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Thinking back to a memorable debut season in Utah after arriving in Salt Lake City from Auburn, one moment stands out for tight end Landen King.
King scored a critical touchdown in Utah’s win over USC, hauling in the score after quarterback Bryson Barnes scrambled to buy time, to break a 14-14 tie and put the Utes on top in the third quarter.
As King got up from the touchdown grab, running back Jaylon Glover was there to perform the celebration the two had been planning — a scene from the Japanese animated show “Dragon Ball Z.”
“Scoring that and doing a little ‘Dragon Ball Z’ celebration … I tell Glove almost every week, I appreciate him doing that for me. I love anime that much, so just being able to put that on a big screen. That was pretty cool,” a smiling King said on a picture-perfect spring day after Tuesday’s practice.
If things go right for the junior tight end, there’s going to be plenty more celebrations this season.
“It’s coming. We’re doing the most this year. Just letting y’all know,” King said, listing “Naruto” and “Demon Slayer” as other favorite anime shows.
King took on an elevated role last season after Brant Kuithe was out for the year due to knee rehab and Thomas Yassmin suffered a season-ending injury, finishing the year with 14 receptions for 166 yards and three touchdowns while being one of Utah’s most sure-handed patch-catchers, with zero on-target passes dropped on the season, according to Pro Football Focus.
While Utah’s coaches were pleased with King’s performance, one thing continued to hold him back from reaching his full potential — his weight. The majority of the time that King’s name was brought up to coaches last year, the need for the tight end to gain pounds was normally mentioned, and for good reason.
Last year, tight ends coach Freddie Whittingham met with King and showed him NFL rosters — every tight end’s weight was listed at 235 pounds or heavier.
King is listed at 222 pounds on Utah’s spring roster, and he is trying to get up to at least that 235 mark, but gaining weight when you have a college-age metabolism and are extremely physically active can be a challenge.
“Oh yeah, for sure man. We’ve been doing good,” King said about bulking up heading into fall.
King’s dad, Trevence, who played college basketball at Stephen F. Austin in the 1980s, is in town and is cooking King’s meals for him. King has the list of how many calories he needs to eat per day and is following it diligently, waking up at 5:30 a.m. every day to kick it off early with a protein shake.
While his pass-catching ability and athleticism after the catch was well-documented last season, King is looking to round out his skillset and has focused on improving his blocking this offseason.
“Blocking and inside hands, that’s something that me and Coach Freddie have really been putting the ‘T’ on, and I think I’ve been getting a lot better at that,” King said.
Although they haven’t seen the field in a game together, King and fellow tight end Kuithe — both from Texas — became fast friends last season.
“Brant, he’s like my right-hand man. I talk to Brant every day. I hang out with him every day. He’s from Texas, so I mean we already had the bond for real and he’s just trying to give me every little nugget I could get and I’m just trying to learn off him. But every time we in film, I’m watching everything he doing,” King said.
After last year’s quarterback carousel, King said that it’s nice to know who the starting quarterback is going to be as Cam Rising returns after missing last season with knee rehab.
“We know we got our guy. He commands the offense. He’s that guy for real. So I mean it’s just strides from last year and I’m just happy to be in this position,” King said.
King hasn’t played with Rising yet, but the two have been building chemistry throughout last year and especially this offseason.
“We’ve been throwing for a long time, even last year going into the season, but he’s a special player,” Rising said. “Just put the ball in the vicinity and he’s going to bring it down most of the time.”
In case you missed it
Utah’s men’s basketball’s season came to an end in Indianapolis after the Utes lost in the NIT Final Four, falling to Robbie Avila and Indiana State.
From the archives
Extra points
- Kyle Whittingham’s culture of toughness (Deseret News)
- Utah gymnastics is likely to make continued postseason history (Deseret News)
- What Rollie Worster entering transfer portal means for Utah basketball (Deseret News)
Up next
- April 5 | 11 a.m. | Gymnastics | NCAA regionals | @ Gainesville, Florida
- April 5-7 | Baseball vs. CSUN | @ Salt Lake City
- April 5-7 | Softball | vs. Arizona | @ Salt Lake City
- April 5 | 6 p.m. | Lacrosse | vs. Robert Morris | @ Salt Lake City
All times MDT.