Has Utah found its primary running back, how Utah’s cornerbacks performed down a starter and more from the Utes’ win over Baylor

Utah defeated Baylor 23-12 on Saturday, improving to 2-0 on the season.

Utah led 23-0 in the second quarter before Cam Rising exited with a finger injury on his throwing hand. Postgame, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said that Rising’s injury was “not real serious” and that he “may be back this week.”

Here are three thoughts from Saturday’s game.

Did Utah find its primary running back?

All offseason long, Utah’s coaches preached that the running back room will be by committee, with three players in the top tier — Micah Bernard, Jaylon Glover and Mike Mitchell.

There were some concerns from offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig preseason about Bernard’s durability, but so far, so good for the senior running back.

Reps were split fairly evenly between the running backs against Southern Utah — Mitchell and Dijon Stanley with six carries apiece, Bernard with five carries and Glover with four carries.

This Saturday, however, Bernard got the rock the majority of the time, carrying the ball 19 times for 118 yards — an average of 6.2 yards per carry.

Nowhere was Bernard’s impact more evident than on Utah’s last drive of the game. Up just 11 with 11 minutes left in the game, the Utes needed a long, sustained drive to bleed the clock and leave Rice-Eccles Stadium with the win.

Backup quarterback Isaac Wilson didn’t throw the ball one time on the 11-play, 65-yard drive, instead handing it off every snap. It was a heavy dose of Bernard, who carried the ball seven times on the series and converted a few key first downs to keep the clock moving, including a 30-yard run on third-and-3 to get the Utes into field goal range.

Even with Bernard’s performance, it’s still going to be by committee, according to Whittingham, but Bernard is starting to separate himself.

“Again, it’s by committee, which isn’t all bad, but the closest thing we have to a lead back right now is Micah Bernard.”

Mitchell again had six carries for 20 yards, including power his way through on third-and-1, but exited the game due to injury in the second quarter. He went and got his ankle taped, like Ja’Quinden Jackson often had to do last season, and returned to the game in the fourth quarter for a couple of carries on Utah’s clock-bleeding drive in the fourth quarter.

“He should be fine. He’s got some little nagging things that have bugged him throughout fall camp,” Whittingham said. “He wasn’t able to practice real effectively until Wednesday or Thursday of this past week. But hopefully Mike is going to be in the room all season long and he’s got to get these things healed up.”

Stanley, who last week had 184 yards of total offense, had a more subdued role, with three carries for 16 yards (including a 14-yard run) and one reception for 3 yards. Just the threat of having him out there after his SUU performance was enough, though, as Cam Rising threw a little pop pass to Money Parks, who faked the reverse to Stanley, fooling Baylor and helping allow Parks to score.

The third running back of the first tier trio, Glover, didn’t see the field at all on Saturday.

“Just wasn’t in the plan today. Just wasn’t in the plan and no specific reason other than we had those other guys penciled in for what we’re doing,” Whittingham said.

Glover, who was Utah’s RB2 last year, opened up his season with four runs for 15 yards against SUU, but was out of the rotation against Baylor. Instead, Charlie Vincent rounded out the carries from the running back room with two totes for 11 yards.

How did Utah’s cornerbacks fare with Kenan Johnson out?

One of the most intriguing storylines for Utah heading into the Baylor game was how the Utes would approach the cornerback position after starter Kenan Johnson’s season-ending injury.

Elijah “Scooby” Davis finished the remainder of the Southern Utah game in Johnson’s place, grabbing an interception, and he started the Baylor game opposite Zemaiah Vaughn. In his third year in the program, Davis is finally getting his shot, and he’s making the most of it.

Baylor never really threatened through the air, as dual-threat quarterback Dequan Finn struggled, going 9 for 21 for 115 yards and a touchdown, with 47 of those yards coming on a screen pass touchdown that featured three missed tackles from Utah.

With the lack of a competent passing attack from Baylor, it’s hard to fully judge just how well Utah’s new cornerback trio performed — a better test will come later — but the Utes’ defense as a whole was fantastic on Saturday.

The only mistake from Utah’s defense (and cornerbacks) was that 47-yard touchdown which featured missed tackles from Smith Snowden and Vaughn.

What Saturday did reveal was how the Utes may handle their cornerback situation without Johnson the rest of the way.

Utah plays a lot of nickel defense, and Saturday was no exception. Nickelback Snowden was on the field for every single snap, but only moved outside for just three snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. That meant that Davis, who played 56 snaps at outside corner, was the replacement for Johnson again.

“Scooby Davis did a really nice job in Kenan Johnson’s absence … if he continues to play like that we’re going to be in good shape,” Whittingham said.

Cam Calhoun, the Michigan transfer, had his first action of the season after rejoining the team fully this week following offseason surgery. Utah is slowly reintroducing him to game action — he played just six snaps — but he could have more of a role at outside cornerback as the season progresses.

Tao Johnson shows why his natural position is free safety

As Utah pondered what to do at cornerback, one solution was moving Snowden from nickel to outside corner and moving Tao Johnson from free safety to nickel, where he started last season, but that was something Whittingham did not want to do.

It’s clear why.

Johnson is tailor-made to be a free safety in Scalley’s defense, which requires him to cover a lot of ground — fast.

“We don’t want to have to move him from safety to nickel or corner because that reduces his freedom and what he can do for us,” Whittingham said.

The highlight play of the day came when Johnson took a blocked field goal 77 yards the other way, showcasing his trademark speed in the process.

“Tao Johnson’s a big-play guy. He’s the one that returned the blocked field goal for a touchdown. He’s got great speed,” Whittingham said.

While that was the play everyone will remember, Johnson was also great at the free safety position on Saturday, rated by Pro Football Focus as the Utes’ best defender. Johnson played every snap against Baylor, finishing with seven tackles, two tackles for loss. He was all over the field and playing with aggression from the first snap to the last whistle, coming up to make tackles in the backfield and also providing great coverage.

“He’s all over the place. He’s got maybe 4.38 (40-yard dash) speed and is 200 pounds athletic and tough. He’s really tough,” Whittingham said.

Utah is going to leave Johnson at free safety and rely on a combination of Vaughn, Snowden, Davis and Calhoun to hold things down at cornerback for the rest of the season.

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