Brian Johnson rumored to be Utah's next offensive coordinator

the 70 candidates numbers is BS.

why? when the utes ran no huddle spread, they destroyed the teams they played .. oregon does that now..

its a great pick up if true.

We’ve always hear how incredibly smart he is and how he understands very quickly how to pick apart the opposing defense. That said, this past year I really questioned his coaching ability for the QB’s. I know a lot of if has to do with the QB you’re working with, but some of Hays’ mistakes seemed correctable through coaching and his stupid decisions didn’t go away as much as I would have liked. Whit’s a smart smart guy and wouldn’t replace Chow with BJ if he didn’t think he would be better than the (70) other candidates.

Still so many questions…. Who is the new QB coach? How does A-Rod feel? Are we instantly vulnerable to losing him A-Rod? Does our veteran staff respect the rookie making bank?

One thing we DO know, he’s a better choice than Crowton.

i agree but disagree in the same sense.. when utes dominated with him at qb he was calling shots on the field, not andy ludwig..

this

I think regardless of who was hired, there would be questions about Roderick starting. Other than if he was hired, of course.

Pretty intriguing move. I like Brian a lot, and know it’s not exactly Whit’s style to take unnecessary risks. If Brain becomes OC, I think it’s because the staff expects brilliance and soon. If they’re right it sure give future recruits a compelling story about the university and our coaching staff.

Applauded if true… (after I picked up my jaw)

The game needs many, many, MANY more African-American coaches. The statistics on it are pretty embarrassing.

but I remember seeing BJ on the sidelines glaring at Hays in exasperation more than I remember seeing him sitting at Norm’s side in the booth, gleaning knowledge about how to run an elite BCS offense. I don’t think he “spent most of his time last season with Chow in the booth”.

When he had an undefeated season
When he beat Bama
etc…

hopefully, he can beat the odds again

But I’d reserve judgement until we a) know it has happened and b) see how it turns out.

Does this move seem risky to the common fan? fuuuhgyeah But it could also prove to be brilliant (I’m hoping its brilliant). Nervous and excited all at once.

It says “I don’t have confidence in anyone to run this thing” You can structure your staff to give support, but the chain of command shouldn’t be wishy washy

It’s Johnson. Everyone get out your prayer rugs.

It has been announced by several sources that BJ is the new OC…. So, Coach Whitt is the one laughing at you.

He is going to have to leave if this goes down. That’s just too tough a pill to swallow.

Roderick is known to be a guy without a huge ego… hard to believe in college football but this seems to be the general impression of him. More than once he’s put other priorities ahead of his ego. I guess we’ll see…

He’s been a stud at everything else we’ve asked him to do. He’s always been doubted, and when it counted the most, he’s always come through. He’ll have lots to learn, and likely stumble along the way, but I like it. I like Brian. This could be great.

It was obvious from BJ’s hire as the QB coach that Whit wanted to groom him to be an OC one day, as he was extremely young and unqualified for the job. Okay, I get that. But to have him be an OC at 24 is beyond me. I pray it works. This move will either go down as one of the greatest moves by Coach Whit or one of the worst. There is no middle ground. But to be honest, I kinda like it better than an A-Rod hire. We already knew what we were going to get out of that pony and it wasn’t great…

Whit had to have had this conversation. Chow must have spoken pretty highly of him to get him through… I don’t see it as a huge gamble. They can always move on if it doesn’t work out… if it does work out, Whit’s a genius and we have an OC locked up for something like 10 years, before he’d even begin to be old enough for boosters/athletic directors to consider him as a head coach.

Maybe Chow asked, but BJ likes Utah too much

How about “Doogie Howser was an MD at 16.” That would make me feel better.

A product that is incredibly dull but regarded with extremely vociferous critical praise? And at the end, we’ll be left saying ‘what the hell was that?’ Works for me.

Rosebud was the FOOTBALL.

We all knew that BJ would be our OC at some point in the near future. Whenever you get a first time OC, there will always be growing pains. Might as well have those growing pains now than in the future.

Everyone keeps saying that BJ did a horrible job coaching our QB’s last year. Go back and watch the games. Compare Wynn’s performance during the Montana St. game and his performance in the first half of the Washington game. Huge improvement. Then look at ANY early Hays game and compare it to a later Hays game. Everyone seems to forget that Wynn was coming off a major surgery and that Hays is not that talented and that we expected bad QB play in those games. I credit BJ with the improvement with both QBs as the season went on.

Lets be honest, none of the names being rumored for the position were really that exciting. The BJ hiring IS exciting. Everyone here will be excited to see what BJ brings to the table when the season starts (or Spring Ball).

and it got us a pretty good defense. however if it was an in house guy to run the offense, brian johnson is the best choice.. A-rod got promoted as well (basically the shared o.c. duties he did with schramm)

here is to hoping our offense is better than last years 109th ranked offense.. its not that hard to run the ball to white and york, only place to go is up.

Been saying it for a couple weeks.

Whit does not seem to have a lot of coaching contacts, that’s why every hire seems to have a direct link to him.

It’s a bit worrisome, especially when it causes you to have to fill a vacant RB Coach spot by moving you’re highly successful DB coach to the RB position, and replacing him with an Attorney who happened to be a GA on the staff 7 years ago.

It’s more like a SUU Thunderbird move…

You’re a Pac-12 program Utah…act like it.

I don’t remember anyone hoping for Brian Johnson over the last 4 weeks. If it wasn’t a great idea a month ago, it shouldn’t be now.

First off, who cares? Is KW winning? Generally I’d say his having more success than the average bear.

But aside from that, it seems naive to think that KW is some sort of coaching hermit. Of course he knows lots of other coaches out there. Good grief, he’s tapped into the Urban Meyer circle which is the hottest circle in college football these days.

It’s clear that KW simply has a different philosophy about how to build a staff. Maybe it’s what he thinks will work at Utah for one reason or another.

Yes, this hire is risky, and may go down in flames. But it’s clear that KW has the pulse of his program. He’s not going to do what is popular, but what is best. As fans, we should take some comfort in that.

Look at what UCLA has been doing. They hire the biggest names they can bribe to come to Westwood for both HC and staff. But there’s no chemistry, and also no real success in recent memory. The PAC-12 has a history of throwing money at problems, and few championships to show for it. Let’s at least give KW some credit for blazing his own path here. Maybe it ends up being a disaster, but it also might be just what Utah needs.

We did okay last year without a proper QB, just saying ‘give it to White’ every play. I think this may cost us a win or two next year, but if everyone is right about the kind of mind that BJ has, it will pay off in years to come.

And not giving the guy a chance.

Just because we question the move, or other aspects of what it means, doesn’t mean we’re not giving him a chance.

I seriously doubt anyone on here is being Comrade Crimson vs Larry K toward this hire, but it is a questionable, risky move that does open for criticism.

And being the Offensive Coordinator. For proof just look at the OC who just left. Widely considered the best Offensive Coordinator in College. And Look at his College QB Career.

Oh Wait he was an OL. Just because BJ was a successful College QB doesn’t automatically mean it translates to OC. Also that doesn’t mean that in 2004, when he was playing he was necessarily even thinking about being an Offensive Coordinator. In fact considering that in 2009 he was busy trying to get an NFL job, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say he may not have really been considering being an OC then.

I think the above quote, and the 70 applicants quote was all just coach speak.

Are hopeful or at least curious to see what he can do. You aren’t alone.

Questioning this move while rooting for BJ and Kyle to succeed are not mutually exclusive. Debating the coach’s moves and trusting the coach are not mutually exclusive either. Talking about this stuff is why we’re all here. No one can argue that this move is at least surprising, if not completely shocking. Call this move what you will…calculated, bold, gutsy, risky; it’s questionable to be sure. Has a 24 year old with no experience ever been given control of the offense at a major college football program? It’s previously unheard of. I haven’t seen anyone here questioning their support of the program or of Whittingham – just questioning whether or not this was the best possible move – which is fair.