This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Friday night is movie night for the Utes on road trips. They'll watch a film as a team to help them get inspired.
But when receivers Kenneth Scott and Tim Patrick need some extra motivation, they head back to their room and flip on YouTube, scrolling through reels of catches from Brandon Marshall and Calvin Johnson.
"We'll just be up in our hotel room, watching our favorite receivers' highlights for like an hour," he said, "envisioning us making plays like them."
This week, the vision has been a bit tougher to grasp.
Utah's offense was low on highlight reel plays last week, struggling to just 165 passing yards against Washington State while squandering its early 21-0 lead. From coach Kyle Whittingham on down, the Utes have felt the fingers pointing on the offensive side of the ball, which has struggled for consistency throughout the program's Pac-12 era.
It has been a hard-look-in-the-mirror kind of week for the offense, and no one has made excuses. But the hope is that this latest bump in the road is simply a bump, and not indicative of larger problems with personnel or schemes.
The Utes are going to keep on keepin' on.
"We had a good plan, we just didn't do a good enough job," quarterbacks coach Aaron Roderick said. "Overall as an offense, we gotta play better. I think we will, we've got a good team here."
Utah is feeling as good about its personnel as it has since the team first joined the conference. For once, their starting quarterback is healthy. They have two skilled wideouts in Scott and Dres Anderson, and slot guy Kaelin Clay is one of the country's most dangerous weapons in space. Devontae Booker may be one of the most talented runners the program has had recently.
So what's the problem?
As Dave Christensen figures out how to make his offense work, he can take some solace in knowing he's not the first Utes offensive coordinator to meet challenges early in the season.
Last year, Dennis Erickson got off to an explosive start, racking up yards and points before getting slowed down by injuries and conference competition. Utah was outgained in seven of its final nine games, and finished with a season average of 5.5 yards per play after eclipsing that in each of his first four games. Brian Johnson got off to an ugly start in 2012, gradually improving but never packing serious punch with a season mark of 4.9 yards per play, while Norm Chow finished just slighly better at 5.0.
Christensen's offense is averaging 439.5 yards per game with 5.8 yards per play, but in the past two games against Power 5 competion, that's dropped to 4.5 yards per snap. Against Washington State, the passing game was off-target, and between Travis Wilson's missed throws and a few receiver drops, it was tough to manufacture yards against a defense most wouldn't consider a top conference unit.
Christensen wasn't able to talk to the media himself this week due to team rules — Whittingham allows one designated assistant per week to speak to the media — but Scott said the Utes expected such adversity, and feel prepared for it.
"Those first two games, we only played a half, and everything was easy for us," he said. "The last two games, we've faced a little bit of a challenge. Teams are starting to pick up on our offense. So we're starting to do new game plans and attacking things differently now."
While the game plans will include new wrinkles, the process remains the same. There's no change to the routine. Scott, Anderson and the rest of the receivers were on the jugs machine long after Wednesday's practice, but that's typical. It's reassuring for them to feel ready to catch whatever comes their way.
Was Christensen hard this week? Sure, Scott said, but he always is.
"He's always driven us to be honest," he said. "He's always hard on us. But that's just because he wants our offense to be great and he sees the potential in all of us."
The Utah faithful have seen it before: Promises of great things on the offensive side of the ball, only for that promise to fizzle, followed by a new offensive coordinator joining the fold.
The Utes have hit the hump again, but they continue to believe they can push through it — though UCLA's turnover happy defense will put their mettle to the test. —
Utah at No. 8 UCLA
P Saturday, 8:30 p.m.
TV • ESPN —
Four offenses, four games, four years
Here's how Utah's offense is matching up with years past through four games. For perspective, the top 25 total offenses this year all have 6.0 yards per play or better this season, and all but two of the top 50 total offenses have 5.6 ypp or better:
2014 • Dave Christensen; 439.5 ypg, 5.8 ypp
2013 • Dennis Erickson; 504.8 ypg, 7.4 ypp (Season: 396.6 ypg, 5.5 ypp)
2012 • Brian Johnson; 298.3 ypg, 4.4 ypp (Season: 411.8 ypg, 4.9 ypp)
2011 • Norm Chow; 353.5 ypg, 5.5 ypp (Season: 350.9 ypg, 5.0 ypp)