Washington transfer receiver Taeshaun Lyons certainly has had the right attitude since arriving at Utah.
The former four-star receiver, who played sparingly for the 2024 College Football Playoff runner-up, has been in Salt Lake City since winter, learning the ropes and starting to build chemistry with Ute quarterback Cam Rising and the rest of the wide receiver room.
Lyons sat behind one of the most talented wide receiver rooms in the country, which featured Rome Odunze (who could be a top 10 selection in this April’s NFL draft), Ja’Lynn Polk (who also broke the 1,000-receiving yard mark) and Jalen McMillan.
Practicing and being around those potential future NFL stars taught him how to carry himself like a pro.
“Honestly, I feel like I wouldn’t be here without those guys I sat behind last year — Polk, McMillan, Odunze,” Lyons said. “I owe a lot to them.
“The main thing to take away was I learned how to be a pro, knowing that when I get to these opportunities where I’m on the field myself, situational ball, how to just carry myself and carry myself around the team in the locker room.”
Specifically, Lyons said that he learned a lot about moves in the middle and top of routes from McMillan, Odunze showed him how to be a pro at watching film and studying opposing defenses, and wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard passed on his knowledge of schemes.
It was a crash course in how to be a successful Power Four receiver from players who will almost surely play at the next level.
As Lyons continues to learn offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig’s pro-style offense, one thing stands out for the the 6-foot-1, 177-pound redshirt freshman from Hayward, California — he’s going to need to block in the run game.
“Being able to take pride in the run game is something that you got to know you got to do to get on the field. It’s not just the skill you have running your routes and catching the ball. If you want to get on the field, you got to block,” Lyons said.
Lyons and the other new receivers are acclimating to the program well and learning Ludwig’s playbook as spring progresses.
“It is been right on pace, right on par with what we expect,” receivers coach Alvis Whitted said. “The offense is obviously going to be cumulative, so they’re just going to have to stay on top of things, but at the end of the day, I think we have really smart guys. Taeshaun is a smart kid. His football intelligence is pretty sharp.”
While Utah has historically been a run-first offense, under Ludwig and quarterback Cam Rising, they’ve thrown the ball plenty as well. In the senior quarterback’s last healthy season, 2022, he threw for 3,034 yards and 26 touchdowns as Utah passed the ball on about 45% of its plays from scrimmage.
Building that chemistry with Rising is important, and Lyons has been in Salt Lake City for a couple of months already ahead of his first spring ball with Utah.
“Just throwing the ball as much as we can and just try to go over our plays as much as we can so that they’re flying around making plays and not thinking about what we’re doing,” Rising said about the work that he’s doing with Utah’s new wide receivers.
Lyons isn’t the only new transfer in the wide receivers room, as former Arizona and USC wideout Dorian Singer joined the Utes this offseason.
Singer’s breakout season came at Arizona in 2022. The former walk-on ranked No. 14 in the nation in receiving yards that year, hauling in 66 receptions for 1,105 yards and six touchdowns.
The 6-foot, 177-pound senior caught 24 passes for 289 yards and three touchdowns in 2023 with USC as he saw his snaps fall to 402 from 817 in 2022.
Since arriving at Utah, the veteran receiver has quickly taken on a leadership role.
“I think Dorian is a leader by virtue of the things that he does off the field,” Whitted said. “I think he’s gained a lot of respect from not just my room, but I think a lot of the other kids on the team, and he’s a very selfless guy. He doesn’t say a whole lot, but he goes about his business the right way.”
On the field, Singer’s talent is obvious, with good hands and great speed. With the graduation of Devaughn Vele, who was Utah’s most prolific wide receiver last year, Whitted said that Utah needs to find “the guy” in the wide receiver room, and Singer just might fit that bill.
“I think he has the ability and the potential to, once he gets going and acclimated to the offense, I think he does have that potential,” Whitted said.
After Day 1 of spring practice last week, Singer drew rave reviews from head coach Kyle Whittingham, who said the transfer looked good and was the furthest ahead of any of the new wide receivers.
“It’s very apparent that just watching the way he moves and operates during the winter conditioning, he’s got a lot of skill and ability to play the wide receiver position,” Whittingham said on Tuesday, noting that Singer had not practiced this week due to a “little lower leg injury” but that it’s nothing serious and that he hopes Singer is back out there next week.
Like Lyons, Singer arrived on campus two months ago. Ludwig highlighted the work he put in during winter conditioning and that praise has carried over to spring camp.
“Very athletic, good change of direction, good speed player, and then demonstrated ball skills yesterday,” Ludwig said, “So very excited about him. He’s been around the block a little bit, so has great experience and football intellect and look forward to highlighting his skills.”
When he arrived in Salt Lake City, Singer started throwing with Rising and building chemistry, and he likes what he’s seen so far from the veteran quarterback — especially his command and knowledge of the playbook.
Having played for two former Pac-12 foes, Singer is well aware of Utah’s defense, and he says going against it every day in practice is going to make him better.
“It feels good just knowing that we have one of the best defenses in the nation and you’re going against them every day and just getting the best out of them and they’re getting the best out of me,” Singer said.
Singer had interest from plenty of schools when he announced his intention to transfer this offseason, but what drew him to Utah was the team’s culture.
“Coach Whitt and his program always has had a winning culture since the time he’s been here. And he’s a coach that I know is not going anywhere in terms of leaving or anything like that,” Singer said. ”Just the vision that they had for me and for the team. It just worked all together.”
The Utes haven’t had a receiver accumulate 1,000 or more yards in a single season since Dres Anderson did in 2013, though Oregon transfer Darren Carrington came close in 2017 with 980. Singer will certainly get more snaps at Utah than he did at USC, and the Utes’ coaches are hopeful that Singer can replicate Carrington’s success as an instant-impact transfer receiver.
“For myself, just a big year,” Singer said. ”Whatever I can do to contribute to this team to help us win because the team’s success is my success as well.”