Utah quarterback Devon Dampier was listed as questionable for Saturday’s game against Colorado on the Utes’ initial Big 12 availability report, which was released on Wednesday night.
Dampier was one of three Utes listed on the report, with wide receiver Tobias Merriweather and defensive tackle Dallas Vakalahi also listed as questionable.
Per Big 12 guidelines, a “questionable” designation means the player had a 50% chance to play.
Utah’s starting quarterback appeared to reinjure the right ankle that he injured earlier in the season at Wyoming during the third quarter of the Utes’ loss to BYU in Provo. Dampier finished the game, but was clearly hobbled, and the dual-threat quarterback did not run the ball once after the injury.
The Utes brought in freshman quarterback Byrd Ficklin for three runs in the fourth quarter, and his first attempt, which went for 16 yards, led to Daniel Bray’s score that gave the Utes a 14-10 lead.
If Dampier is unable to play on Saturday, it will be Ficklin starting his first-ever game.
“We’ll just check the availability report comes out Wednesday and we have to wait a few days to see how these guys are healing up from the game, and so that’s a distinct possibility, I can tell you that,” Whittingham said of Ficklin playing this week.
Ficklin has played in six games this season, totaling 65 snaps in mostly mop-up duty for Utah. He’s thrown for 138 yards and a touchdown, completing all of his nine passes, and has rushed for 111 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries.
As a dual-threat quarterback, Ficklin fits Jason Beck’s RPO offense well, and Utah won’t have to have a wholesale change in its game plan against the Deion Sanders-coached Buffaloes.
“He’s got a lot of ability, just physical ability. He’s an excellent athlete, a really good runner, throws a really good ball,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “In fact, he’s what, nine for nine, I think, on his nine throws this year so far. And so he’s a guy that has showed nothing but a lot of promise ever since he set foot on campus.”
Ficklin has taken reps in practice early this week as Dampier heals from the ankle injury. That’s something that hasn’t been uncommon this season, Whittingham said.
“Well, Byrd gets more reps early in the week because Devon kind of heals up from the game and that’s kind of been standard procedure for a lot of the weeks this year,” Whittingham said.
Whittingham said that he’d like there to be a decision on whether Dampier is playing or not by Friday.
“We’d like to have that decided by Friday. Sooner if possible, but it could go to Friday. We’ll see,” Whittingham said.
Vakalahi played just 11 snaps before leaving the game with an injury. In four games played, he has totaled three tackles, with Jonah Lea’ea holding down the starting spot when Vakalahi has missed time.
Merriweather took a couple of hard hits during the BYU game. He has eight receptions for 130 yards this season.
Utah will release three more availability reports leading up to Saturday night’s game — one on Thursday night, one on Friday night and one 90 minutes before Saturday’s 8:15 p.m. MDT kickoff.