With a roster full of experienced talent and returning starters at nearly every position, things are shaping up nicely for this to be the year that the University of Utah challenges for a spot in the Rose Bowl. There are still a few questions that need to addressed in fall camp, but the coaching staff has already taken steps towards shoring up those holes with two graduate transfer additions this week: Alex Locklear and Andrew Strauch.
Of course, this team isn’t going to be able to sleepwalk through their schedule. Each player has things they’ll need to improve if they want to achieve the team’s goals of a second straight south division title, and their first ever Pac-12 championship. Starting today, with summer workouts ahead, we’ll take a more in-depth look at what each position unit needs to do in order for this team to achieve what it’s capable of.
Quarterbacks
For the third time in his Utah career, Tyler Huntley is learning a new offense. Though Troy Taylor’s scheme had its moments, Huntley has gone on record and said that he prefers having the structure and attention to detail that Andy Ludwig’s offense brings. Throughout spring, Huntley looked sharp. He was throwing his passes with more touch, which was something that he often lacked throughout his sophomore and junior seasons. Huntley needs to continue to prove in fall camp and early on in the season that he can put that touch on his longer passes and even the shorter ones that don’t need as much heat.
Huntley is known for being a gunslinger and making his fair share of high risk/high reward throws. While that’s part of what makes him such a big play threat, Huntley needs to realize that he doesn’t need to shoulder as much of the load this year, since he has Zack Moss and a stable of other talented running backs, along with an offensive coordinator that is more than happy to use them. Utah probably doesn’t need Huntley to throw for 3000+ yards and 30 touchdowns this year. If he does, great, but from the look of things, if he can simply be a smart player, limit turnovers, and use his dual-threat ability to keep opposing defenses honest, he should have a great senior season and lead the Utes to a lot of wins.
Unfortunately, as has been proven over the last two years, Huntley’s backup will need to be ready to play in case of injury. Lucky for the Utes, they have an option who has plenty of game experience and led the Utes down the stretch to win the Pac-12 South division last year. Jason Shelley may not have the same arm talent as Huntley in terms of sheer strength, but he proved last season that he can make plays under pressure. In many ways, Shelley is similar to a guy who did some pretty good things for the Utes the last time Andy Ludwig was coaching for them: Brian Johnson.
Shelley appeared to take to Ludwig’s offense pretty well in spring, and though it was clear that Huntley was QB1, Shelley wasn’t too far behind him. Where the sophomore signal caller needs to improve is in limiting turnovers and becoming more consistent with his intermediate throws. Shelley has a really nice long ball, particularly when it’s thrown the way of his high school teammate, Jaylen Dixon. His short throws are usually precisely timed and on the money, too. However, in spring, he sometimes struggled with his accuracy in the 15-20 yard range, and there were examples of that in the games he started last season as well. The other area which Shelley can improve is choosing his moments to run. There’s no doubt that he can make big plays on the ground, just ask BYU’s Dayan Ghanwoloku, who Shelley outran to score the final touchdown of the game last November. However, there were times when Shelley had plenty of open space in front of him where he could have taken off for a good gain, but instead chose to hold onto the ball and keep looking downfield, and nothing opened up.
Even with just these two, Utah already has one of the best quarterback situations in the Pac-12. Yes, there are teams like Oregon, Washington, USC, and ASU, who have rosters littered with former four- and five-star quarterback prospects, but there’s no substitute for experience. However, Utah’s quarterback room has the potential to be even better, if Cam Rising is granted his transfer waiver. Rising looked a little lost at the beginning of spring camp, but as camp progressed, he started to look more and more comfortable, and flashed the athletic ability that made him such a coveted prospect out of high school.
As camp progressed, he showed impressive touch on his passes, especially towards the sidelines. He’s a pass-first quarterback that also showed that he’s a threat to run, keeping the defense honest. Rising’s work culminated with a solid performance in the spring game, where he completed 8-10 passes for 77 yards and a touchdown.
Obviously Rising will need to continue to put in work to learn this new offense and develop chemistry with his new teammates, but even if he isn’t granted his waiver, he should get plenty of work with the scout team this year in preparation to challenge for the starting job after Huntley graduates.
