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The Utah football team put on full pads for the first time in fall camp. The first team did not tackle, but the second team did. The defense won the practice today. The quarterbacks did not perform very well today, but it was really the wide receivers who struggled. Utah did situational drills today with a red zone drill, and head coach Kyle Whittingham highlighted the play of the defense in that drill.
Quarterbacks
There still is not separation between the quarterbacks yet. Whittingham did praise the play of Troy Williams, but he is not ready to name a starter yet. All three of the quarterbacks struggled with accuracy and ball placement today. Tyler Huntley had the best throw of the day. He was on the run and completed a great pass to tight end Chad Hekking.
Running Backs
The running backs had some nice moments, but overall, there was little room to run. Joe Williams is still the frontrunner to be the starter. He has a nice mix of speed and power. He was not dancing in the backfield and was trying to find the hole and running. Troy McCormick is a nice change of pace back. He has great speed and is very shifty in the open field. Zack Moss and Devonta’e Henry-Cole both are showing promise. They are both power backs with decent speed.
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
The wide receivers really struggled today. There were too many drops today (Caleb Repp, Tyrone Smith, and Kenric Young all had drops). Tyler Cooperwood showed off some nice speed and moves after a catch. Raelon Singleton had a nice catch. He is a huge wide receiver and was hard for the defense to stop after he caught the ball. Repp did have a catch on the day and got some nice run after the catch where he used his size to fight for extra yards. Wide receiver coach Guy Holliday was not happy with the play from his group today, but he did say they have shown promise in camp. He highlighted the play of Tim Patrick, who he said is having the best camp, and Kyle Fulks especially. Despite the drops today, there really is potential with this group, especially given the size Utah has at wide receiver.
Utah is experimenting with multiple tight end sets per Whittingham in an attempt to get the best players on the field. Harrison Handley has definitely put on good weight since last season. Evan Moeai had a nice catch at practice. Hekking made a nice contested catch in the red zone drill. Whittingham said there really is not much separation between the tight ends.
Offensive Line
J.J. Dielman was still working at center. He had two bad snaps (one low and one over the quarterback’s head) that the quarterbacks could not handle. Whittingham said he is still coming along, but he is not ready to make him the starter at center yet. Overall, the defensive line won the battle today against the offensive line.
Defense
The defensive line really has a lot of depth and talent. They were bottling up running lanes and applying almost constant pressure during practice. The three freshman defensive linemen: Bradlee Anae, Leki Fotu, and Maxs Tupai all looked great today. Pita Taumoepenu showed off excellent pass rushing skills. Filipo Mokofisi batted down a Troy Williams pass and nearly intercepted it. Hunter Dimick and Kylie Fitts also both put a lot of pressure on the quarterbacks today.
The linebackers were again solid today. They did not do much to stand out like their counterparts on the defensive line and secondary, but they did their job helping in both run support and pass coverage.
The secondary had their best day of fall camp. They broke up a lot of passes today and were playing with a lot of aggressiveness. Dominique Hatfield had the best pass breakup on the day while covering Smith. Reggie Porter broke up a pass intended for Repp. Justin Blackmon and Jordan Fogal also each had a pass breakup during practice.