Though Utah's offense still has a ways to go before its output rivals last year's Utes, Friday was a huge step in the right direction.
In the first scrimmage of spring ball, the offense stole the show and impressed Kyle Whittingham, who told reporters he felt both quarterbacks (Louks & Cain) and the receivers performed well.
Louks finished the day 8 of 14 for 87-yards and during red zone drills found Shaky Smithson for a 37-yard touchdown pass. He also ran one in from the one-yard line.
Cain, who appears to be Louks' biggest rival for the starting job this season, finished with 73-yards, completing 6 of 11 passes. Like Louks, he threw for one touchdown on the day, hitting Jerome Brooks for the 7-yard score. Cain did, however, throw an interception, which was returned by Brandon Burton for the 82-yard touchdown.
The only other quarterback to see action was Jordan Wynn, who was 2-6 on the day.
Eddie Wide led on the ground with 94-yards on eight carries. His longest run of the day was 50-yards, which set up a touchdown. Freshman Sausan Shakerin had nine carries for 29 yards, including a 1-yard touchdown.
As it is every year, scrimmage results should always be met with some skepticism. It's not to say there aren't positives to take from this, there are, but allowing the hype machine to take over -- as was the case two years ago -- often leaves us burned. But it is nice to see the offense perform at a productive rate and the fact it's happening this early does leave me cautiously optimistic.
But we'll see.