In an apparent effort to shore up a sagging offense, the Utah foot-ball team is shaking up its offensive coaches for the 1998 season.
Nobody is being fired, but quarterback coach Tommy Lee is taking over as offensive coordinator, replacing Fred Graves, who will become the assistant head coach and wide receivers coach. While that may not seem like a demotion for Graves, those are the same titles he held in 1994, when he was "elevated" to offensive coordinator.This past season when the Ute defense improved dramatically, the offense turned stagnant despite weapons such as Chris Fua-matu-Ma'afala, Juan Johnson and Kevin Dyson. The Utes, who used to be a regular fixture among the top 10 offenses in the nation earlier in the decade, fell to No. 50 in total offense at 378.5 yards per game and to No. 66 in scoring at 23.0 points per game.
While many felt the problem lay with the inexperienced quarterbacks Jonathan Crosswhite and Darnell Arceneuax, much of the blame was still put on the offensive coordinator. In an unscientific poll of Deseret News Internet readers in mid-October, Graves received the most votes for the question, "If the problem lies with the coaching staff, which assistant coach do you think should be replaced?"
Head coach Ron McBride tried to downplay the significance of the change by saying, "We are simply trying to utilize each person on our staff's individual skills better. For instance, we have had people look to Fred (Graves) for discipline, Tommy (Lee) on the passing game and Donny (Eck) on the running game. The bottom line is we need a central figure responsible for everything."
As recently as 1994, the Utes were fourth in the nation at scoring at 37 points per game and just out of the top 10 at 448 yards per game. After that season offensive coordinator Rick Rasnick left to become the head coach at Eastern Michigan and Graves took over as offensive coordinator while Lee was hired as quarterback coach.
Before coming to Utah, Lee was an offensive coordinator on five different staffs, most recently with Toronto of the Canadian Football League in 1994. Lee is a former all-American quarterback at Willamette College and played a year for Ottawa in the Canadian Football League.
Graves was a star receiver at Utah in the late 1960s and has coached at Utah for 16 years, being in charge of the receivers every year but one. Besides Dyson, he has coached the likes of Rocky Henry, Carl Harry, Curtis Marsh, Loren Richey and Bryan Rowley.