The Utes cornerbacks were riddled with injury last year, forcing the coaches to make drastic position switches to finish out the season. With last season in the rearview mirror, the cornerbacks are slowly healing up and getting back to work. Coach Shah seemed notably happy having his group ready to pick-up and get back to working on the things that plagued them.
“The thing that has been the focus is, I need to see, I need people to be better in man coverage, we have to be better in man coverage,” Coach Shah said. “I mean, listen, if God blesses us enough to return to the Rose Bowl we have got to play some man coverage. I don’t care who’s out there.”
While recognizing that need for improvement, Shah has been happy with the results.
“That’s getting better,” he said. “I’ve seen it across the board. They have a long way to go, but it has made me happy and tackling. Again, you go back to our last game we played and we missed so many tackles. That has been an emphasis on defense, particularly my room.”
This spring has seen the return of one the better cornerbacks in the Pac-12. JT Broughton, an All-Pac-12 honorable mention from 2020 is back. After losing him early on in the 2021 season due to a shoulder injury, he’s getting into the rhythm of spring ball again. His comeback has started off strong, as Coach Shah has really seen a lot of good strides in Broughton.
“JT’s long-range, top-end speed, I’m seeing a lot more and that wasn’t apparent the first two days,” Shah said.
“The first two practices he was very sluggish,” he continued. “He had put on weight and I wanted him to get stronger, but it was just not the weight that was good for him. After today’s sixth practice he looks so much better, so much more reactionary - he is strong. We had a little bit of live work the other day and he made such a good tackle on Tavion Thomas. Tavion - that boy is not nice to tackle.”
In Broughton’s absence last season, one guy in particular stepped forward as the leader of the Utah secondary in Clark Phillips III. The 2021 Pac-12 All-Conference Second Teamer has 19 career games played at Utah, all starts. He had 63 tackles in the 2021 season, second-most in the secondary, adding two forced fumbles, 13 pass breakups and two interceptions. As the veteran on the team, Shah is looking to see Phillips continue to evolve as the leader of the group.
“For Clark, he has a tremendous work ethic,” said coach Shah, noting that he had a challenge for him. “Why don’t you instill that in everyone else? Bring people along. Every day he’s doing something by himself to get better. He needs to set the standard in this room because he’s an older player.”
With Clark, Broughton, and nickel back Malone Mataele healthy, other notable cornerbacks who aren’t active in spring ball are backups Faybion Marks and Zemaiah Vaughn. Both sustained season ending injuries towards the end of the 2021 season, but should be ready come fall camp. While those two are rehabbing, Shah noted Caine Savage has taken positive steps forward as well as Kenzel Lawler who switched from safety to cornerback this year.
“This is better than last spring in terms of guys that are showing up, understanding the defense and making plays,” he said. “It’s not about how many awesome schemes you can put in. It’s about making sure that the kids in your room are fundamentally sound and their technique is correct.”
With that in mind, Shah really only has one specific challenge in mind for the group as a whole.
“It’s really just going back to the basics,” he said. “I’d like to see their basic techniques and fundamentals improve and that is so sharp now. It used to be dull last year. Now it’s a little bit sharper.”
