By Tony Pizza

Finding a guy who is willing to admit he doesn’t know how to fix the toaster, or that he actually needs directions, is hard to find. It’s “pot-of-gold-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow” hard. That is, unless you look at the U football team.

After the Utes blew a 24-7 lead in New Mexico and wound up losing 34-31, head coach Kyle Whittingham knew something was broken and he decided to approach its repair differently. Instead of screaming at his players and scouring game film for answers, he decided to just listen instead.

On Oct. 22–the Sunday following the New Mexico loss–Whittingham spent a significant part of the day in his office talking to his upperclassmen, one-by-one, in hopes of getting on the same page with them.

What a difference those Sunday conversations made.

“I think we’re playing more loose, playing our style of game, the air-it-out football,” said Eric Weddle.

This looseness has translated to results on the field. The Utes beat UNLV 45-23 and Colorado State 35-22 the following two weeks, which is the way a good football team should be capable of beating those two teams. The U’s personnel were not the only things that seemed to relax.

The general sense of serenity also seemed to blow the dust off U’s play-calling as well. The 400 and 526 total yards the Utes gained in the two games following Sunday’s conversations seemed to signal–at least in spurts–the return to the U’s renaissance of 2004.

The cause for this collective sigh of relief was the way Whittingham responded to what his players told him.

Aside from the personal issues that each player brought up, the majority expressed that the team was afraid to make mistakes.

It’s not that the players didn’t expect to get yelled at, either. Most of the juniors and seniors were members of the perfect 2004 team. They know that getting yelled at is part of the game, and correcting mistakes is how players and teams improve.

The only thing the upperclassmen tried to convey was that sometimes this approach was being counter-productive, and understandably so.

Nobody in sports performs well when he or she plays tense. If missing a putt, short-arming a free throw or overthrowing the first baseman are the only things on a player’s mind, he or she is bound to play tentatively instead of loosely and aggressively.

This seems to be exactly what the leaders on the U football team were feeling.

“The mistakes will happen because that’s football, but if we’re worrying about that stuff, I think that was an issue,” Weddle said. “But now we’re just believing in each other and going out and playing and having fun. Coach Whit and the coaching staff have adapted to that.”

It takes a real leader to go to the people he or she is leading and find out how that person can improve things. Just ask anyone who has served in the military.

“Yeah, for coach to humble himself and come to the players and figure out what’s going on in our heads?juniors and seniors are the leaders on this team,” Weddle said. “You know he really wanted to give us every chance possible to win out and have a good season.”

For that reason, Whittingham has dubbed this month the “November to remember,” and by putting his pride on the line, Whittingham seems to have refocused his players.

“That shows his character, not only that–his class,” Steve Tate said. “He’s a great coach, he’s classy, he’s willing to hear from his players and that shows us a lot.”

The Sunday meetings were an experience too personal for Whittingham to comment on directly, but he did say that it was a very positive experience for him and his players.

Lennie Mahler

Coach Kyle Whittingham meets with Eric Weddle on the sideline after one of Weddle’s interceptions earlier this year.