With only one month standing between Utah and Florida clashing at Rice-Eccles stadium, the Utes returned to the practice field on Monday. Fall camp is officially here. Although there has only been one practice, head coach Kyle Whittingham had plenty of valuable insights to share regarding the state of his team as they begin their preparations for the Gators.

Quarterbacks

The question on everyone’s mind is the health of Cam Rising. The good news, he’s back. He’s on the field, and he’s making throws. The unsurprising news, he’s still limited.

“He’ll be practicing, but he’ll have limitations,” Whittingham said. “That’ll probably be the report for at least a couple weeks…hopefully some of those limitations start to get lifted as we get deeper into camp. But today was a good start, we’ve just got to be intelligent about it.”

Whittingham talked specifically about what Rising can and can’t do right now.

“He can’t get hit. Right now, we don’t want him reacting to defenders. Just going through his mechanics, his footwork, he can throw, he can do all the throwing he needs to do, but we just gotta make sure that we stay away at this point from sudden movements and change of direction.”

That leads to the biggest focus in fall camp, and that’s getting the number two quarterback prepared in case Rising is unable to go August 31st. Whittingham made it very clear that getting that figured out was priority number one.

“Outside of quarterback the biggest focus would be quarterback, and quarterback again,” he said, “I can’t think of anything that’s even close to that right now, as far as making sure that if in the event Cam can’t go, we’ve got the right guy that’s going to start the game.”

As of right now, the pecking order at quarterback is where it left off following spring practices, with Brandon Rose a few steps ahead of the rest of the group.

“They’re all picking up where they left off in Spring,” Whittingham said. “Brandon came out of spring slightly ahead of the other guys, so he’s taking the two reps right now, and actually a lot of the one reps that Cam can’t take depending on what drill we’re in, but Nate (Johnson) is doing a nice job, Bryson Barnes is doing a nice job, so those three guys are going to continue to compete until we can confidently settle on one of them.”

Receivers and Tight Ends

The next question many people have had is about the health of Brant Kuithe, the vital piece in replacing Dalton Kincaid’s receiving production at tight end. His news is similar to that of Rising’s, he’s back, but he still got some work to do before being able to participate fully in practices. They’re working him back into football shape.

“He’s not cleared yet by any means as far as being 100%, he’s able to do a few things,” Whittingham said. “Today was predominately weight room stuff. As soon as he’s ready, as soon as they give us the green light, we’ll start to work him in as well.”

With Kuithe banged up, several of the incoming transfers at receiver and tight end have seized the opportunity to make a strong impression. Although he was injured while at Florida State, WR Mycah Pittman “did everything with no limitations” in Monday’s practice. Overall, Whittingham seemed very pleased with what he saw from Pittman and the other incoming receivers.

“Mycah Pittman looked really good today,” he said. “He’s got a good skill set. Soft hands catching punts, excellent hands out of the slot on offense. Emery Simmons had a good day. New tight ends Bentley and Landen King had a nice day. One practice, but we’ve liked what we’ve seen through those guys all through the summer conditioning.”

At this point, there is still a lot of work to be done to determine the depth chart at receiver, but it appears that Utah will have several options thanks to the incoming group of talent.

Running Backs

The running back room is looking strong. Whittingham was especially impressed with what Ja’Quinden Jackson has been doing.

“He looked really good,” he said. “He’s got all the skillset, the physical tools you that you look for in a running back. We all know what he did for us last year, he was a saving grace for us in the run game for us last year. He is determined to be even better this year, he is all in, completely embraced that position, and has a burning desire to be the best that he can possibly be…if we had to line up today he’d be our one if we had to play today.”

Defense

Another year, and Whittingham is once again high on his defense, and for good reason. When asked about what he’s most confident in right now, Whittingham replied without hesitation – the defense.

“At every level, we’re talented, we’re deep,” he said. “The front is physical, athletic. The linebackers are active and tough, and the secondary, we’ve got a bunch of ball hawks back there, and some really good tacklers at the safety spot, so I think the defense really has a chance to stand out for us this year.”

Specifically, one player that is showing exciting improvement is linebacker Lander Barton.

“Lander Barton is gonna be even more impactful than he was last year,” Whittingham said, “He’s 15, maybe 20 pounds heavier, hasn’t lost a step. He’s big, he’s physical, he’s tough, he’s smart, and we expect that he’s going to be a very good player for us, again. Even better than last year.”

Whittingham spoke confidently about the players that would step in to replace Clark Phillips III at cornerback, noting that true freshman Smith Snowden and Ole Miss transfer Miles Battle specifically have been making a strong impression.

With one day, there are a lot of good storylines to follow in fall camp.