If Utah was not progressing, they would not have won the South Division ever.
I don’t believe this was Whit’s last chance.
3 Likes
Indeed. The troll is strong in this one. LOL.
1 Like
That is a very small gif
Fixed it
Goodness
I have never been a fan of Whittingham. I always think that he gets our team to be average to slightly above average. Then we have a year like this one, when we looked great, except for choking in three games that mattered – USC, Oregon, and the consolation game with Texas.
I realize that Utah probably can’t be a program to challenge for the CFP year after year, so when the opportunity presents itself, I want our coach to make it happen. We were clobbered by Oregon and Texas – it almost felt like were back in the MWC just happy to be playing those guys.
I don’t want to be “that guy” and keep complaining about Whittingham. But when are we going to say that he just isn’t going to carry us to the next level? Of course, Urban Meyer is available!!!1111111
The truth is this… every single year there are a grand total of 5 head coaches who win a P5 conference championship. A grand total of 4 head coaches who make it to the CFP.
Whit is on the cusp of one if not both of those. You don’t throw that away because “muh feels say muh team shud be better”. The one who would will be putting their own career on the line if things get worse. So it’s kind of a big deal.
3 Likes
Whit has a body of work. Like McBride, he has gotten us to a higher plateau, and a very high one indeed. Also like McBride, we hope that he can take us to the next level, but that’s all we have — hope. His record suggest strongly that he has trouble winning the really big games when Utah is actually favored. Those are simply facts.
And he will be our coach until he decides to retire, probably another 3-5 years. We must all be resigned to that, Let’s hope that he can break through at least once before he goes, and that the transition to a new coach will be a positive one and will keep the good things KW has done and add some characteristics that have been missing.
2 Likes
This. Utah ascension into the PAC-12 was a great boon, but in many ways we started at the bottom, like we did when McBride came in, and had to claw our way up to where we are now. And the margin for error is minimal. I think what this year showed is that we still lack the necessary depth to compete at the highest level. But we are getting there. And that is why recruiting is so important.
Side Note: if by some miracle we get into the PAC-12 championship game a third year in a row, imagine the recruiting boost.
2 Likes
What is the “next level“? That is an excellent question, and it will vary from fan to fan. To me it means we finally shed any semblance of wannabe/pretender label. And that would need to start with actually winning a PAC-12 title and every few years get into the Rose Bowl or maybe even the CFP. And as I said, we have reasonable hopes that Whitt will get us to that level, but he’s only going to be here for 3-5 more years and there is no evidence, based on his body of work, to believe he’ll actually pull that off. All that said, he deserves to stay here until he doesn’t want to be here anymore.
Meanwhile, I will keep donating, keep my membership in the Crimson Club, and keep purchasing my annual season tickets.
My $.02.
2 Likes
So nice LAUTE said it thrice. 
LOL. Weird things kept happening as I tried to edit typos in that post!
Once again, by every metric that people use to measure college football programs, Utah has improved steadily since joining the Pac-12. Only a college football fan could look at a graph with a sure upward trend and call it a plateau.
Go take a look at the list of teams that have gone to the CFP. What do they all have in common? Top recruiting classes. There is only a small handful of teams that consistently overperform in college football - Wisconsin, TCU, and Utah make up most of the list.
I’m pretty sure every college football expert in the media would place Whittingham in the top tier of Pac-12 coaches.
4 Likes
I’m happily resigned to the fact that we have one of the best coaches in all of college football.
4 Likes
Many haven’t pointed out the obvious. Whitt has to deal with many things behind the scenes in running the program. An AD that has their fingers in every hiring/firing decision. Losing good coordinators to other programs. Losing players to the new transfer portal.
Maybe it is his fault that we’ve gone through multiple OC’s, but I’m not sure about that.
Ludwig has been back a total of 1 season. If you can’t see the improvements he’s made then you’re blind. If we can keep him for a few years and retain Scalley, we’ll have some decent seasons ahead. Consistency is key. KW has ALWAYS done more with less. Hopefully this year’s recruiting class is a sign of things to come.
6 Likes
I don’t mind being resigned to that either. Most fans are not like you. They get tired when a coach‘s stubborn quirks seem to be holding a program back, and they don’t ignore those quirks. It’s ok to (1) wish he’d get past the quirks and wonder if we can ever do better, while at the same time (2) steadily opposing any suggestion that he ought to be fired, recognizing that he’s the best we’ve got, and being grateful we have him and for what he’s done. (1) and (2) are positions that a person can hold at the same time.
2 Likes
Yeah, I just don’t see any weird quirks. I think “recognizing he’s the best we got” is a silly way to put it. 90% of schools would trade coaches with us without blinking an eye. It’s not a question of “we’re not gonna fire him because we can’t do better”. It’s a question of having a Hall of Fame coach and hoping he stays for 10 more years.
5 Likes
“Best we’ve got” just means we aren’t going to do better by dropping him. I’ve said many times that talk of letting Kyle go is just crazy.
Anyway, you and I will never agree on how to think about Kyle, and there are no thought crimes outside of the book “1984” (and certain threads in Ub5 - ). I’m already looking forward to the 2020 season and made my Crimson Club donation yesterday. Go Utes!
3 Likes