EDITOR’S NOTE: As a reminder, there are days now where the countdown has a scholarship player at a certain number, but they’re only highlighted here if they were on the spring ball roster.

Five days left in the UteNation countdown to kickoff means that we get to discuss no. 5 Zemaiah Vaughn. The former walk-on played in all 14 games in 2022 with seven starts, including the final six games. Vaughn led the team with nine pass breakups last season. After walking on back in 2020, Vaughn has seen action in 31 games with 11 starts. He changed his number from 16 to 5 over the offseason.

Vaughn will anchor a cornerbacks room that is a stacked and competitive group.

UteNation Take

Simply put, Vaughn is a freak athlete that has found a home at cornerback after playing quarterback in high school in Beaumont, TX. Not only does he have great size for the position at 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds, but he has 4.3-second forty-yard dash speed. Vaughn’s growth from raw athlete to starting cornerback is a testament to cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah’s player development.

With Clark Phillips III in the NFL, Vaughn enters 2023 as an unquestioned starter. His background as a quarterback gives him a unique insight into how an offense structures its passing concepts. The staff has been very high on Vaughn for the past couple seasons, so this season is expected to be a big year for him.

Remembering Vaughn's Recruitment

Vaughn committed to Lamar University as a dual-threat quarterback out of Beaumont United HS. He then followed with a stunner, turning down the scholarship offer to be a preferred walkon at the University of Utah. The reason was simple: when Scalley sees something in you, you listen. That’s something especially known by diamond-in-the-rough prospects out of Texas. Vaughn then played well enough to receive a scholarship on the first day of 2021 fall camp.