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The 2020 football season wasn’t ideal for the majority of college teams. For the University of Utah, five games and starting the season off with Covid issues, only made matters worse. As the young Utes fought and scrapped their way to a 3-2 season, there was a silver lining in the abbreviated season: their green defenders became grizzled vets.

Heading into last season, defense was the big question mark as Utah replaced nine starters and the entire secondary. However, as Kyle Whittingham team’s tend to do, defense became the strength of the squad.

One of the biggest questions was how the cornerbacks would respond as they started one freshman (Clark Phillips III) and two sophomores (JaTravis Broughton and Malone Mataele). The main backup at the corner slots was also a freshman (Faybian Marks).

“We can talk all day in the film room, we can get out and practice against our own guys, but when you have an opportunity to play a real game and make a real tackle, a real PBU, as a young player it develops and builds confidence that there is no substitute for,” said cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah. “It really will pay massive dividends for us going forward.”

Through that experience, two leaders have emerged who both seem to have the swagger of Utah defensive backs before them.

“What you try to look for now, even with a young group with little experience is who is going to emerge as a leader. We all can’t just sit back and say ‘we’re all young.’ Now I am looking for and pushing for a leader out of this young group and right now, I have two that are starting to emerge in Clark Phillips and JaTravis Broughton who I absolutely love and their leadership of how they conduct their business each day, it’s what makes me excited. I don’t have enough vocal kids in my room right now and that is what I am trying to develop right now.”

For Broughton, who saw playing time sparingly as a freshman before emerging as a sophomore, the playing time—even at only five games—was valuable.

“Being able to see yourself and see the mistakes so you can critique it every day and being able to have that confidence of saying ‘yeah, I can lock him up and I can be in his face,’ brings a lot more energy to the room,” said Broughton.

Nickel back Malone Mataele sees how good this group can be, but he also doesn’t want to get ahead of himself, knowing the greatest improvements can come in small increments.

“The goal is to improve each year and build upon the prior year, so I feel like how we’ve been grinding and how we have been meshing off of the field, in the film room and on the field as well, I feel that it is a recipe for building towards successful seasons like we’ve had in the past. But, the ultimate goal is to improve upon what we had last year.”

Humble yet confident, the Utah cornerbacks are ready to show the Pac-12 their young group is playing beyond their years.