Off with their headsets! - Coaching hirings and firings

[Utah]

I'm not worked-up about it. Just underwhelmed. (BTW, he wasn't the OL coach at Missouri.) Like I said, I hope he's a star and I am optimistic about Dave Christensen.

Ok, I see where I misunderstood you. I thought you were talking about Christensen, but you weren't. You were talking about Harding. Anyhow, my point still stands. When Christensen was at Missouri, he was the OL coach. Missouri's team had a top 5 offense, with their TE's and WR's being All-Americans.

I don't care who the OL coach is. Christensen is coaching the TE's, which overlaps with the OL a ton. They could put me in as the OL coach and our OL would be better off than it was before the DC/Harding hire.

Christensen has been an OL coach before and is now coaching the TE's, which again, has a ton of overlap.

Under Christensen as OC, Missouri's TE's and WR's were All-Americans.

This hire upgrades the WR, TE and OL positions. We should all be ecstatic about this. This is a great hire on paper. A no-brainer.

[LA Ute]

Ok, I see where I misunderstood you. I thought you were talking about Christensen, but you weren't. You were talking about Harding. Anyhow, my point still stands. When Christensen was at Missouri, he was the OL coach. Missouri's team had a top 5 offense, with their TE's and WR's being All-Americans.

I don't care who the OL coach is. Christensen is coaching the TE's, which overlaps with the OL a ton. They could put me in as the OL coach and our OL would be better off than it was before the DC/Harding hire.

Christensen has been an OL coach before and is now coaching the TE's, which again, has a ton of overlap.

Under Christensen as OC, Missouri's TE's and WR's were All-Americans.

This hire upgrades the WR, TE and OL positions. We should all be ecstatic about this. This is a great hire on paper. A no-brainer.

What I like about the DC hire is that we have a guy who is clearly in charge of the offense, no "co-" anything. He was pretty emphatic about that in his comments to the news media. He's also someone who's done the same job at a major program and was successful. What's not to like about all that? As far as Harding goes, I'm just quibbling. DC will be responsible for the offense, including the O-line, and I'm good with that. Besides, I keep hearing that Finn, DE, and BJ were not on the same page last season. That won't happen now.

[jrj84105]

I feel like there is a little more urgency now with the DC hire. If we had brought in a lights out recruiter instead, I think KW would have the fallback position of saying that time is needed for the new guy to work his recruiting magic, close the talent gap, etc. There's a delayed payoff to point to. DC's hire, on the other hand, is being sold as a strictly and X and O's decision, so there isn't a delayed playoff. Either the offense improves, or it doesn't. In that sense, I think KW by hiring DC has sort of accelerated the timeline for demonstrating success and made the metric of success very concrete terms of W-L.

[sancho]

There's a delayed payoff to point to.

Fans and delayed payoffs don't mix well. If they did, we could argue that it might take a few seasons to implement a new offense. Instead, we are saying that it's now or never.

[SoCalPat]

I feel like there is a little more urgency now with the DC hire. If we had brought in a lights out recruiter instead, I think KW would have the fallback position of saying that time is needed for the new guy to work his recruiting magic, close the talent gap, etc. There's a delayed payoff to point to. DC's hire, on the other hand, is being sold as a strictly and X and O's decision, so there isn't a delayed playoff. Either the offense improves, or it doesn't. In that sense, I think KW by hiring DC has sort of accelerated the timeline for demonstrating success and made the metric of success very concrete terms of W-L.

I think Kyle already knew he was being judged in that matter anyway. Three years into the Pac-12 ... no way could Kyle preach patience with a straight face.

[Hadrian]

The more I think about it, the more I like the hire of DC.
Pros
-One guy is in charge, and there's a clear hierarchy
-He is experienced and proven
-He brings outsider perspective
-His scheme is very similar to what was already in place
-The OL coach is on the same page and knows the scheme
Cons
-Coaching inconsistency
-Hurt egos

[LA Ute]

Q&A: Utah OC Dave Christensen

Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham made a splash last year by hiring Dennis Erickson to be his co-offensive coordinator with Brian Johnson. After one season, he’s made another change, bringing in former Wyoming head coach Dave Christensen to run the show on offense and moving Erickson to running backs coach. Christensen took a few minutes this week to chat with the Pac-12 blog about his plans for fixing the Utes offense, the hierarchy of the coaching staff and his transition back to being a coordinator....

[sancho]

Stanford promotes Lance Anderson to DC. He's LDS and is the jerk responsible for stealing all those Utah/Idaho kids to Stanford. May his defense give up 50 per game next season.

[Utah]

BJ interviewing for OC spot at Ole Miss.

[Mormon Red Death]

BJ interviewing for OC spot at Ole Miss.

That would be great experience for him.

[Utah]

That would be great experience for him.

I wouldn't mind it if he left. He gets a promotion, can get away from the offensive debacle at Utah, Christensen gets another one of "his" guys in there, BJ gets to get more experience in the south before he takes over for Whitt in 10 years and leads us to our next NC.

Win, win for all.

[sancho]

I wouldn't mind it if he left. He gets a promotion, can get away from the offensive debacle at Utah, Christensen gets another one of "his" guys in there, BJ gets to get more experience in the south before he takes over for Whitt in 10 years and leads us to our next NC.

Win, win for all.

If he has success in the south, that's where he'll stay. He's already doing a great job recruiting in SEC country.

[concerned]

BJ interviewing for OC spot at Ole Miss.

Miss. State, not Ole Miss--the Dan Mullen connection.

[Utah]

Miss. State, not Ole Miss--the Dan Mullen connection.

Good call.

[Utah]

If he has success in the south, that's where he'll stay. He's already doing a great job recruiting in SEC country.

No way! He will come back after Whitt leads us to a NC, then Whitt will go to the NFL, then GA will come back and take us to another, then retire, then BJ will come back and take us there again! It has begun.

[UBlender]

Win, win for all.

Not quite. There is a long-term upside in the idea that he can go get good experience elsewhere and possibly come back here in the future as a better coach.

The downside is that Utah just lost one of its best recruiters in Jay Hill. Brian has really come into his own as a recruiter and losing him on top of Hill would be a recruiting blow, which is where I believe we still lag behind our conference-mates. If he does go, I hope he is replaced with a great recruiter.

[Scorcho]

BJ interviewing for OC spot at Ole Miss.

like most things in a married man's life this will probably come down to how the lovely Mrs. Brian Johnson feels about moving to Mississippi

[concerned]

like most things in a married man's life this will probably come down to how the lovely Mrs. Brian Johnson feels about moving to Mississippi

Dan Mullen married a Salt Lake girl, and look where she is now.

[jrj84105]

mullen johnson 2.JPG

I wouldn't mind it if he left. He gets a promotion, can get away from the offensive debacle at Utah, Christensen gets another one of "his" guys in there, BJ gets to get more experience in the south before he takes over for Whitt in 10 years and leads us to our next NC.

Win, win for all.

Agreed!

[Hadrian]

This would certainly hurt our depth at offensive coordinator.

[Hot Lunch]

Dan Mullen married a Salt Lake girl, and look where she is now.

Are you sure about that? It is my understanding that she wasn't from Utah. Followed him here when he came from Bowling Green.

[Sullyute]

This would certainly hurt our depth at offensive coordinator.

OC depth is one spot that I am pretty sure we lead the Pac-12 in.

[concerned]

Are you sure about that? It is my understanding that she wasn't from Utah. Followed him here when he came from Bowling Green.

you might be right, now that I think about it. I just remember she was a reporter at Channel 13.

[Utah]

Not quite. There is a long-term upside in the idea that he can go get good experience elsewhere and possibly come back here in the future as a better coach.

The downside is that Utah just lost one of its best recruiters in Jay Hill. Brian has really come into his own as a recruiter and losing him on top of Hill would be a recruiting blow, which is where I believe we still lag behind our conference-mates. If he does go, I hope he is replaced with a great recruiter.

I would call Tupoi or whoever from Washington. He is looking for a job. Big time recruiter. Orgeron (dreaming, I know) is still available as well. If you lose BJ, replace home with a guy who recruits Cali masterfully. That would give us Sitake/Erickson down south, Scalley in Texas and a presence in Cali.

[mpfunk]

I don't think we are nearly lucky enough for BJ to actually get the job. I'm glad that someone else is considering hiring him though. This would be a huge win for the program and if we ever want to bring him back, it can be someone else dealing with training him on the job while he is sucking it up.

[U-Ute]

@coachingsearch: Confirmed: Utah quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson will join the Mississippi State staff. http://t.co/kZM7v8rDLX

[Utah]

This is a win/win for everyone. I don't think Whitt's seat is as hot as some believe. I do think BJ has done a really, really good job at OC, especially considering how terrible the QB situation has been. BUT, I think BJ has been unfairly blamed for no depth when he took over, and Whitt the BJ hire didn't work out as well as both parties had hoped.

This move allows BJ to take a promotion, and head back to the south and make a name for himself, and not be Whitt's prodigy. This move also allows Whitt to remove the whole BJ "youngest coordinator experiment" from the equation and fully give the team over to Christensen. He can have no one looking to take his job and do what he wants to do, as it doesn't sound like Erickson has too much fight left.

This is a good move for all parties. All QB's will now start out on even ground, the OC gets a fresh start, and we can get back to Utah football, which is getting to, and winning bowl games.

Things look bright for the future of Utah football and Brian Johnson.

Now we need to hire Tosh Lupoi.

[jrj84105]

Tosh is a piece of shit and won't be worth much as a recruiter with the NCAA watching his pocketbook.

[Utah]

Tosh is a piece of shit and won't be worth much as a recruiter with the NCAA watching his pocketbook.

Wow. Let's look at actual facts here:

"The Seattle Times reported "Davis and his wife met with a UW official and two NCAA investigators for a combined five hours in Seattle on Dec. 20, two days after the allegations first surfaced in a Los Angeles Times report." It appears, however, that Davis was unable to produce compelling evidence beyond his inflammatory accusation."

Man, I hope no one ever falsely accuses you of anything wrong, because then it would be true.

We whine and moan about winning, and we have a chance to add a proven guy, and we whine and moan about that (Christensen first, and Tosh would be second, if it even happened).

[LA Ute]

What Ute fan doesn't love Brian Johnson? Still, I can't think of any evidence that he has the potential to be a PAC-12 level OC -- or even QB coach. That's not necessarily his fault, but I'm not going to feel terrible about his departure. I hope whatever impact this change has on recruiting is minimal. I also hope Brian does really well at MSU. Who knows, maybe he will someday return to Utah in triumph and contribute to our program again.