This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah announced Wednesday that Taylor Stubblefield will not return as wide receivers coach after two seasons in which Kaelin Clay's 523 yards were Utah's highest single-year receiving total and three final games in which tight end Harrison Handley's 32 yards against Arizona were Utah's highest single-game receiving total.
A vague statement did not say whether Stubblefield was fired or left of his own accord.
Stubblefield once set an NCAA record for career receptions while at Purdue before embarking on a journeyman career as an assistant, his move from Wake Forest to Utah his seventh in seven years.
Utah's receiving woes didn't begin with Stubblefield's short tenure. Since David Reed totaled nearly 1,200 yards in 2009, only one receiver has finished with more than 663 yards in a season: Dres Anderson, with 1,002 in 2013. Anderson then sustained a season-ending injury in Stubblefield's first year at the U.
But while fans can argue the degree to which Stubblefield might have hoped to improve Utah's existing receivers, little was heard about his impact on the recruiting trail. The only 2015 commitments credited to Stubblefield on his Rivals.com profile, Deniko Carter and Alfred Smith, never played for Utah.
Stubblefield's wife, Georgia, and son, Jagger, were regulars at Utah's practices, where Stubblefield was an energetic presence. Rarely did players complete a repetition without some word of advice from Stubblefield, and he also had a habit of needling his more established players when he felt they were showing signs of complacency.
— Matthew Piper
Twitter: @matthew_piper