Utah coach Kyle Whittingham may want to rethink his preseason comment about the Utes having "the best quarterback situation in the country."
The Utes proved Saturday afternoon that they certainly don't have the best quarterback situation in this country and probably not even in their own state.
While the Utes were thoroughly beaten in all aspects of the game in the crushing 36-3 loss to Boise State, the quarterback tandem of Brett Ratliff and Tommy Grady was simply abysmal.
Between the two of them, Ratliff and Grady completed just 8 of 27 passes for 51 yards with four interceptions. The longest completed pass of the day went for 10 yards.
Ratliff called it a "bad dream" and "one of my worst games." He looked nothing like the quarterback who led the Utes to two late-season wins last year and three victories this season.
Ratliff threw a first-quarter interception to Korey Hall that led to a field goal less than four minutes into the game. Then with Boise State leading 16-3 just before halftime, Ratliff made a horrible decision, scrambling out of the end zone and throwing a sideline pass that hit BSU's Colt Brooks, who almost walked into the end zone from 12 yards out.
The senior quarterback was actually booed late in the first half, and so it was no surprise when Tommy Grady, the transfer from Oklahoma, came out for the first series of the second half.
"It was kind of frustrating, but I wasn't getting the job done," Ratliff said. "I kind of expected it. They had to try somebody else."
Ute offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig had no qualms about going to Grady, who had seen action in all four previous games.
"Those two picks were nightmares," Ludwig said. "(Ratliff) got the hook at halftime because I wanted him to look at the game from the sideline."
Grady had only thrown eight passes before Saturday, but two of them had been interceptions.
He entered the game to cheers with his team down 26-3 and threw two incompletions in his first series that netted one first down. On his second series he threw three straight completions for another first down, but his fourth pass was directly to Hall, who had picked off Ratliff in the first quarter.
"The interception was my fault," Grady said. "I thought the curl was going to be open. I didn't see the 'backer coming in."
Following the interception, Grady said he "wanted to get back out there and play right away," but admitted, "I didn't do my job."
In the second half, a lot of Ute fans became frustrated with all the running plays the Utes were trying, but Ludwig said, "I was trying to find a way to make progress and take something off the quarterback."
Ludwig said the Utes' poor offense, just 178 yards, came down to one thing — "execution," or lack thereof.
"We can't turn the ball over. We can't throw it to the other team like we did," he said. "We've got to play better at the QB spot."
When asked if the quarterback position is now open, Whittingham said, "Absolutely not, Brett Ratliff's our guy." But then he added, "every position has to produce and nobody's job is a guarantee."
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