Utes Spring Ball Recap: Continued Improvement as Utah preps for Spring Game
It’s the final week of spring practices, and that means that fans are now only a few days away from getting a chance to see for themselves a glimpse of what can be expected from the 2024 Utah football team. In preparation for the 22 Forever Game, head coach Kyle Whittingham reiterated what the purpose of these practices are for and what to expect at the public scrimmage.
“It’s about making every player better and emphasizing technique,” Whittingham said of spring practices. “The Spring Game is to let some guys play that haven't had much of a chance in the past. You'll see a lot of starters that won’t be playing on Saturday, so it's a little bit of a mixed bag, but it’ll be very worthwhile. I think the fans will enjoy it.”
One player that fans have been waiting a long time to see making plays again at Rice-Eccles Stadium is star senior quarterback Cam Rising. While it hasn’t been said whether or not he’ll take the field on Saturday, one thing that is for certain is that if he does get a few reps, neither he nor any other quarterback will be taking any hits.
“Absolutely not,” Whittingham said. “The quarterbacks have not been live all spring and they will not be live on Saturday.”
It’s likely that fans will see a steady diet of Brandon Rose and Isaac Wilson manning the offenses on Saturday. The two have been in a “dead heat” all spring, and Whittingham says that hasn’t changed much in the past few weeks.
“It still is [a tie],” Whittingham said. “Isaac Wilson has done a great job assimilating the offense and getting everything digested. Brandon Rose has played his best football as a Ute this Spring, so he’s been a big plus for us. Really, it’s those two guys that are battling for two and three.”
While those two quarterbacks have made great strides this spring, neither have ever played a down at the collegiate level, and that has brought some concern by some over the depth of the quarterback room overall. With the next transfer portal window opening next Tuesday, it’s possible that Utah may look to add another to the room.
“We’ll see what happens,” Whittingham said of adding another quarterback through the transfer portal. “It’s very possible that we may be in the market, but maybe not. We’ll just have to see what we think is best going forward once we have a chance to look at all of the evaluations from the entire spring football.”
Some other position groups to keep an eye on in the upcoming 22 Forever Game are the safeties and receivers. Whittingham said that those two groups progressed the most over the spring.
“The safety group has progressed at a very good pace,” Whittingham said. “We lost two really good ones, both more than likely will be playing on Sundays. A lot of guys have battled in that position group and progressed. Wide receivers, we think we helped ourselves there with some new guys, new faces, as well as the returning guys getting better.”