Columnist Ron Kantowski: Utah’s big 3 of football coaching has hit bottom after sitting on top

Friday, Oct. 21, 2005 | 7:13 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

Last year at this time, they were the holy trinity of up-and-coming college football coaches as Utah began making plans to crash the Bowl Championship Series' little $17 million (per participant) party.

You had Utes coach Urban Meyer as the Father (he was named for a pope, after all) and his top assistants Mike Sanford as the Son and Kyle Whittingham as the Holy Terror (of defense).

Now, they are more like Manny, Moe and Jack. Or, given their teams' position in the standings, Moe, Larry and Curly.

Meyer, as I've noted before, became the biggest thing to hit Utah since Donny Osmond's purple socks, part of the reason he was able to flee -- I mean, leave -- after guiding the Utes to a perfect 12-0 season. But his Florida Gators are playing more like Merle Osmond. They can't beat anybody in the Southeast Conference that isn't Kentucky.

Sanford, who fought Meyer over squatter's rights to Utah's heralded spread offense -- "It's my offense," he said matter-of-factly after being named UNLV's new head coach last December -- is 2-5 in his first year.

The Rebels are coming off a 42-7 loss at Air Force that was so ugly they should have been forced to get down and give the Falcons 20 push-ups or shine their shoes.

Whittingham won't be taking the Utes back to the Fiesta Bowl unless it's to sell programs. Since he was elevated to head coach from defensive coordinator, the Utes are 3-4 and losing credibility faster than one of Craig Breedlove's land-speed runs at the salt flats.

Last week, Utah lost 28-19 at home to a San Diego State team that even UNLV was able to beat just the week before.

For some reason, ABC has elected to put the battle for last place in the Mountain West -- 1-3 Utah vs. 1-3 UNLV at 4 p.m. Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium -- on regional TV which prompts the question: Where's Fresno State when you need it?

The struggles of the MWC's four-letter schools can be traced to the same source: Players.

In Whittingham's case, it was a matter of the Utes losing too many quality ones from last year's team that throttled Pitt in the Fiesta Bowl. Alex Smith, Paris Warren, Steve Savoy, Marty Johnson, Morgan Scalley, Sione Pouha, Chris Kemoetu ... the guys Utah lost look suspiciously like last year's all-MWC team.

In Sanford's case, it was a matter of the Rebels retaining too many nonquality players from last year's team that lost to Utah State. And eight others.

Sanford refused to be drawn into a discussion about the credentials of the players he inherited. But there's a good reason the intricate spread offense that was expected to light up the scoreboard is getting more vanilla than the new Diet Coke. Running a few basic plays is about all these Rebels can handle at the moment.

Put it this way: When the center has trouble snapping the ball to the quarterback in the shotgun, a double reverse with a downfield lateral is pretty much out of the question.

Against Air Force, the Rebels blew two prime scoring opportunties with snaps from center that resembled Rip Sewell's "eephus" pitch. One floated away for a 19-yard loss, the other for 21.

When a team cannot pass the ball from the center to the quarterback after seven games, it has an Apollo 13-sized problem.

But nobody expected the Rebels to re-enter the MWC's atmosphere at the top of the standings in Sanford's first year. In fact, they were picked for last place, so at least nobody can accuse UNLV of underachieving.

Utah, on the other hand, was expected to repeat as conference champs, which is probably why demanding Utes fans want somebody to fire a retrorocket.

For starters.

Ron Kantowski can be reached at 259-4088 or at ron@lasvegassun.com.