Kyle Whittingham will have to divulge injury information this season.
Utah, and every other Big 12 school, will be required to provide “player availability” reports to the public, starting during the week of the Utes’ first conference game against Texas Tech on Sep. 20
Injury reports will be required for all Big 12 conference games, meaning Utah doesn’t have to provide one for its three nonconference contests or a bowl game.
Teams will issue a daily injury report on Thursday and Friday before conference games and will provide a final report 90 minutes before kickoff.
Players on the report will be designated as available, probable, questionable, doubtful or out.
Whittingham has long guarded injury information, most prominently in the case of quarterback Cam Rising during the last two seasons.
Whittingham’s longstanding policy was only to provide injury updates if a player was out for the season, though he will sometimes give updates here and there even if the injury is not season-ending.
Now, he’ll have to provide a complete injury report every week, though he still won’t have to outright report if a player on the report is for sure playing in that Saturday’s game.
“We will adhere to it. It’s not a problem at all,” Whittingham said on Monday.
“I kind of wish the Power Four was all on the same page, each conference didn’t have their own spin on it,” Whittingham said. “I don’t know why we can’t get together and have one uniform injury report or whatever you want to call it.
“But sure, we’ll adhere to the rule and the way I understand it, rule’s not in place for nonconference games, only if we’re facing a conference opponent. So we’ll fill the paper out or whatever the procedure is and go for it.”
That’s been Whittingham’s longterm position. If every school was releasing injury reports, Utah would as well. But when it wasn’t required, Whittingham was going to use every competitive advantage he had.
“Until it’s mandatory, why would you take it? It just doesn’t make any sense. You got to do everything you can do to get competitive advantages and giving an injury report that doesn’t have to be given, why would you tell your opponent that?” Whittingham said in 2023.
With injury reports out in the open, there’s something new that Whittingham wants to keep a secret — Utah’s depth chart.
The longtime Utah coach said that the team “probably” won’t be issuing a depth chart this year.
“We probably won’t release one though with the new health rule that the Big 12 put out. That’s really all we’ll release each week is who’s available, who’s not,” Whittingham said after Utah’s practice.
Utah rarely updated the depth chart during the season — only in the event of a season-ending injury — but it did give a good snapshot of what the two-deep was ahead of the first game.
In the absence of one from Utah, the Deseret News will put together our best guess at a depth chart this week.
Two spots are already set in stone, with Devon Dampier as the Utes’ starting quarterback and Isaac Wilson as his backup.
