Lack of offense has been thorn in Utes’ side during Kyle Whittingham era

Kyle Whittingham will go down as the greatest football coach in the history of the University of Utah and one of the two greatest ever to coach at an in-state school. His resume includes Pac-12 championships, Rose Bowls, a Sugar Bowl win, unbeaten seasons, 166 victories and No. 2 and No. 4 national rankings. The Utes will probably name the football field after him, or should.
There’s just one thing the Utes have struggled with during the Whittingham era.
Offense.
It has been the thorn in the Utes’ side. The Michael Jordan to their Utah Jazz. Whittingham’s teams have won with field position, defense, toughness, special teams, ball control — all the old-school stuff — and offense has been no more than a bothersome, but necessary, side adventure. The great offensive renaissance of the past 20 years passed by the Utes.
They’ve managed to win despite such shortcomings, at least until this season, when suddenly everything has unraveled. After 10 consecutive winning seasons — six of which ended with a national ranking — they have lost five in a row, their longest losing streak since 2013, and are staring at a sub-.500 season. Somehow the victory parade has come to a stop. Picked to finish first in the Big 12, they are 15th (next to last). It seems like a long time ago that the Utes were ranked No. 12 in the preseason rankings.
The Utes are using the same formula as always, except now it’s not working. They rank 92nd nationally in total offense and 105th in scoring, while the defense ranks 14th in yards allowed and 11th in points allowed. They can’t score enough points to win even with a defense that is allowing just 17 points and 307 yards per game.
During Whittingham’s 20 years as head coach, the Utes have averaged an annual ranking of 63.5 in total offense and 30.5 in total defense (see chart below).
The Utes scored just 10 points against Arizona and lost by 13. They held TCU to 13 points, but lost 13-7. They scored just 14 points against a dismal Houston team and lost by three. They scored 21 points in the first half against BYU and were scoreless in the second half of a one-point loss.
Whittingham is a former college linebacker who came up through the coaching ranks as a defensive coach. His heir apparent, Morgan Scalley, is a former defensive back who now serves as defensive coordinator. The Utes are all about defense.
Whittingham has shuffled and reshuffled the coaching staff repeatedly over the years looking for more offense. Nothing is more revealing than his handling of offensive coordinators (see chart). He’s had 11 offensive coordinators in 20 years, compared to four defensive coordinators (note: three coordinators have run the defense 19 of the 20 years).
Only two of them truly vacated the job voluntarily. It’s difficult to believe that none of the 10 previous coordinators were capable. Norm Chow had a long, successful career as a coordinator at BYU and USC and later in the NFL. Dennis Erickson took Miami to two national championships and was the head coach of two NFL teams. Aaron Roderick has proven himself as offensive coordinator at BYU. Andy Ludwig was the OC during the Utes’ unbeaten 2008 season and won the Sugar Bowl before taking a job at Kansas State. He returned to Utah in 2019 and served as OC when the Utes won two Pac-12 championships and put up 66 combined points in two Rose Bowls.
It was a sign of desperation when the Utes hired Brian Johnson and Troy Taylor as OCs. Johnson was 25 years old, the same age as some of the players, with two years of coaching experience; Taylor was a high school coach. Remember how that turned out.
It’s difficult to criticize a coach who has had such remarkable success — and it’s amazing how quickly some fans have turned on him — but, when it comes to offense, the future Hall-of-Famer has endured a long-standing, unresolved challenge.
Year — Total Offense — Total Defense