LARAMIE, Wyo. — Utah safety Rabbit Evans made his season debut on Saturday at Wyoming, but just a few plays later, suffered what could be a season-ending injury.
Evans was held out due to injury for each of Utah’s first two games of the season. He went through warmups in Laramie, but Nate Ritchie started with Tao Johnson at the safety position in Saturday’s game.
Evans got into the game for the first time this season on the Cowboys’ third drive of the game, but on second-and-7 early in the second quarter, he collided with a Wyoming receiver.
Evans went down immediately, writhing in pain, and was unable to get up as Ute trainers waved the injury cart on the field.
The entire Utah defense came over to the cart to console Evans, who had tears in his eyes.
Postgame, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said it “doesn’t look good” for the starting safety.
“It’s a lower leg injury that looks like it could be season ending, so that’s unfortunate,” Whittingham said. “That kid, I feel so bad for him. He’s worked so hard and just can’t seem to get a break.”
Evans emerged as one of Utah’s starting safeties toward the end of the 2024 season, starting the final three games of the campaign. He totaled 34 tackles, two tackles for loss, a quarterback hurry and a pass breakup in 2024 and turned in good individual performances in each of the final three games.
Entering 2025, Evans was projected to be Utah’s starting strong safety.
“He really came into his own at the end of last season and this was just continued progress and he’s a guy that we expect to make a lot of plays for us,” defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley said a few months ago.
Now, it will likely be Ritchie starting alongside Johnson for the rest of the season.
Ritchie has started all of Utah’s three contests this season, but Utah will need more out of him with Evans possibly out for the campaign.
This season, Ritchie has 12 tackles and a tackle for loss. In the first two games graded by Pro Football Focus, the sophomore has a grade of 62.2, while Johnson has a grade of 59.2.
Ritchie, a Lone Peak alum, has been in the program since 2020. He left after his freshman season to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2021 and 2022 before rejoining the Utes in 2023.
Whittingham said the Utes and Evans will explore his redshirt situation.
“We’ll have to look at what his redshirt situation is and hopefully we get him back for another year, maybe two years, depending on what the circumstances are,” Whittingham said.
In other injury news, center Jaren Kump returned after being held out for precautionary reasons against Cal Poly, and so did right guard Michael Mokofisi, who exited the Cal Poly game with an injury.
On the defensive side, Logan Fano, who suffered an injury against Cal Poly, also started.
Receiver Creed Whittemore didn’t play for the second game in a row, though he was dressed and went through warmups Saturday, while receiver Daidren Zipperer is still yet to play this season.
Defensive tackle Dallas Vakalahi, who suffered an injury during the opener against UCLA, remains out.
Utah will release its first-ever injury report on Wednesday ahead of its Big 12 opener against Texas Tech.