Countdown to Kickoff: No. 4 JaTravis Broughton

Today we examine one of Utah’s breakout players from the 2020 season in cornerback JaTravis Broughton. A late class of 2019 find out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Broughton emerged in fall camp last year as a frontrunner to help replace the production of Jaylon Johnson, Josh Nurse, Tareke Lewis and Javelin Guidry.

The 5-foot-11 sophomore brings exceptional track speed to the position, winning the 400 meters and finishing second in the 100- and 200-meter sprints in the 2017 USATF National Youth Outdoor Championships. Not only does he have a 10.59 second 100-meter dash to his name, but he was All-State honorable mention and first-team All-District in 2018, also earning second-team All-Tulsa World and All-USA Oklahoma as a cornerback. Broughton helped Union High School to state titles in both 2016 and 2017.

UteNation Take

Broughton has made a splash since stepping onto campus, playing in all 19 games the past two seasons, including starting all five games in 2020 at left cornerback. He earned Pac-12 All-Conference honorable mention in 2020, recording the second most tackles in the secondary (26 tackles, 2.0 TFL), with a team-high four pass breakups. In addition to his stellar straightaway speed, Broughton has great transitional speed and has the fluid hips needed to excel at the cornerback position.

Despite just being a sophomore, Broughton’s game experience is the most amongst the cornerbacks of Clark Phillips III, Malone Mataele, Faybian Marks, Zemaiah Vaughn, and Aaron Lowe. With two seasons under his belt, JaTravis will be expected to help lead the young corners, who have a strong group of safeties behind them, led by Vonte Davis and Brandon McKinney.

He’s well on his way to becoming yet another shutdown corner for the Utes.

Sean remembers Broughton’s recruitment

Broughton was a 5.6 Rivals rated 3-star cornerback out of Tulsa, OK, a rare recruiting ground for the University of Utah. He held eight offers, most notably from Army, Oregon, and Texas Tech. With the lack of a lot of big offers, Broughton chose to wait until the February signing date to make his decision. After committing to Utah Broughton, who went by McCloud at the time, skyrocketed up the Oklahoma state player rankings, from unranked to no. 10.