Joe Kearney, commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference, met with the University of Utah football team Wednesday afternoon and commended the Utes - and the WAC - for improved sportsmanship last season.
Kearney is visiting all of the WAC's football teams this week to discuss sportmanship, a practice he began last year in response to several ugly incidents the previous year."I commended them (the Utes) - and all the teams in the league - because there was a concerted effort last year to improve sportsmanship," said Kearney, who also wrote letters to the league's coaches and administrators to the same effect. "Last year was much improved over '88-89. I saw some visible signs of sportsmanship. There wasn't nearly as much yakking. I saw players helping each other up. It was the best I've seen in terms of sportsmanship. I just wanted to relay this to the players and reiterate some things."
Kearney also will hold similar meetings with the WAC basketball teams when they begin practice in the fall.
ROLL CALL: There's still no sign of Cliff Smith, the team's leading rusher a year ago. Team officials said they expect him to join the team today. Of course they also expected him to join the team Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday . . . .
Smith, who has been attending summer school, is still trying to meet academic eligibility requirements.
Smith isn't the only Utah player absent from two-a-day practices. Defensive end Anthony Davis, a junior college transfer from Spokane Falls Community College, still hasn't reported to training camp. He also has been completing classwork and, when last heard from, was trying to make travel arrangements to Salt Lake City.
Utah has had high hopes for Davis. He is listed as the starter in the team's media guide - even though the Utes still have yet to see him in a Utah uniform.
"Yeah, he's missed a lot," says Coach Ron McBride. "He's missed about 10 days (the newcomers reported Aug. 6). He hasn't learned our system, or any of our terminology."
BETTER SPEED: The Utes have improved their speed significantly with the addition of several new players, or should we say sprinters. Wide receiver Khevin Pratt has run an auto-timed 10.39 for 100 meters on the track. Freshman wide receiver Vernon Shaver has run 10.7. Freshman running back Charlie Brown has run 10.6. "I watched Brown and Shaver run against each other in a track meet last summer," says Coach Ron McBride. "Charlie won. It was a good race." According to McBride, defensive end Anthony Davis ran 10.8 in high school.
CONTACT TIME: After three days in shorts, the Utes held their first practice in pads on Wednesday. "Technique-wise, they looked much better than they did in the spring," says McBride. "And they looked quicker. The first time they put on pads in the spring they looked like a bunch of slugs.
The Utes will practice today and Friday, then pack up and move their training camp to Price for the final week of two-a-days.
BYU
PROVO - Everyone else in college football may be anxiously awaiting the BYU-Miami matchup Sept. 8, but the Cougars seem a lot more interested in the UTEP game Sept. 1.
BYU opens on the road against a WAC opponent for the second year in a row, and Coach LaVell Edwards knows how important that game is to the Cougars' title hopes.
Edwards' team has lost two of its last three season openers, and has some reputation for not playing particularly well in those games. So Edwards is more concerned about the two WAC games in the first four weeks of the season than he is about a rematch with the defending national champion Hurricanes.
"It's nice to win them (nonconference games)," he said, "but the key to our season is those first two conference games (against UTEP and San Diego State)."
So this year, the Cougars have taken steps to help them focus on their No. 1 goal - winning the WAC.
Many of the players and staff members are wearing T-shirts that picture the WAC championship trophy front and back. The message on the front is: "The 90's. Who will be the first WAC champs?" And the back reads: "Back to Back WAC - One Step at a Time."
And at the end of practice Wednesday, the offensive team clustered together, did a kind of group high-five and chanted, "1, 2, 3, back-to-back."
SPOTLIGHT: As evidence of interest in the Cougars, consider that ESPN and USA Today were in Provo last week, that a writer from the Los Angeles Times was coming to town Thursday, and that someone from The National is coming Tuesday.
One BYU staff member did note, however, that Sports Illustrated did not make a visit this year, which leads them to suspect the Cougars may not be on SI's preseason Top 20. Whenever they have made that list in the past, someone from the magazine has been dispatched to Provo for a look at the team.
INJURY UPDATE: Sophomore Micah Matsuzaki, second on the depth chart at wide receiver to senior Brent Nyberg, was to undergo a bone scan Wednesday for a lower back problem.
Tight end Chris Smith missed practice Wednesday. He's suffering from a hamstring pull that has nagged him since last spring.
-Rich Evans