A few weeks after star tight end Brant Kuithe suffered a season-ending injury, Utah turned to its other star tight end, Dalton Kincaid, to help compensate for the loss.
“He’s an absolute athlete. He’s got to be one of the best tight ends in the country, without a doubt.” — Utah coach Kyle Whittingham on Dalton Kincaid
And Kincaid rose to the occasion with a remarkable performance.
In the Utes’ memorable 43-42 win over USC on Oct. 15, he torched the Trojans, catching 16 passes for a career-high 234 yards and a touchdown.
Kincaid was targeted 16 times and caught every ball thrown his way.
He finished one reception shy of the single-game FBS record for a tight end. New Mexico’s Emilio Vallez had 17 catches against UTEP in 1967 and Northwestern’s Jon Harvey had 17 catches against Michigan in 1982.
“He’s an absolute athlete,” coach Kyle Whittingham said about Kincaid after the game. “He’s got to be one of the best tight ends in the country, without a doubt.”
All season, Kincaid has been a valuable weapon in Utah’s offense. He’s the Utes’ leading receiver, having caught 66 passes for 843 yards and eight touchdowns. He’s averaging 12.9 yards per reception.
However, he has suffered injuries twice while scoring touchdowns. The first time was at Washington State, and he missed the game the following week against Arizona.
Then last week at Colorado, Kincaid was injured while making an acrobatic touchdown grab in the first half. He did not return.
What’s Kincaid’s status as Utah prepares to face USC in the Pac-12 championship game Friday in Las Vegas?
“We expect him to play,” Whittngham said. “It’s not a guarantee but we’ll see what happens.”
The Utes figure the Trojans will adjust defensively and focus on containing Kincaid this time around.
“You would think so,” Whittingham said. “If I were them and seeing what he’s done and what he did the last time we played, I’m sure they’ll have some sort of tactic to slow him down a little bit.”
Whittingham said “it’s crazy” that Kincaid isn’t a finalist for the Mackey Award, emblematic of the nation’s top tight end, or the Biletnikoff Award, for that matter.
Why was Kincaid so productive against USC back in October?
“I don’t want to make it sound like he wasn’t good at the onset. But we’ve just been featuring him more and more and he’s made more and more plays,” Whittingham said. “You saw the catch that he made that he got dinged up on in the Colorado game. That was spectacular. It’s just a matter of continuing to maximize his skill set and understanding how incredible that skill set is. … He’s a terrific talent. He is a guy that every week we need to target a bunch of times.”
Pac-12 Championship Game
No. 14 Utah (9-3, 8-2)
vs. No. 6 USC (11-1, 8-1)
Friday, 6 p.m. MST
Allegiant Stadium
TV: Fox
Radio: ESPN 700