Kyle Whittingham shouldn’t be on USC’s radar for a very simple reason

Kyle Whittingham should not be USC’s next head football coach.

The reason is simple, and no, it’s not that Whittingham’s Utah Utes were smoked by the Trojans and interim coach Clay Helton on Saturday night.

Wait — is this a trick question, then? How can it not be anything other than USC’s 42-24 drubbing of the last unbeaten team in the Pac-12… a team which is unbeaten no longer?

No worries, folks — one simple reason can coexist with another. Sure, USC’s rout of Utah did not help Whittingham’s case, if indeed he was ever interested in the USC job (something we do not know for a fact to begin with). Yet, the biggest reason why the Utah coach should not move from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles goes beyond the scoreboard. It’s a simple-enough reason, but you do have to look in the right place to find it.

Plainly put, USC needs an offense-first head coach and a stud defensive coordinator, not the other way around.

You might argue with this point. You might even have substantial grounds for doing so. Your best counter-claim would be that Pete Carroll was a defense-first coach, and USC’s defense needs more help than the offense at this point in time. Fair enough.

Yet, I’m still going to insist that USC needs an offense-first coach… unless Gary Patterson had any ideas about leaving TCU (which he probably wouldn’t, but that shouldn’t stop USC from calling).

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Let’s mention Gary Patterson for a bit — not out of any sense that he’s likely to budge, but because his example is rather instructive.

Patterson built his identity and reputation on defense, but it should not be lost on anyone that TCU is where it is this season because of Trevone Boykin and offensive coordinator Doug Meacham. Patterson had really good players from 2008 through 2010, but when life in the Big 12 became difficult, Patterson realized he needed an offensive system which could make his team more competitive in a pass-happy league and a modern iteration of college football in which offenses have it easier than defenses do. Patterson might have risen as a defensive mastermind, but his willingness to embrace offense has saved his bacon this year and kept him in the top tier of the sport’s coaches.

Very simply:

A) Kyle Whittingham does not seem to possess that same capacity.

B) The Pete Carroll renaissance, as awesomely impressive as it was, predated the mainstream emergence of more advanced read/spread/tempo-based concepts.

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Let’s take Point A first: Whittingham seemed to have found another gear with his offense after the 62-20 beatdown of Oregon. Travis Wilson played extremely well in that game, and when one realizes that A-plus quarterbacking is what led Utah to the summit of the sport in both 2004 (under Urban Meyer) and 2008 (under Whittingham), Wilson’s emergence is what gave the Utes hope for the season more than anything else.

However, in the last three games, Utah’s offense has plainly struggled. That Oregon game has quickly become an aberration more than an indicator. While Wilson was actually very solid against Arizona State (he didn’t get a lot of help from his teammates versus the Sun Devils, especially on the offensive line), he then became Bad Travis Wilson — the one seen often in 2013 and 2014 — against USC. Utah scuffles far too frequently on offense to suggest that Whittingham would preside over a potent attack in Los Angeles.

Given the absurd amount of skill-position talent in USC’s stables, the Trojans have to make sure their 2016 coaching staff would squeeze every last ounce of potential from those players and the new ones that will enter the program.

You could say that Justin Wilcox and the defense — which played well against Utah, but have given up over 40 points on multiple occasions this season — is the more precise problem in L.A. This could be the source of a pro-Whittingham argument, one with many perfectly valid assertions.

Why, then, does USC have to go offense-first? College football has changed relative to the point in time when Pete Carroll came aboard.

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Remember this about Carroll’s arrival, as we continue to emphasize Point B, made above: Oregon’s coach at the time was Mike Bellotti — a very good coach, but not in the same realm as Chip Kelly.

It wasn’t until the latter years of Carroll’s tenure in Troy that Oregon began to plant the seeds of a revolt in the Pac-12. USC did smother almost everyone it played from 2002 through 2008, but if Dennis Dixon hadn’t gotten injured in the 2007 season, the Ducks could have ended the Trojans’ reign on the spot.

When USC lost games under Carroll, few of them came against offenses as sleek and advanced as what Kelly brought to Eugene and what Rich Rodriguez subsequently brought to Arizona. An infusion of TV and conference network money has upgraded the level of coaching throughout the Pac-12. You’re seeing Mike Leach keep Washington State afloat. Sonny Dykes — for all his struggles — has improved California football since taking over that program. Todd Graham, though actually getting more help from his defense than his (not-really-all-that-) high-octane offense, is still a disciple of The New Way as it pertains to college football offenses.

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Yes, it’s true that if you hire a really good defensive coach who is willing to hire the best possible offensive coordinator, a hire can work out. Should USC give Whittingham a call? I don’t think Whittingham rises to the level of someone you MUST call, but including him in the search would be entirely reasonable. However, if USC does call, it has to get a top-shelf answer for Whittingham’s offensive coordinator. If it’s not someone who has thoroughly proven himself at a high level in the sport, that’s when Whittingham should be crossed off the list.

Remember that USC has insisted, culturally and stylistically, on resisting the new read/spread/tempo cluster of offenses. You might have seen some of those concepts emerge at times, but the Trojans have internally and institutionally valued a more traditional offensive style. First, USC should not feel beholden to that approach. Second, and more importantly, the Trojans can’t ignore the blindingly awesome talent they currently possess on that side of the ball. Harnessing all that potential energy and turning it into real power is the shortest path from average football to excellent football in Los Angeles.

Since Kyle Whittingham doesn’t have a track record of getting the most out of his offenses on an annual basis, and is still struggling in the attempt to maximize Travis Wilson’s skills, he does not appear to be the right fit for USC.

That the Trojans beat Whittingham by 18 really shouldn’t matter; it’s a peripheral issue. The WAY in which Utah lost — with Wilson looking awful at this stage in his collegiate career — is the more telling sign that USC should not look to the Great Salt Lake for its next head coach.

About Matt Zemek

Editor, @TrojansWire | CFB writer since 2001 |

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