It’s about that time.
Next week, Utah will head out onto the field at the Spence and Cleone Eccles Football Center for the first of 15 spring practices, giving coaches their first look at the 2024 team as it enters its inaugural season in the Big 12 Conference.
Here are four storylines to watch for as the Utes get underway with spring practices on Tuesday, ending on April 13 with the annual “22 Forever” spring game at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
The backup quarterback race
Sophomore quarterback Brandon Rose has a big opportunity as the Utes begin spring ball. The three-star recruit has been at Utah for two seasons, sticking it out while running the scout team even as just about every other quarterback around him opted to transfer.
While the starting job obviously belongs to Cam Rising, this spring is going to provide an excellent idea of who his backup could be, and as we learned last season, having a good backup quarterback — especially in the transfer portal era — is very valuable.
Rose wasn’t deemed ready to play by Utah’s coaching staff last season, and even as Nate Johnson entered the transfer portal and Bryson Barnes struggled down the stretch, including in the Las Vegas Bowl, Rose didn’t see the field.
The arm talent is there for Rose — he completed 19 of 24 passes for 233 yards and a touchdown in last year’s spring game — and with another season under his belt, he’s the favorite to win the backup job.
It’s unclear how much Isaac Wilson, the four-star freshman and Corner Canyon phenom, will participate in the spring. Wilson told the Deseret News in December that he was waiting on a donor match for a knee surgery.
“It’s a cadaver (surgery), so I have to get new bone and cartilage put into my femur. I chipped off a couple pieces, so I’ll get surgery after I get a match,” Wilson said in December. “So it could be next week or I don’t know, three months from now. We just have to get a match. But I’ll be in a lock brace for four weeks, not being able to walk. But then after three months I’ll start lifting and getting into it and I’ll be at 100% by six months and I’ll be working with Utah all the way through that.”
Wilson participated in January’s Polynesian Bowl, completing his first 12 passes in the game. If he does play in the spring for Utah, he has the talent to challenge Rose for the backup spot. Wilson set the all-time Utah high school football record for total offense in a season — 4,595 passing yards and 1,306 rushing yards, totaling 5,901 yards of offense in 2023.
Utah did not bring in a transfer quarterback in time for spring football, though there’s still time to do so before fall camp, and as starting spots dwindle for the large number of quarterbacks still in the transfer portal, a backup option at Utah to continue their college career could look more and more attractive.
Who will emerge at safety?
After Cole Bishop and Sione Vaki left for the NFL draft, Utah will replace its two starting safeties. Spring will be a good first look at the candidates to fill Bishop’s and Vaki’s shoes at the starting positions, including Nate Ritchie, Johnathan Hall, Alaka’i Gilman and Tao Johnson.
Ritchie and Hall started in the Las Vegas Bowl after Bishop and Vaki declared for the draft, which could have been an early preview of 2024.
Ritchie started all five games in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. After returning from serving a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, it took time for Ritchie to get his feet back under him; an injury that caused him to miss spring practices in 2023 didn’t help. Once healthy, Ritchie made some important spot appearances for the Utes — starting the USC game after Bishop missed the first half due to a targeting call in the previous game, starting against Arizona and starting against Northwestern in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Hall played on defense in six games last season, and had a career-high five tackles against Northwestern, including a sack.
Whittingham has mentioned that Tao Johnson, who started 12 games at nickel back, could move to safety in 2024, and spring ball is the time to experiment. Johnson played safety at times in 2023 and could seamlessly make the move, with Smith Snowden taking over the starting nickel spot.
Stanford senior Alaka’i Gilman is another option at the position. Gilman earned an All-Pac-12 honorable mention spot in 2023, playing in nine games last season (starting all nine), and totaled 50 tackles, an interception and three pass breakups.
Which transfer players will make their case to start?
Some key players transferred from Utah during the offseason — running back Ja’Quinden Jackson, wide receiver Mikey Matthews and cornerback JaTravis Broughton — but the transfer portal swings both ways, and the Utes added nine transfers ahead of spring camp opening up.
In each year since the advent of the transfer portal, there’s been at least one player who has made a big impact for the Utes, and in 2024, there are multiple candidates to earn a starting position.
Perhaps the most intriguing transfer addition is wide receiver Dorian Singer, a transfer from USC. The senior wideout has a chance to become Utah’s go-to receiver, especially with Devaughn Vele and Matthews gone. Singer had 24 receptions for 289 yards and three touchdowns last season with the Trojans, which would have ranked third for the Utes in 2023, but a year prior to that, at Arizona, he finished with 1,105 receiving yards and six touchdowns on 66 receptions, good for second in the Pac-12 that season.
Kenan Johnson, a senior cornerback from Georgia Tech, could slide into a starting role at cornerback. The Utes have a starting spot open with the departure of Broughton and Miles Battle’s graduation, and Johnson’s experience will be a big plus. The 6-foot-1, 183-pound Johnson had 29 tackles, two forced fumbles, four pass deflections and an interception, while starting eight games and playing in 11. He had the highest defensive grade on Georgia Tech’s team, according to Pro Football Focus.
As mentioned, there’s also a path to a starting position for Gilman, who has the most experience among Utah’s 2024 safety group.
Spring is an important time for transfer players in particular — it’s their first chance to be coached by Utah’s staff and start building chemistry with their new teammates, all while proving in practice why they should be a candidate for a starting role.
How will the running back position shake out?
Utah has about six promising running backs and one ball.
Last year, Jackson got the lion’s share of the carries, 161, with Jaylon Glover (137) and Vaki (42) also playing big roles.
Running backs coach Quinton Ganther will start getting an idea of the pecking order between Micah Bernard, Glover, Mike Mitchell, John Randle Jr., Dijon Stanley and Anthony Woods.
Bernard, who missed all but two games last season after suffering an off-the-field injury after the Florida game, is probably the lead candidate for the RB1 role. He has a lot of experience, is a versatile runner and is Utah’s best pass-catcher out of the backfield. In 2022, Bernard had the second-most carries on the team — 106 — and rushed for 533 yards and four scores, while adding 34 receptions for 314 yards and a touchdown.
Glover came on strong at the end of the season, notching his first career 100-yard rushing game against Colorado and also turning in an 86-yard performance against UCLA. He finished the season with 562 yards and two touchdowns on 137 carries.
One of Utah’s four-star redshirt freshman/sophomore trio — Mitchell, Randle and Stanley — could have the opportunity to get some real playing time for the first time in their careers.
Idaho transfer Woods is another candidate for a large number of carries. Last season for the Vandals, the 5-foot-10, 175-pound junior was named first-team All-Big Sky last season after rushing for 1,131 yards and 16 touchdowns, averaging 5.5 yards per carry.
In case you missed it
Utah men’s basketball enters its final two regular season games squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble. The Utes close on the road, where they have struggled this season, against Oregon State and Oregon. Utah still has a chance at a top four seed in the Pac-12 tournament, as Brandon Judd breaks down here.
From the archives
Extra points
- Former Utah star Jaylon Johnson receives franchise tag from Chicago Bears (Deseret News)
- Where The Athletic ranked Kyle Whittingham among top college football coaches (Deseret News)
- One last look at Branden Carlson’s memorable Senior Night (Deseret News)
Up next
- March 6-9 | All day | Skiing | NCAA championships | @ Steamboat Springs, Colorado
- March 8 | 7 p.m. | Gymnastics | Arizona | @ Tucson, Arizona
- March 9 | 5 p.m. | Men’s basketball | Oregon | @ Eugene, Oregon
All times MST.