Here’s a bit of advice from one old man to another.
If you’re going to retire, Kyle Whittingham, then get on with it. If you’re not going to retire, then don’t, and make it clear that you’re sticking around.
A move like that, one way or the other, would’ve helped Utah football in a general sense because it would’ve let everyone in on the secret — future recruits, transfer-portal recruits, parents of those recruits, current players, parents of those current players, NIL folks, fans, assistant coaches, including coach-in-waiting Morgan Scalley, and also in this one very specific sense — a new offensive coordinator.
Good luck.
You were, by many accounts, the third choice for the job.
Utah lost out on its top two candidates to fill the OC job Andy Ludwig vacated during the season: Ben Arbuckle, the Utes’ top choice, who ended up at Oklahoma. Understood. Losing a candidate to the Sooners is acceptable, regardless of the details. But Utah also lost out on Mack Leftwich, the offensive coordinator at Texas State who agreed to go to Texas Tech. The Utes should be able to favorably wrestle with and win against the Red Raiders.
The Utes have their — or at least a — man now.
But the way things played out showed the Utes had two clear disadvantages in luring a bright, innovative offensive mind into their mix. The first was Whittingham’s pending decision. The coach has said Scalley would be in on every important move the program makes between now and Whittingham’s official exit. But where’s that leave everything? Who’s in charge? Who’s really the general? Who’s actually overseeing the operation?
Is it Scalley, who’s never been a college head coach before, and therefore is something of a mystery as to how that’s going to go, what philosophies he’ll not just favor, but rely on, not just by spoken word in advance, but when the real action stirs on the field and the pressure heats up in the football offices?
Or is it Whittingham, who’s been a great coach on the whole, but who, if he has a weakness, it’s been in supervising and casting a shadow over an offense that’s been sometimes good, sometimes bad and sometimes inconsistent? That’s the second issue. Past Utah OC’s might deny this, but Whittingham is a strong enough, demanding enough, dominant enough presence as a defense-first head coach to have established himself as a sort of dark overlord of Utah football. Maybe most head coaches are like that, but the combo-pack of Ute attacks that have been less than enlightened and that have had over some stretches saloon doors flying open in both directions, again and again and again, with coordinators coming and going with the regularity of the turn of a calendar is hardly an inviting selling point.
Come to Utah, where you won’t be sure who the big boss is, whether it’ll be the tough, grizzled vet who has chased off two fistfuls of past offensive coordinators, including the one who bailed during this last season, or the new head coach who at this juncture is still a huge unknown.
Not exactly a winning pitch, a deal-sealing hurl.
Either way, a candidate’s knowing exactly who he’ll be taking direction from over the next few years would’ve greased the skids in getting him in the shop.
Perhaps I’m jumping the gun here. Perhaps Whittingham informed the potential offensive coordinators what his specific plan is, what his schedule is, how long he’s staying and when he’s disembarking. If I’m a hot OC, one who is being courted by multiple programs, one who is seen as having a promising future and more than a single option as to what opportunity to take, I’m not diving head-first into a coaching situation that could lead to a face-plant. Such decisions are risky enough without the added mystery.
The thing’s done. The ink will dry.
But this hokey-pokey surely cost the Utes. Left foot in, left foot out, right arm in, and shake ’em all about.
Now it’s time for Whittingham to jump in completely, with his whole body, mind and soul. Or jump out.
He’s earned the right to make that call. But make it.
Kyle, you recently said you’d base that decision not on what’s best for you — which is kind of a bogus claim, considering all that you’ve already contributed to the success of Utah football — but, rather, on what’s best for the program.
Here’s what would’ve been best for the program: A decision made and then shouted out so everyone could celebrate your legacy, so everyone knew what’s up. Because keeping a secret like who’s the big boss around here to yourself and only yourself is a secret that benefits nobody.
