Kyle Whittingham is 'very concerned' about run game; is it time to worry for the Utes?


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SALT LAKE CITY — No. 11 Utah played to its lowest offensive output of the season against Oregon State on Saturday.

That's when you take into consideration the offense only managed 361 total yards (199 yards passing and 162 yards rushing) against a team that ranks 55th in the country in total defense (Beavers give up an average of 358 yards per game).

Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham called the run game "way too soft" and was surprised his team didn't get more yardage in the passing game.

Still, the Utes managed 42 points (35 on offense) in a lopsided victory over a well-coached and rising Oregon State team.

Is Utah just more efficient with the ball or is there reason to be concerned as the team enters the toughest part of its schedule that starts with a road visit to the Rose Bowl to take on an undefeated No. 18 UCLA team that is now ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time this season?

That answer depends on who you ask and how the season is viewed in terms of where Utah hopes to be in pursuit of another Pac-12 championship.

Whittingham said there was "a lot of positive things" on Saturday despite the "run defense and not being able to run the ball as efficiently as we needed to." He added that he was impressed with an "extremely accurate" passing game by quarterback Cam Rising, who finished the day throwing for 199 yards and three touchdowns on 19-of-25 passing (76%).

Rising currently ranks sixth in the nation and is the leading quarterback in the Pac-12 in total QBR (87.5), according to ESPN.

Outside of Rising's production on the field, Whittingham wants more out of his run game — a staple of Whittingham's tenure where there's generally a lead back, or "bell cow," that takes the majority of the carries. Up until Utah's road matchup against Arizona State, that running back was almost exclusively Tavion Thomas, the school's all-time leader in rushing touchdowns scored in a season.

Thomas has played limited reps the last two weeks and the run game has struggled to generate big plays — outside of a few runs that have seemingly been far less frequent this season as in year's past.

Utah has operated its running back room in a "by committee" approach most weeks, with several players seemingly able to move the ball in a diverse attack of the game. And yet, the offensive production there is still lacking, according to Whittingham, who said he's "very concerned" about the team's run game.

He pointed to the running backs not picking up the linebackers as the "real key" as to why Utah has struggled so much.

"When you're coming off with those combination blocks from the front, you've got to have your eyes up and see the linebackers triggering and come through and then run through, and we weren't doing a good job seeing that," Whittingham said. "And consequently, they were getting in the backfield, especially early in the game, and disruptive.

"We've got to do a better job keeping our head and eyes up on the combinations, and then being able to come off those combinations and pick off the run throughs."

Add that to the offensive line not getting the "push on the line of scrimmage" that Whittingham would like to see, and it all adds up to what he perceives as a lower production level in the run game. He credited Oregon State for their "salty defense," but sees this as an area where Utah can significantly improve.

On Saturday, Rising was the team's leading rusher with 73 yards on seven carries, including a 24-yard rushing touchdown where he stiff-armed a defender off the edge and then sprinted downfield as a second defender was dragged as he reached out for the pylon for a score.

"I think a lot of people don't really look at me as a runner, and any chance I get I like to take advantage of it," Rising said.

Whittingham expects Rising to get anywhere between 6-10 designed runs in a game, but there was a big gap between his starting quarterback and the next highest rusher. Micah Bernard finished with 19 yards on six carries, Jaylon Glover had 18 yards on six carries, and Thomas finished with 13 yards on six carries. In short, it was not enough.

On the season, Thomas leads the room with 295 yards (4.4 yards per carry average) and four touchdowns, but Rising is a close second with 189 yards (8.2 yards per carry average), and Glover (153 yards, 2 TD) and Bernard (138 yards, 1 TD) round out the top four. In all, Utah has rushed for 1,017 yards and 12 touchdowns through five games this season.

So how does that compare to the last few years?

Utah is right on target with where it traditionally is in the run game at this point in the season. Looking back at the last three meaningful seasons (2021, 2019 and 2018), the 2022 season ranks second and is just 100 yards short of 2019's high of 1,117 rushing yards that was highlighted by all-time leading rusher Zack Moss.

Last season, in which Utah started out slow, had trouble finding a lead back and lost two nonconference games before hitting its stride in conference play, the team had 850 rushing yards and eight touchdowns at this point in the season. That paired well with a 2018 season where Utah had only 885 rushing yards and eight touchdowns in five games.

Even if we strip out the FCS game in each of those four seasons, the 2022 season remains the second best rushing output:

  • 2022: 771 yards, 10 TD
  • 2021: 662 yards, 6 TD
  • 2019: 894 yards, 10 TD
  • 2018: 617 yards, 7 TD

So while there's still room for concern given Utah's low numbers on Saturday, the team has done well enough to maintain its standard for the last few season — and even done slightly better. But that's not to say that the current output that was seen on Saturday will bode well for the rest of the season if things don't change.

And though there's real reason for concern, Utah's output in the passing game this season surpasses each of the last three meaningful seasons through the first five games of the year.

  • 2022: 1,251 yards, 14 TD
  • 2021: 1,109 yards, 10 TD
  • 2019: 1,184 yards, 7 TD
  • 2018: 1,060 yards, 5 TD

Once again, if we take out the FCS opponents since Utah scored 73 points against Southern Utah and the data could be seemingly skewed so some viewers, the data holds up.

  • 2022: 899 yards, 10 TD
  • 2021: 847 yards, 7 TD
  • 2019: 864 yards, 4 TD
  • 2018: 741 yards, 1 TD

The sky isn't falling just yet for the Utah's offense; if anything, it's been an improvement as a complete entity. But as Utah reaches its most difficult stretch of the season, there's a real need for the offense to gel in the run game to provide a bigger spark to the offense.

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Josh is the Sports Director for KSL.com and beat writer covering University of Utah athletics — primarily football, men’s and women's basketball and gymnastics. He is also an Associated Press Top 25 voter for college football.

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