Kragthorpe: Is Troy Taylor the Utes' offensive solution? Kyle Whittingham is 'excited' to find out

Fans keep packing Rice-Eccles Stadium, so the University of Utah’s marketing strategy is nowhere near as aggressive, or necessary, as in the old days. Nobody’s making the promises of Urban Meyer’s first season, when the summertime ads spoke boldly: “You ain’t seen Utah football like this before.”

That statement became true then, and it could happen again in the program’s Pac-12 era. In coach Kyle Whittingham’s seemingly never-ending search for a productive offense, Troy Taylor might be the solution.

The Utes’ latest offensive coordinator will stand on the sideline Thursday evening, facing North Dakota. All anybody’s asking of Taylor is to revive Utah’s offense, win a Pac-12 South championship and improve the lasting image of his boss.

If Taylor thrives in this job and the Utes discover an offense to complement their defense and special teams, Whittingham will have knocked down the only barrier that keeps him from being viewed as one of college football’s best coaches of this century. Whittingham already made a major breakthrough this month, changing his perception as a micromanager by authorizing Taylor to pick Utah’s starting quarterback, sophomore Tyler Huntley.

Now comes the first test drive of a product that’s creating excitement amid some mystery. Whittingham labeled himself “probably the most excited guy in the country” to find out if this thing really works. Here’s what it’s supposed to look like: a fast tempo, quick-release passing attack with receivers spreading the field, a creative running game that includes the quarterback and drives that reach the end zone.

In other words: Utah football like you haven’t seen it lately.

“Guys are going to be a little nervous, and I’ll be nervous,” Taylor said, “but there’s no overriding concern that I have about the first game.”

Taylor’s offense succeeded fabulously from the start of last season, when Eastern Washington of the Big Sky Conference stunned the Pac-12′s Washington State, 45-42. That’s either frightening, considering North Dakota is this year’s Big Sky favorite, or encouraging, as a sign that Taylor’s scheme won’t require a break-in period.

Eastern Washington’s players “bought into it, they accepted it, they were passionate about learning it and they just continued to improve,” Taylor said.

Same story with the Utes, so far. Whittingham marvels about the players’ buy-in, which he says is 75 percent of the challenge of installing a new scheme. “The guys have embraced it,” he said.

And Taylor has made a good impression on the only defense he has faced as a Utah coach. “I love his creativity, love what he’s done with certain people on the offensive side,” said Utes cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah. “He’s really, really intelligent, and you can see it in the way that he kind of calls the scrimmage, the way he formats practice.”

The favorable in-house reviews are nice, and now comes the judgment of a demanding fan base. The story of Whittingham’s play-callers since Andy Ludwig moved on after the 2009 Sugar Bowl is long and complicated, with coaches of varying ages and backgrounds coming from different directions and departing for disparate reasons. The only consistent threads have been the constant changes and Whittingham’s dissatisfaction with the offense.

The Utes went 19-7 in 2015 and 2016 during Aaron Roderick’s second play-calling stint. Whittingham fired Roderick soon after Utah’s Foster Farms Bowl victory in December and hired Taylor almost immediately.

So here’s Taylor, two years removed from high school coaching, charged with raising Utah’s offense to the level of the rest of the program and doing things in the Pac-12 that the Utes never have done. No television commercials or newspaper advertisements heralding offensive improvement are needed to fill the stadium in 2017, as they were in 2003 when Meyer arrived. Even so, everybody’s aware of the expectations for Taylor’s work, starting Thursday.