You really can’t count any of them out at this point. That’s going to have to change soon, but right now, they’re doing a nice job. – Kyle Whittingham
SALT LAKE CITY — The best way to decide which order Ute quarterbacks will sit on the depth chart is simply to allow them to play in live situations as much as possible.
“The best opportunity to evaluate the quarterbacks is in the 11-on-11 situations,” said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham. “We were always big on that. I don’t know if we’re doing it more, but we’ve done a lot of it. We’re trying to manufacture as many reps and evaluation opportunities for those quarterbacks.”
Senior Travis Wilson takes most of the snaps with the first-string, and Whittingham said the veteran is leading on the stat sheet as well.
“He had the highest completion percentage on Tuesday,” Whittingham said. “We keep track of every throw of every practice. We’ll have (Thursday’s) tabulations tomorrow, but coming out of practice one, he was far and away the leader statistically.”
He said Kendal Thompson is extremely limited as he recovers from an ACL tear suffered in the Oregon game last season.
“Kendal is so limited, he’s not really in the equation right now,” Whittingham said. “All he can do are the drills that don’t involve any sort of pass rush. His reps, as we get the pads on him, will decrease even more because we can’t put him in harms way.”
He said all of the quarterbacks had some impressive moments, but he singled out redshirt freshman Chase Hansen, a Lone Peak graduate who returned from an LDS Church mission in December.
“Chase Hansen is a guy who is doing a good job as well,” Whittingham said. “Yeah, Connor (Manning) looked good today, but Chase, don’t count him out. And Brandon Cox. You really can’t count any of them out at this point. That’s going to have to change soon, but right now, they’re doing a nice job. Redshirt freshman Donovan Isom is probably a little bit behind the others as far as command of the offense.”
He said Hansen seems to have picked up just where he left off when he left for his mission.
“He’s just what we hoped he would be,”Whittingham said. “He’s smart, he’s tough, he’s fast, and the quarterbacks are going to spend a great deal of the time live. Because we get our best evaluations when it’s live; that’s when you really will start to see some separation.”
Whittingham said coaches aren’t discussing — or even considering — moving any of the quarterbacks to other positions.
As far as the rest of the team, Whittingham is pretty impressed.
“The first two days were exceptional,” Whittingham said. “It’s still football without pads on, so you can’t get too caught up in it, but as far as the attitude, the energy, the tempo of the practice, everything that’s going on, it’s been every positive.”
The next practice is 10-noon on Saturday. All practices are free and open to the public when they're outside.
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