A youth movement is on full display in Utah’s football program.
As Joe Pesci said in “My Cousin Vinny,” there were plenty of “Utes” on the field last Saturday, making their collegiate debut, in the 33-17 loss to USC.
Of Utah’s 22 starters on offense and defense, there were eight first-time starters, including three in the defensive secondary — sophomore JaTravis Broughton and true freshmen Clark Phillips and Nate Ritchie.
The other first-time starters were sophomore quarterback Cam Rising; redshirt freshmen offensive linemen Keaton Bills and Sataoa Laumea; true freshmen offensive linemen Jaren Kump; and true freshman linebacker Sione Fotu.
In fact, 19 of the 57 Utes who played against the Trojans were making their first FBS appearance. And true freshmen, redshirt freshmen and sophomores made up 33 of the 57 Utah players that saw action last weekend.
That’s a lot of Utes.
“All those true freshman that had a chance to play their first collegiate football did some good things,” said coach Kyle Whittingham. “That was positive.”
What about the defensive secondary in particular? How did it fare against a talented quarterback and a stable of USC wide receivers that could be playing in the National Football League soon?
“Not bad. We made some plays. We had a nice interception and could have had one or two others. We didn’t really give up deep balls over the top. That secondary will get better. It was a big test,” Whittingham said. “That’s probably the best corps of wide receivers in the Pac-12. For a lot of guys that haven’t played before, it wasn’t bad. But we’ve got to get better. Young, old, it doesn’t matter. Nobody cares if you’re young or old or inexperienced or experienced. You’ve got to perform. We’ve got to fix some issues that we’ve got.”
Phillips, the highly touted cornerback who originally committed to Ohio State before signing with Utah, gave an honest assessment of his team’s performance, and his own.
“It wasn’t the way we expected it to go. We didn’t come out on top,” he said. “In my first college start, I put some good things on film and some bad things. This week in practice, we’re going to get better.”
Phillips said a lot of preparation revolves around “understanding what the offense is going to do to try to attack us, and me specifically, and the defense as a whole.”
How does Phillips assess the performance of the defensive newcomers?
“To be real, we all put out some great things on film. But also there was some inexperience shown,” he said. “We made some goofy plays, some plays that probably we would have loved to keep off film. But that’s what it’s for. It was game 1. From here out on we’ve got to keep on learning and getting better week by week.”
Fotu, a Bingham High product, got a lot of playing time as Nephi Sewell, who scored Utah’s first touchdown of the season on a scoop-and-score and also recorded an interception, manned a hybrid outside linebacker/safety position in a scheme designed for USC.
Linebackers coach Colton Swan liked what he saw out of Fotu.
“He played really well. There’s some bright lights on you as an 18-year-old kid, freshman out of high school, he did really well. There’s always room for improvement,” he said. “He’s constantly trying to sharpen his skills. He’s a very conscientious kid. He’s smart, loves to fly around and make plays, which he did. But we’re going to take that film and get better. That’s his mindset.”
For Whittingham, this season isn’t just about developing for the future. The way he sees it, the future is now.
“This is not a season where we’re just working on trying to get guys better for the future. We want to win now. We’re competing now, we want to win now. It’s probably going to take time to get these guys up to speed,” he said. “We knew that going into the season. It’s no surprise. We lost a heckuva defense unit — nine guys off that defense are all in the National Football League. That tells you how good that crew was. It’s like starting over with the exception of a few guys. The guys that got their opportunity (Saturday) did some good things and made some mistakes. We knew that was going happen. But there were a lot of positives pieces we can build on on the defensive side of the ball.”
Whittingham is hoping these Utes can make marked improvement when they take the field again this weekend.