Some Utah football fans might still be lamenting the loss of receivers Paris Warren and Steve Savoy, who may each get selected in this weekend's NFL draft. If the Utes only had a receiver like Warren or Savoy on this year's team for Brian Johnson to throw to ...
Uh, actually they do.
Senior wide receiver John Madsen possesses everything Warren and Savoy had and more. He's taller, can jump higher and, get this, he's faster.
When NFL scouts came to town to watch Savoy and Warren work out last month, Madsen tagged along and may have impressed the scouts even more than his former teammates.
Besides his 39-inch vertical leap, he ran 4.50 in the 40-yard dash, which was faster than both Warren and Savoy and also better than the posted time by USC receiver Mike Williams, who is expected to be a top 10 pick today.
"Maybe because I'm bigger people think I'm slower, but that's not really the case," Madsen said. "I grew up kind of small, but the bigger I got, the faster I got. Hopefully it keeps going that way."
At 6-foot-4 and 228 pounds, Madsen is a size most people figure is better suited for a tight end. But Madsen is definitely a wide receiver, one whom coach Kyle Whittingham says will be one of the team's top offensive threats this fall.
Unfortunately for Ute fans, they won't be able to see Madsen perform in today's Red-White game. In last Saturday's scrimmage, Madsen sprained his shoulder and the Utes opted to keep him out as a "precautionary measure." He is expected to be 100 percent when fall camp opens in August.
Whittingham can't say enough good things about the former Snow College receiver, who never even played a down of high school football.
"We're counting on him to be one of our playmakers this year," Whittingham said. "John's got all the tools — size, speed, intelligence, good hands. He has all the physical talents to be a great wide receiver."
Last year, most of the attention went to Warren, who caught 80 passes, and Savoy, who grabbed 67. Madsen finished tied for third on the team with Travis LaTendresse with 27 receptions, gaining 377 yards with five touchdowns.
"He was overshadowed last year because there were only so many catches to go around last year and his role was diminished," Whittingham said. "This year he's going to be in a featured role."
"He might be the best-kept secret in the league," he added.
Not if you keep gushing about him, coach.
Madsen didn't take the normal route to becoming a top-flight college receiver. Although he played little league football, Madsen never played football at Hunter High. A hernia operation kept him from playing football as a sophomore and Madsen decided to concentrate on basketball and baseball after that.
He went to Snow, expecting to play basketball, but a bunch of his friends from Hunter who went to Ephraim to play football convinced him to try out. When the coaches saw his skills, he was welcomed with open arms, although he redshirted his first season.
"My football skills were not very good," he said. "I had no idea how to read defenses or anything."
The next year, he wasn't exactly gangbusters, ranking fourth on the team in catches. But he caught the eye of some college coaches and when Madsen read that new Utah coach Urban Meyer was hurting for receivers, he headed north and walked onto the team.
He moved up the depth chart and, in just the second game of the year against Texas A&M, caught a late touchdown pass from Brett Elliott, the last pass Elliott would throw for Utah before getting injured. The rest of the year, Madsen saw spotty action behind Savoy.
However, last year, he emerged in spring ball and became one of the key components of the Utes' 12-0 season.
Now with Warren and Savoy heading to the pros, Madsen knows he'll have a lot more responsibility in a thinner receiver corps.
"Travis and I have a lot of weight on our shoulders with Paris and Steve gone," said Madsen. "But we have a lot of new guys stepping up like Brian Hernandez, Derrick Richards and Thomas Huff."
Madsen says the Utes should be potent again offensively, but with a new look under offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig.
"Last year we were spread about 99 percent of the time," he said. "This year it will be 40 to 60 percent. We'll throw as much as last year and have more play-action passes and a little deeper routes. It works perfectly for us."
It's still a long way off, but if things go right, Madsen could hear his name called a year from today at the 2006 draft. Who knows, maybe even by the Chicago Bears, his favorite team since he was a child.
"Oh yeah, definitely," he said of playing in the NFL. "That's been a dream of mine since I was 9 years old. I'm going to play my best this year and see what happens."
"He's already caught the eyes of the scouts," said Whittingham. "He doesn't really have any weaknesses. He's a definite prospect."
E-mail: sor@desnews.com