondary Playground. Whoever wins any championship will be the last team not shelved due to COVID-19.
Let’s do ourselves a solid and just enjoy some cold, wintery “spring football” to be followed in March by “second spring football.” Maybe we get some “elevensies” tailgating for good measure. Let’s enjoy we will be seeing all the kids get reps developing quality depth on the roster for the next years to come. Think about it - even the “milk carton kids” on the roster are getting a shot. We may not win many, if any, games, this season but what these kids learn in 2020 will pay dividends for the next four years.
Just sit back, relax and enjoy.
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Anything less than 7 games is not a season. Greg has the correct take.
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Excellent points. These are practices for next year. I will try not to get too worked up.
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Yes, solid take. This is not a real season and people need to calm down.
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Calm down? I don’t see anyone overreacting here.
I don’t care that we lost, I’m not even a little upset as bout that, I just think Harding has been given more unearned chances than any coach we have ever had.
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Utah’s average OL recruit, by year:
2020: .8701
2019: .8738
2018: .8613
2017: .8478
2016: .8647 (but this is a mirage. It was one year rental of Bolles and everyone else, who averaged 0.8452)
2015: .8552
You figure it takes most OL three years before they are significant contributors and you can see why the OL has struggled so much the last few years and being as young as they are why they would struggle opening week.
USC’s DL average rating is .8908.
I don’t care who you think you are, or how bad or good you think you are, when your OL ranks in the .85 range and their DL is in the .89 range…odds are you will look like Utah and USC did.
Then add in it was USC’s third game and Utah’s first and Utah’s OL has been hit by COVID…what did you expect to happen?
It’s too early to make a judgement on Harding. He has VASTLY improved the recruit he has brought in and he gets this year and next and most likely the next to show what he can do with those kids.
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Stanford OL average rating: .8891
USC OL average rating: .8833
Oregon: .8806
Washington: .8733
Utah: .8599
UCLA: .8536
ASU: .8495
Cal: .8424
Colorado: .8366
WSU: .8363
Arizona: .8317
Oregon St: .8244
Utah currently recruits fifth best in the P12 when it comes to the OL. And they are trending up. Their last two classes have averaged a .8719 which would put their OL as good as anyones in the P12.
So we want to move away from Harding, who has built up a recruiting pipeline that can compete with Oregon, UW, Stanford and USC?
What?
If Bamadeli Olaseni was showing progress, then I’d listen to this argument. He’s not.
So let’s blow up a good thing because one player, who never played football in the US, didn’t pan out?
Where do we rank compared to the rest of the pac12 in other positions? My guess is it’s roughly the same.
Does the talent gap only effect the offensive line? Our other positions have performed very well compared to their recruiting numbers.
Is the talent gap at offensive line bigger than it has been at other positions? If so, why? Would you not call that a problem with the guy recruiting them?
Either way you look at it, it’s Harding that stopped us from beating Oregon last year, and it’s Harding that is to blame for the team’s biggest problem.
As I said before. We were told by people involved with the program that the offensive line would finally be caught up with the rest of the team.
Is there any proof that he knows how to recruit and coach pass blocking? Any at all? Nobody on the planet should be given as long as he has been to prove they are competent at their job.
We had a nice streak of offensive linemen being drafted…not anymore. I’ll give credit to Harding for the good run blocking he put together 2014-2016. 2017, 2018, 2019, and now 2020 have all been years where the offensive line has regressed.
What? So Harding gets credit for taking lower ranked OL and getting them drafted then told he needs to be fired after getting his recruiting to an elite level?
That makes no sense.
Utah OL drafted:
2020: 0
2019: 1
2018: 0
2017: 3
2016: 0
2015: 1
2014: 0
2013: 0
2012: 1
2011: 1
So, the only time we have had ANY success with multiple draft picks was with Harding. We know he can recruit to Utah at an ELITE LEVEL, which is probably our highest rated group the last two years.
We know he can put guys in the NFL, as he has done so in the past.
We know we were playing a vastly better group than our OL vs USC and it was their third game, our first and the OL was hit hard by COVID.
And your solution is to fire the guy who can get guys to the NFL and recruits his position better than any other Utah coach (although Swan may be making a run at Harding).
Naw. No thanks. I’ll stick with the guy who recruits the best on the team and gets guys to the NFL.