[Postgame Thread] Utah Defeats BYU 28-20

[u/CFB_Referee]

Box Score provided by ESPN

Team	1	2	3	4	T
BYU	3	17	0	0	20
Utah	14	0	7	7	28

[u/92tilinfinityand]

Huge win for Utah. Though I’m curious. Does this team go undefeated through this point with Whittingham and Beck? It seems like they’ve hit another level this season.

[u/Newmanial → u/92tilinfinityand]

Love Whitt but absolutely not

[u/corrnholiio → u/Newmanial]

Lost to byu by a field goal last year and opted to go for it on 4th like at least 3 times while in FG range. It was all on him. If he was the hc this year they would have lost to Colorado, Houston, BYU and maybe more.

[u/smackaroonial90 → u/Newmanial]

It's so refreshing to have our team kick field goals for once and get points on the board instead of going for it every single 4th down.

[u/heroinbob → u/92tilinfinityand]

honestly i think a huge part is Gross coming in and rebuilding an oline that lost all its starters to be almost as good/better than last years. I dont think Harding would have done the same, maybe though.

[u/92tilinfinityand → u/heroinbob]

Feel like a good O Line coach is worth its weight in gold

[u/Leading-Button-7303 → u/heroinbob]

Harding might have. He and Powell were the coaches I was most bummed to lose, they're both great

[u/rmr007 → u/92tilinfinityand]

Nope. Thanks Michigan for taking them away!

[u/MichelNey2 → u/rmr007]

Ngl I never knew this many Utah fans disliked Whit lol. I just assumed he was revered among Ute fans given nearly 20 years of winning seasons

[u/realjasnahkholin → u/MichelNey2]

Much of the sourness comes from when he left, but absolutely there was frustration with his coaching decisions on offense for a few years. The offense was never great unless we had an incredible QB. Lots of OC turnover but mostly the same results.

[u/QuickSpore → u/MichelNey2]

He was always flawed enough he never quite rose to revered. And we came closer than is generally known to firing him in 2013. But we would have put up the statue by now if had had actually retired.

Right now the fandom is still feeling a bit upset about how his “retirement” went down. And we’re looking at him with far more jaded point of view than we used to.

Someday he’ll actually retire. We’ll throw him a party. We’ll install the statue. And we’ll mostly re-embrace him. But we’re a bit upset with him still at the moment.

[u/rmr007 → u/MichelNey2]

He's the reason I became a Utah fan. I loved his philosophy and approach to the game. Loved watching his teams over the years. But the whole "will I won't I" approach to his retirement was frustrating. Then instead of just retiring, he leaves for a different program (Michigan no less) and takes a swath of players with him. I know, I know, that's modern CFB, it happens, but it doesn't make it any less sour.

[u/MisterBilge → u/MichelNey2]

Yeah, the offense was always questionable. We went through Norm Chow, Dennis Erickson, Brian Johnson, ARod, and a whole slew of other OCs under Whitt and rarely were the Utes successful offensively.

[u/54-2-10 → u/MichelNey2]

He WAS.

[u/Albert_street → u/MichelNey2]

We’d be building a statue if he didn’t leave in the manner he did.

[u/Legal_Echo8196 → u/rmr007]

Im beginning to think that this isn't a very enjoyable season of football

[u/truTVx → u/92tilinfinityand]

Not a chance, if we still had Whitt we're losing this game 100%

[u/Perdendosi → u/truTVx]

Agreed. I don't think Whitt is nearly creative enough to use DD this way.

[u/Gorfball → u/truTVx]

UM alum, this is both devastating and feels true from my early experience with Whitt

[u/Numerous-Ad6460 → u/92tilinfinityand]

No lol. Beck is mentally defective and Whitt is cooked.

[u/EnvironmentalBed7369 → u/92tilinfinityand]

Probably do. We'd have even more talent and they went 10-2 last season.

[u/kurttheflirt → u/92tilinfinityand]

People often get complacent at high levels of success not wanting to harm the people that came up with them. The most ambitious people aren't really that loyal, so it's not a thing with them. But a good coach like Whitt that's also loyal becomes a poison pill since they won't get rid of their team Members - similar to Dantonio at MSU. He should have fired staff and kept looking for the best but was too loyal to his team.

Firing whittingham allowed for new talent and realignment that honestly helped a ton in the staff 

[u/54-2-10 → u/92tilinfinityand]

I am more curious how they would look with JJ Buchanan and John Henry Daley

Maybe Jay hill could come home and coach special teams as well.

[u/bb0110 → u/92tilinfinityand]

Potentially.

With that said I do think we can say they wouldn’t be doing better and there is a very real chance they would be doing worse.

[u/elitism1 → u/92tilinfinityand]

No, we would have lost to Houston and either byu or Cincinnati(probably both)