There’s no way to sugarcoat it, last year’s Ute football season was a tough one to watch. In a season that began with College Football Playoff hopes, Utah literally limped to an 8-5 final record, including a frustrating 14-7 loss to Northwestern in the Las Vegas Bowl.
With the unimaginable pile of injuries in the rear view mirror, the return of Utah football, and their College Football Playoff hopes, began once again with Day One of Spring Football Camp.
The main issue last season was on the offensive side of the ball, especially at the quarterback position, as injuries led to the Utes having to go all the way at one point to their fifth-string option. That shouldn’t be the case this season with the return of a healthy Cam Rising and Brandon Rose.
“Cam’s the guy, he’s taking every rep with the ones,” head coach Kyle Whittingham said. “Right now it’s a split between Isaac (Wilson), Luke Bottari, and Brandon Rose taking the No. 2 and 3 reps.”
Rising and tight end Brant Kuithe were the heart and soul of the offense for two seasons prior to both of them losing last season to injuries. The good news is, they’re not only back, but they’re already performing at a high level, according to Whittingham.
“If you had to single out a couple guys, I’d say those two would be at the top of the list of guys that did some really good things today,” Whittingham said.
Another big piece missing from the offense for most of the season was running back Micah Bernard. He’s back, and already looking like his old self. Overall, there appears to be several solid options in the backfield.
“Micah Bernard, he’s looking good,” Whittingham said. “Mike Mitchell, we weren’t in pads today, but he did some really good things, just a freshman this fall. He’s a guy that we think has a bunch of upside. John Randle doing some good things. Jaylon Glover looked good today as well. Dijon Stanley has got great speed, so we’ve got to find different ways to use him other than just in the backfield.”
One of the exciting transfer portal additions of the off-season was former USC and Arizona wide receiver Dorian Singer, and he’s making an immediate positive impression.
“Dorian Singer looked really good today, he’s probably the furthest ahead of any of them, he’s got the most experience,” Whittingham said “The young receivers, we’ve got three or four of those guys that got the talent, got the ability, they just need to figure things out at this level.”
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the offensive line already seems to be taking shape, despite losing a couple key players to the NFL.
“(We’ve got) two young tackles, of course Spencer (Fano) he’s only going to be a true sophomore, but he played a bunch for us last year, he moved over to the right side for now,” Whittingham said. “Caleb Lomu, he’s a redshirt freshman, he’s playing the left tackle spot, so young guys there but very talented. Micheal Mokofisi, he’s a main stay at the guard spot. Koli (Faaiu) was back at center for us. Left guard right now, Tanoa Togiai to the reps there today, and he’s a big, physical kid. So we feel much like last year. We probably have 9 to 10, maybe 11 guys that we can run with.”
