This holiday season has been a bit dramatic for fans of the University of Utah football program. A local radio station here in Utah, which I won't mention because the lack of professionalism from them (just an opinion blog, not a professional saying this), "reported" that Kyle Whittingham would most likely not return to the U. I've already mentioned this in a previous post and won't go back into that detail because of it. It is relevant here however.
First, I am not critical of a journalist who posts something shocking that proves to be wrong. It happens. Your job as a journalist, or as they are now called "media members", is to gather information from insiders that the public doesn't have access to. The good ones release this information before any one else does. A journalist fact checks, media members speculate. To fact check you need to gather as much information from as many sources as possible. It seems as though this did not happen in this case. It seems as though three specific media members have acted very irresponsibly and released speculation before confirming it from other sources.
I am very critical of sensational media who mistake themselves as journalists. I don't think it has a place in journalism. Sure, Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart are great entertainment, but they aren't journalists who report the news. They react to the news. It's a very important distinction. It has it's place and it works. Jim Rome seems to have found his niche doing similar things in the sports world. It's great and it's fun.
In this case it seems to be a case of mistaken identity with a media source. The radio station in question has several media members I respect because of their talent. Some of which I respect but don't enjoy their brand of entertainment. It happens. My issue, as well as many other peoples issues are this, the report is thus far unfounded. First it was the Tweet heard round Salt Lake, next it was the newspaper article based on said tweet, followed by the radio jockey confirming the reports. Next thing that happened was Dr Hill release a statement saying that these rumors "have no validity." Even if these rumors become true, it was released in a very unprofessional way.
I say this not because of the statement released by Dr Chris Hill, I say it because of the counter information coming out from every other media outlet in the SLC area. It seems as though the facts were not checked. Another media member, who used to work very closely with the original Tweeter, tweeted "My most reliable source told me today that @Utah_Football rumars are wildly overblown and they would be shocked to see Whitt resign or be fired." This was before Dr Hills statement. It was also one of several tweets/reports from other media sources outside of this one station.
Since the statement by Dr Hill, the radio station has done everything they can to perpetuate the rumors because they got lambasted by the Utah Faithful on twitter. I myself have been blocked by the media member who tweeted out The Tweet heard round Salt Lake. I find that humorous in many ways that I won't get into. If you can't say something nice....
The crux of all of this is that it's recruiting season. I watched the Army East West high school all star game today and USC, Georgia, Ohio State and several others received verbal commitments during the game. Two of the Utah High School athletes that participated in that game did not list Utah, Utah State or BYU as major options for schools. That's another issue that I won't get into here, but it needs to be fixed. Utah has a recruit from Texas that lit up twitterverse during his high school bowl game that follows closely what is going on. I can see the drama turning some kids and their parents off from Utah.
We also don't have either offensive or defensive coordinators in place. Recruits don't know what offense they would be in. This drama seems to have put the Head Coach position in question as well, which makes it worse. They don't know if the coach will be back next year. Unless they are die hard fans of the school and want to play there no matter what, the commits Utah already has may be rethinking. In fact, several have been reported to have visits to Oregon State ironically enough.
This could be put to end really quickly by someone who hates all things media related. I doubt he hates journalists, he just hates the sensational and social media aspects of his job. That is very well documented. In my opinion, Coach Kyle Whittingham needs to make those hires/promotions quickly. Not just to get the systems in place, but to also get his recruits on board. It would address these rumors without addressing them directly, which I think he would rather do. He seems to get chippy in press conferences when asked about things he deems irrelevant.
I say let him ignore this. Let him treat this as the nuisance it has become for him. Just make those hires/promotions quickly and announce them immediately. Even if it's just the defensive side and he wants to take his time on the offense to get it right for once, announce it. If he is staying at Utah.
The longer we wait for any word from the program outside of the AD, the more worried I am getting. I am not alone in this either, several Utah Faithful have expressed their sense of dread at the fact we may be looking at an entire new system coming off a 9-4 season and one of the best defensive performances we've seen in Utah since 2008.
Lets get this over with. Go Utes!!!
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