Utah football wrapped up their second of five weeks of spring practice today. Practice occurred on Friday instead of Saturday because of the LDS Church general conference this weekend.
In the embedded video below from the Salt Lake Tribune, you can hear head coach Kyle Whittingham talk about practice today.
It sounds like the offense is progressing, but there are still issues in the "throw game." Utah has struggled to throw the ball effectively since joining the Pac-12 Conference. There is still a three-way battle at the quarterback position between Brandon Cox, JUCO transfer Troy Williams, and true freshman Tyler Huntley. According to Dirk Facer of the Deseret News here, co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Aaron Roderick said, "I don't mean to sound like a politician but all three of them looked good today." The quarterback battle could still be going into fall camp if no one separates himself in spring.
In the video, you can see a few too many dropped passes by the wide receivers, which could also be contributing to the struggles in the passing game. It does sound like the offensive line did a better job in pass protection today, and remember, the offensive line is missing the two likely starters at offensive tackle (Garett Bolles who will arrive this summer and J.J. Dielman who is out with an injury).
Whittingham also said that "Chase Hansen will be added to [safety] when he gets healthy," which likely means the coaches feel good about what they have at quarterback and feel Hansen can best help the team on defense (which does not surprise me). Whittingham overall feels like the depth at safety is great.
The best way to sum up spring so far is progress. According to Facer, Whittingham said, "I think through six practices, we have not had a bad practice. We've taken a step forward every practice. Some bigger steps than others." Utah has three more weeks to progress before the end of spring camp. Utah will practice next week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday (Thursday is closed to the public and media).