Published Apr 3, 2021
Plenty of Positives in First Utes Scrimmage
Alex Markham and Nathan Roderick
Staff


The University of Utah for their first scrimmage of the spring on Friday and while it was close to the media and public, Utah’s Kyle Whittingham was very open with how pleased he was with the results.

“I feel like we have made a lot of progress but we still have a lot of work to do,” said Whittingham. “Obviously, you are never where you want to be and you are always looking to improve on some things and we certainly have a laundry list of what we need to improve on. But, I would say we are in a really good spot for where we are at.”

The intrigue with the quarterback battle likely isn’t going to hit until the fall, as Baylor grad transfer Charlie Brewer is getting a Harvey workload compared to the others.

“Charlie Brewer got the vast majority of the reps and that has been the case all spring and that will be the case during these last six practices,” said Whittingham. “The other reps were divided almost equally among the other four. Jaquinden Jackson and Pete Costelli get a little bit more than the other two.”

Whittingham also acknowledged that as of right now, freshman Micah Bernard has emerged as the starter at running due to a strong offseason and spring, as well as his familiarity with the system.

“His familiarity with the scheme (is setting himself apart),” said Whittingham. “He has been here for three years now and makes great command of it and makes very few mistakes and so the learning curve for him was non existent this spring and it was just go out and perform for him. He is about 10 pounds heavier and is hard to play running back in the Pac-12 at 190 pounds which is what he was last year and he has gotten bigger and stronger. He has had the light switch turn on and he is letting it all hang out and letting it rip. He is reacting and performing how we hoped he would. Whereas, the other two, are learning the offense and they are doing a really nice job of that but there is still a bit of a learning curve when you’re still learning. At times there is a little bit of hesitation, uncertainty and that affects performance.”

TJ Pledger and Chris Curry are back and forth for the no. 2 spot, while Charlie Cincent is right behind them.

Both the offensive and defensive lines had a solid day according to Whittingham with the offensive line showing a lot of cohesiveness.

Defensively, there’s been one pleasant surprise early in spring camp, freshman strong safety Cole Bishop. “Cole Bishop is a guy that is brand new to the program and a guy that is a lot like Nate Ritchie was for us last year,” claimed Whittingham. “Nate came in and made a splash early and started the majority of the season and Cole could be in that same situation. For a kid that has only been on campus for a few weeks, he is doing a great job.”

Overall, the secondary is doing a really nice job, but is still showing it’s youth at times. Along with JaTavis Broughton and Clark Phillips III, both Faybian Marks and Zemaiah Vaughn have emerged as key contributors.

“Right now, they are all continuing to get better and Sharieff Shah is doing a great job with that group,” said Whittingham.

Regardless of how every other position is doing, the with the biggest question marks—where a good season from the group could turn Utah into a surefire Pac-12 title contender—is wide receiver.

“They are doing a nice job and everyone is progressing. We are limited there with healthy scholarship players. We are way under budget with where we should be with that. We got some guys that are hurt.

Devaughn Vele is having a very nice spring,” Whittingham continued, “Vele is starting to emerge and I think we are going to be ok when it is all said and done with that position. Right now we are not (ok), we need more depth and we need more playmakers. I am confident that we will get where we need to be and Chad will get us there by September 2nd.”

With one scrimmage down, a happy and talkative Whittingham was a big positive to see with the press conference. Utah will now progress towards the next scrimmage, hoping to have more and more questions figured out, but so far so good up on The Hill.