For Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, the 21st opening day of spring practice was “eerily similar” to the last 20.
When you’ve been coaching football as long as Whittingham has, there’s going to be some deja vu feeling, but even the veteran coach had to admit that this year was different.
“A little different this year in the respect that we had a new offense that we’re putting in,” Whittingham said.
The biggest of this offseason’s changes was the hiring of New Mexico offensive coordinator Jason Beck, the school’s first new play-caller since 2019. Beck’s offense was successful at New Mexico, generating 484.2 yards per game (No. 4 in FBS), and now the former BYU quarterback will get his chance to try and try around a Ute offense that struggled in the absence of Cam Rising over the past two seasons.
Compared to last season’s team, which had a lot of familiar names, in part due to the COVID-era rules allowing for extended eligibility, there’s plenty of new faces on the offensive side of the ball.
The only constant from 2024 is the offensive line, which returns every starter from a season ago — Spencer Fano, Micahel Mokofisi, Jaren Kump, Tanoa Togiai and Caleb Lomu.
New projected starting quarterback (Devon Dampier)? Check.
New projected starting running back (Wayshawn Parker)? Check.
Add in a new-look wide receiver room and a tight end room that is without Brant Kuithe for the first time in a while, and Utah is going to need every one of the next 14 spring practices to learn Beck’s offense and gel as a team.
Thursday wasn’t the first day that players were exposed to Beck’s offense, thanks to loosened NCAA rules that allowed walkthroughs, but there’s still going to be a learning curve as the players adjust and install the former New Mexico offensive coordinator’s playbook.
“I thought for the first day, offense did a nice job relative to how much they have in. Still mistakes made that needed to be corrected, there always will be, but when you look at where we are, day one with a new offense, I think we handled it pretty well,” Whittingham said.
One player that doesn’t need help learning Beck’s offense is quarterback Dampier, who followed his offensive coordinator from New Mexico to Salt Lake City. The projected starting quarterback’s experience will be helpful in guiding the other players through the transition to a new offense.
“Devon (Dampier), he’s completely immersed in this offense and knows the intricacies of it, the ins and outs of it, it is a great plus,” Whittingham said.
Much of Utah’s offensive improvement after two lackluster years hinges on Dampier, who was one of the nation’s most productive quarterbacks last season, totaling 2,768 yards through the air and 1,166 on the ground.
Whittingham expects Beck’s offense at Utah to look similar to how it was at New Mexico, featuring a lot of run-pass option and a heavy emphasis on Dampier running the ball.
“Obviously you want to play to the quarterback’s strengths, which is what we’ll do, and we know exactly what those are based on his production last year in this very offense,” Whittingham said.
The longtime Utah coach also praised Parker, who will be entering his sophomore year after a good freshman season at Washington State where he ran for 735 yards and four touchdowns on 137 carries. Playing behind an experienced Utah offensive line will only help Parker as he looks to improve in his second season of college football.
“Wayshawn Parker, he’s a dynamic running back. We’ve got a very good offensive line, at least we think we do, we’ll find out, but we think we got a solid front,” Whittingham said.
While quarterback and running back — at least the projected starters — seem fairly set from day one, the same can’t be said about the wide receiver rooms. On offense, it will be the storyline to following this spring, and in all likelihood won’t be completely sorted out until deep into fall camp.
There’s seven receivers that will be competing for significant playing time this season, starting with three returners — sophomores Daidren Zipperer and Zacharyus Williams and senior Luca Caldarella.
None of the three were in the top five pass-catchers last season, though Zipperer and Williams had strong performances near the end of the season. The Utes will need them to take that next step this season.
Without Dorian Singer and Money Parks, Utah has to find new go-to receivers, and it brought in five transfer receivers to complement the three returners — Utah State’s Otto Tia (44 receptions for 434 yards and seven touchdowns), Wyoming’s Justin Stevenson (17 receptions for 204 yards and three touchdowns), Mississippi State’s Creed Whittemore (chose to redshirt after four games; four receptions for 65 yards) and New Mexico’s Ryan Davis (54 receptions for 747 yards and three touchdowns).
“That’s probably the one position on offense that needs the most sorting out is the receiver spot,” Whittingham said.
Tight end, which has been a big strength for Utah over the years, is another position group to watch this spring.
Whittingham said that Dallen Bentley, who had just two receptions for 15 yards last season, is the “lead guy” in the “attached tight ends,” while Landen King, who had three catches for 54 yards and a touchdown, could see more of an H-back role in Beck’s offense.
It remains to be seen how much Beck incorporates the tight ends in his offense, but it’ll depend on the personnel; he didn’t use tight ends much at New Mexico but did at Syracuse.
With just one practice down and the install coming along, we won’t have a better idea about how the offense is looking until later in the spring, but from talking to defensive players, one thing is clear — after multiple years of the same offensive system, it’s been fun to go against something completely different in practice.
“They’re fun. I mean, when you go against one offense for two years, you get used to what guys are doing and what the offense is going to look like,” defensive end Logan Fano said. “But Coach Beck and his staff, they do a great job at moving things around. I mean so many motions, there’s a lot going on, so I think it’s going to be electric for sure.”
Cornerback Smith Snowden agreed.
“I like this offense. That’s what I’m going to say. This offense is really good. We have a lot of crafty players. Obviously having Dev out there controlling the O is going to be a great thing. I love it,” Snowden said.
After two subpar seasons, Utah’s offense needed a complete revamp, and Thursday was the first step into putting that plan into action.
“A lot of juice and energy on this football team right now and that was evident all throughout the winter conditioning that this team really has a lot of energy,” Whittingham said.
“I think the infusion of a bunch of new players, not that the other players were bad, but just guys that are new to the program and new coaching staff that’s got a lot of energy, so I think that is very apparent. That’s a big difference.”