Coach Kyle Whittingham learned his lesson a year ago when he said his quarterback situation was as good as any in the country and his wide receiver corps was the best in the Mountain West Conference.
This year he's being a little more careful about making bold statements. When asked earlier this week if his receiving corps was the best in the conference, he said, "We are ONE of the best receiving corps in the league."
Aw, c'mon coach, go ahead and say it. Can you imagine a better receiving group in the Mountain West Conference than the Utes have this year?
The only receivers not back from last year are the graduated Fano Tagovailoa and Sean Smith, who has switched over to the secondary. Each caught just one pass last year, meaning the Utes have 99.1 percent of their receiver production back from last year.
Derrek Richards, Brian Hernandez, Brent Casteel, Bradon Godfrey, Marquis Wilson and Freddie Brown are all back this year after catching 210 of the 212 passes that were thrown to wide receivers last year, including 2,695 of the 2,742 yards.
The six wide receivers are almost interchangeable, with two, Hernandez and Wilson, able to play any of the Utes' four X, Y, Z and H wideout positions and all able to play at least two.
"There is no one guy who you can say is a go-to guy," Whittingham said. "We have a bunch of go-to guys."
Leading the way are Richards and Hernandez. They were the top two receivers a year ago with 60 and 47 catches, respectively, and are the two seniors of the talented group. The other four are juniors and a freshman, Jereme Brooks, is expected to be used in the rotation this year.
"We run four wideouts a lot so we need to have depth," receivers coach Aaron Roderick said. "We like to rotate fresh legs in there and look to be running fast late in the game."
Nobody appreciates the talented Ute receivers more than junior quarterback Brian Johnson.
"I don't think you could ask for a better group of guys to be around," Johnson said. "They all have different talents. That's what makes the group so special is that they all have different things they can do to help exploit defenses."
Johnson says Casteel and Wilson are great with the ball in their hands, while Godfrey is a "tough, hard-nosed player" who makes the tough catch over the middle. Hernandez, Richards and Brown "can stretch the field with their speed and keep defenses honest," Johnson says.
Richards is "probably the fastest guy on the team in a dead sprint," said Roderick. "He's a tough guy who came here as a walk-on and has earned everything he's got."
The former American Fork standout says he and Hernandez welcome the role of leaders this year as seniors.
"We're taking it upon ourselves to be the best receiving group in the conference," Richards said.
While Richards may be the fastest player on the team, Hernandez isn't far behind. In his two previous years at Utah, he wasn't able to show off his speed due to injuries to his ankle and quadricep.
"I feel as fast as I've ever been at Utah, by far," he said. "It's not even close. Last year I was not running well. I had the ankle issue. I wasn't full strength and I wasn't in shape."
Adds Roderick, "His injuries were even worse than were documented. I don't know how he played, I really don't."
Casteel plays the H back position, which allows him a lot of carries as a rusher — he was the team's second leading rusher last year — and to get a lot of short passes and make plays out of them.
"Brent is exciting with the ball," said Roderick. "We say 'throw short and run long."'
Wilson is similar to Casteel, able to make a lot of yardage after catching the ball and is "dynamic with the ball in his hands," according to Roderick. The one question with Wilson is whether he'll have to miss any time for his off-season DUI arrest.
Godfrey, who prepped at Layton High and played a year at Southern Utah, is known as a "possession receiver," although he hates to be called that.
"He's fearless and he likes the contact of the game," said Roderick. "He's got great range and catches the ball well."
Perhaps the least known of the dandy half-dozen is Brown, who joined the team in August 2005 after using up his redshirt year at Citrus JC. He caught four passes that year and 17 in 2006.
"He's probably the best all-around athlete," said Roderick. "He's fast, he's tall (6-3), he can jump, he can change direction. He's going to have a good year for us."
Adding to the mix is Brooks, a 5-9, 165-pounder from the Houston area. He has impressed the coaches enough that he is expected to see a fair amount of action this year as a true freshman.
"He arrived on campus with a high level of football intelligence," said Roderick. "He was very advanced for a young kid. He picked up on what we were doing right away."
So what do you say, coach, isn't this the best group of receivers in the MWC?
"They're an extremely solid group," Whittingham said. "We expect them to be productive every single week."
E-mail: sor@desnews.com