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SALT LAKE CITY — Former BYU wide receiver coach Guy Holliday will make the 50-mile trek north to join the University of Utah coaching staff as the team's newest receiver coach, the university announced Wednesday.
Holliday joins the Utah staff as an experienced receiver coach and recruiter having coached the position group for more than 15 years at various schools around the country, including BYU and Mississippi State. Throughout his coaching career, Holliday has helped more than 20 athletes transition into the NFL and adds tremendous value to a position group at Utah in need of some help.
"We were in need of a new wide receivers coach and we did a lot of investigating and searching and the guy that everyone in the staff room seemed to think would be a good fit was coach Holliday," head coach Kyle Whittingham told KSL.com. "We were able to get him on board and we were excited about that. He's a guy that's got a lot of background, lot of knowledge, a lot of experience not only as a wide receiver coach but as a recruiter."
Whittingham addressed the "subpar" performance in the passing game, but said the offensive scheme will not change much by adding Holliday to the staff.
"We're not going to deviate much from what we've been doing. This will be the third year in the same offensive scheme. We're well aware that we have to get better at throwing the football, that's something that's obvious," he said. "Coach Holliday will bring ideas to the table and add to what we're doing."
In addition to the Holliday hiring, Whittingham announced Wednesday the promotions of Lewis Powell to defensive line coach and Fred Whittingham Jr. as the tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator.
"Moving Lewis Powell over to the defense is more of his natural position. Although he did a great job for us over on offense, so it's not by default," Whittingham said. "We struggled with that decision but we thought the combination that gave us the best staff and the best chance to be successful is to move Lewis back over there.
"When I look for assistants here there are three things I look for: intelligence, character, energy. Those are the three primary factors that I think lend themselves to having a chance to be successful and get the job done," Whittingham added. "Freddie fits the bill in all three of those aspects. He's got a very good offensive background as a player, and he's been very close to our scheme since he's been with our program in our offensive meetings. He's a guy that I think is going to flourish. We'll find out and time will tell. With his recruiting background and having been the director of player personnel for the last several years, that is also something that should make him a natural fit for the recruiting coordinator spot on the staff."
Powell was previously the team's tight ends coach for his first full-time season while Fred Whittingham was the team's director of player personnel — a role instrumental in the recruiting process. Whittingham's move to coach the tight ends is his first coaching job.
Holliday earned a bachelor's degree from Cheyney University of Pennsylvania in 1987 before embarking on a 23-year coaching career starting at Clark-Atlanta University in 1991 where he was the team's running back coach.
Throughout Holliday's coaching career he has spent the bulk of his time coaching the receivers, but has also coached running backs, tight ends, quarterbacks, and has had two stints as the offensive coordinator at Alabama State (1995, 1998-99) and Tuskegee University (1992-94).
Holliday has been at BYU since 2013 but was one of just a few coaches on staff that did not follow former head coach Bronco Mendenhall to Virginia. Although a valuable asset to the mission of the BYU football program under Mendenhall's leadership, it is unknown whether current head coach Kalani Sitake wanted to retain Holliday on staff or whether the offer was better at Utah.
Prior to his time at BYU, Holliday was the receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at UTEP from 2008-12.
Powell previously coached the defensive line at Hawaii from 2012-14, where he helped improve the defense and got the Rainbow Warriors to rank No. 3 in the nation in tackles for loss per game (8.3) in 2013. Powell played on Utah's defensive line from 2001-03, where he was named the 2003 Liberty Bowl Defensive Player of the Game.
Utah announced prior to the Christmas break that receiver coach Taylor Stubblefield would not be returning to the program after a lackluster performance last season. Stubblefield was brought on shortly after the hiring of former offensive coordinator Dave Christensen and was on staff for two years at Utah. Under his leadership, Utah failed to make a splash with its receivers as the offense struggled to generate a receiving game in the latter-half of the 2015 season.
The hiring of Holliday and the promotions of Powell and Whittingham is just one of a few coaching changes that have taken place at Utah since the end of the season. On Monday, Utah announced the retirement of defensive coordinator John Pease and the promotion of safeties coach Morgan Scalley to defensive coordinator.
The news of Holliday's hiring was first reported Tuesday night by radio host Hans Olsen on Twitter and was corroborated by Sports Illustrated's Thayer Evans Wednesday.
Guy Holiday will take over as WR coach at the U of U. Not sure when the official announcement will be made, but it's a done deal.
— Hans Olsen (@975Hans) January 6, 2016
