Whittingham's most masterful coaching job yet?

But I would also counter that this is also possibly Chow’s best year as well. To revamp the offense, and have a starting QB who missed all of fall camp, and part of spring camp is a difficult task. Yet when Wynn went down in the UW game, not only was he playing smarter than anytime in his career, Wynn was starting to look really really good passing wise.

Enter the abomination of a QB Jon Hays. Jon Hays is not a Division 1-A QB, let alone a Pac-12 QB. Honestly I don’t think Jon Hays should be on a Pac-12 roster. Yet he was absolutely better than anything we had behind Wynn coming into the season. That may be the one knock on Whit this year, was the lack of QB depth. Why did Jon Hays join the team? Chow.

Unfortunately when Hays became the full time starter there was some growing pains, but over his six starts, Chow has done a masterful job of calling plays and putting the Utes in position to win games. Granted Hays eventually wet the bed in the second half against ASU, and was even awful the next week at Pitt, and even worse against Cal, but amazingly we still managed to win that Pitt game.

The last three weeks has been as close to perfect offensive playcalling one can get. Chow has done a masterful job this season.

I still have to give the best coaching job award to his performance in January of 2009. Last week, Whit outcoached Slick Rick; he has spent the season facing similar X and O competition. In the Sugar Bowl, he completely blew Nick Saban away. Saban.

If we finish out winning at Wazzu(a place some people think we can’t win, but in my mind a very winnable game) & Colorado and it gets us in a good bowl than I would call this Whit’s best job for usre.

A lot of hate on what Hays for what he can’t do but I like that he’s shown some toughness(frankly something missing from Jordan Wynn), and he is playing a lot smarter – he hasn’t turned the ball over, only throwing it to where our guys can catch it. I think the coaching staff has turned Hays into a decent game manager.

Utah held USC to its second lowest point total…. including the blocked FG for a TD. The only closer game was SC’s debacle against Minn. Otherwise, USC has put up lots of points (34.1 avg).

Utah is still second in the conference in turnover margin at +6. The four games they lost they were -11. Most of those can be placed upon Jon Hays inexperience. It could have been scary with Wynn healthy all season!

So while it may have been KW that coached them, I think it really rests on Hays cutting down his errors.

I just noticed that we are getting votes in the coaches poll (as is TDS). Any chance we end up ranked if we win out?

And sorry if this has been said already, I have yet to read all of the comments.

1- TECHNICALLY, we can still hit 10 wins. There are a lot of things that have to fall into place, but if by some miracle we win the PAC 12 south, then beat Oregon, then win in the Rose Bowl, we hit 10 wins. Highly unlikely, but possible.

2- If Utah wins out, finishes 8-4, regardless of winning the PAC 12 south, I would say there is a strong argument for Coach Whit to be named the Coach of the Year. What other team has done/could have done what Whit did with a QB who expected to be at a D-II school this year?

      Utah’s staff is full of great coaches. These are guys that care about the (off the field) lives of their guys and have created a family atmosphere for the team. Oh yeah, and they develop talent like nobody else in the country. Look at Eric Weddle, he came to Utah as a chubby no named corner. Little bit of Utah coaching combined with raw talent and desire to get better and a few years later, he’s one of the highest payed safeties in the NFL. Coincidence, don’t think so. We continually grab underrated, undervalued guys and turn them into gold.
        For the other comments on this board, yes this team has a very young and inexperienced feel to it. Next year we will reload and even bring a lot of guys back who will have had the experience of this season and be able to lead and motivate, and get guys fired up and ready to rock and roll. What does that mean for the Pac 12 in 2012?………..BAD NEWS!!!!
        While focused on the season at hand(because that’s what all of us good Utah fans are supposed to say) I can’t wait to see next year’s team do battle. Cheers to The Bad News Utes!!!

But I think that this year is light years below what Coach Whitt did with the team in 08. May I remind everyone that we are in a year that is witnessing Coach Whittinghams greatest mistake: Jon hays. Now I like hays as a person, but this kid probably would struggle to start at Southern Utah University. That right there mucks things up for me. Now, granted, coach Whitt has done a remarkable job with hays’ limited ability. But you’re telling me that this year is a more impressive coaching job to you than what he did at Ann arbor? Tcu? Byu? Out-coaching Saban?? Jazzy, I agree with you 99.9% of the time, but I’m going to hold off on this one. Impressive? Yes. Best ever? Not quite.

That has us vs. Baylor in San Diego. That’s a game I’d pay to see.

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1293739

Somebody has probably already said this but recruiting depth in anticipation of injury is an important part of coaching. I love Whit. I think he’s one of the 10 best coaches in the country, but he didn’t do a great job recruiting a backup qb in case Wynn went down. He has done a great job with what he has, but he should have prepared better. That being said, I expected this to be a down year. I predicted an 8-4 season, and that looks possible. The defense has been awesome. Go Utes!

Or we all just expecting the worst and don’t want to talk about it