SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah wrapped up the 2016 college football season with a Foster Farms Bowl win over Big 10 opponent Indiana. The Utes reached at least nine wins for the third straight season, having won 28 games total over the past three seasons.

The Utes knocked off USC, UCLA, Arizona and Arizona State in the Pac-12 South, falling just inches short of wins over California and Oregon that would have put them in the conference championship game for a rematch against Washington. The Utes lost to the Huskies, who represented the Pac-12 in the College Football Playoff semifinals, by a touchdown on a punt return.

The Utes did this with a first year quarterback transferring in from Santa Monica Community College, a running back who retired early in the year, only to return when coaches came calling after suffering a series of injuries at the position. The Utes lost their starting center before the season stared, pushing an All-Conference right tackle in JJ Dielman to the center position, only to lose him to a foot injury, then lose his backup behind him. The offense lost its top three receiving targets from a year ago to the NFL, graduation and to an LDS mission.

Despite this adversity, the Utes improved from the Pac-12’s ninth best team in scoring offense in 2015 to eighth in 2016. They jumped from 11th in total offense to seventh. They climbed from fourth in rushing offense to third, and from 11th in passing offense to ninth.

Utah’s rushing offense jumped from 43rd in the country last year to 35th this season. The passing offense jumped from 100th last season to 81st this year. They jumped from 86th in total offense to 58th this season.

By most accounts, the Utes' offense improved noticeably in 2016. Despite losing a fourth-round draft pick at running back in Devontae Booker, and a four-year starter at quarterback, the Utes improved across nearly every statistical category.

The Utes are one of 22 teams from a Power 5 conference this season to finish with nine wins or more.

Simply put, the University of Utah football team, one that appears destined to finish the season with a top ranking, had no mandate to make a major change. It was good enough.

Just not good enough for Kyle Whittingham.

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Utah hires Troy Taylor as newest offensive coordinator

Utah has a new offensive coordinator after only a few days since Aaron Roderick was let go from the program.

Whittingham has taken this team from the Mountain West Conference to the Pac-12, and has found a way to continue to finish with near double-digit win seasons each year. Like he did when he was coaching a non-BCS team, he’s found a way to beat teams with better talent. See USC taking on Penn State in the Rose Bowl.

Unlike those Mountain West teams however, Whittingham has been unable to return his Utes to the nation’s best bowl games. For Whittingham to get back to the level the Utes reached when they beat Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl, good enough on offense simply isn’t good enough.

The Utes replaced second-year offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick with Troy Taylor from Eastern Washington University. Reading the Utes' press release on the new hire, the reasoning for the change was apparent. In the release’s opening sentence, the Utes noted that Taylor “directed the top passing offense in the NCAA FCS.” Whittingham continued that the new offensive coordinator has “trained a prolific number of record-setting quarterbacks in high school, at his academy, and now in college.”

The Utes want better quarterback play, and are betting on Taylor to make it happen.

Taylor is the founder of The Passing Academy, a camp for elite high school quarterbacks. He also coached at the high school level in California before moving to EWU.

While Utah’s running game has been a strength over the past several seasons, Whittingham has challenged his new offensive play caller to match that production through the air.

Replacing a coordinator on the offensive side of the ball is a gamble for Utah. After hosting four offensive coordinators in four years during the career of Travis Wilson, senior-to-be Troy Williams will have his second coordinator in as many years.

A lack of continuity prevents consistency on the offensive side of the ball, with new language and new plays having to be installed rather than working on perfecting an existing system. It also hurts in recruiting, as would-be commits can’t be sure of what offense they might be running in their tenure at Utah.

If Taylor can bring to Utah the passing game he showed at Eastern Washington, the Utes will have a rare combination of offense and defense that should allow them to compete with the best teams in college football.

Having won 28 games over the past three seasons, and appearing to have an offense moving in the right direction, Whittingham made a gutsy call to replace his offensive coordinators with a relatively unproven offensive guru with a higher upside. Regardless of whether the move works out for the better or the worse, one thing is clear. For Whittingham, an offensive that is good enough simply isn’t good enough.

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