Whittingham names QB2, addresses depth chart & previews Florida

In week one of the 2022 Utah Football season, head coach Kyle Whittingham named QB2, addressed the depth chart and previewed the matchup with Florida.

Kyle Whittingham: "Okay seasons here. Looking forward to the trip down to Gainesville, be a great opportunity for our football team. Florida is a really talented team, got a lot of really good players, fast, athletic. The big challenge for us is going to take our best effort to go down and try to get the win. [Florida's] Quarterback is outstanding. I mean, there's not a lot of big body of work but some people are projecting him as a top ten pick this coming draft and so he's obviously got a ton of ability. Big kid, you know, six-four, 240 pounds and really fast so he's gonna be a handful for us, but our guys have worked hard through fall camp. Even back, starting at the beginning of the year back in January has been solid work ethic ever, all through the phases. Came out of fall camp really healthy, which is a big plus. We didn't have much live work in fall camp relative to other years. It was a lot like 2019 when we had a very veteran team coming in, we didn't do a lot of live work and that was the same approach this year. And consequently, we came out to, you know, in good shape so, so we'll find out where we are at 7 pm on Saturday evening.

The depth chart is out. Bryson Barnes is listed as QB2.

Should be a fun and intriguing discussion with Whittingham here in the next 30 minutes. #GoUtes pic.twitter.com/lO1CvC7ke4

— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) August 29, 2022

QB2

Question: What did Bryson do ultimately, that led you to pick him for this game over Ja'Quinden?

Bryson Barnes, Utah Utes Fall Camp / Courtesy of Utah Athletics

Kyle Whittingham: "[Bryson] just has a better command of the offense, fewer mistakes. We believe in JJ. He's still got a lot of football ahead of him and certainly is a tremendous athlete and is a true dual threat. But right now Bryson Barnes we feel is the best solution if something were to happen to Cam [Rising] just based on total body of work through spring and fall camp."

Question: You have a nice recruiting pipeline you've developed in Florida over the last few years. Was that kind of a consideration in scheduling a series like this with Florida? Give those guys a chance to go home playing in front of their families?

Kyle Whittingham: "Yeah, that played a part in it and we've had through the years, some years more than others, you know, athletes in Florida but we've had as many as I believe 10 or 12 from Florida on the roster at one time, I don't think we have quite that many now, but it's in our footprint, and we'll continue to recruit that area. You know, I've had a lot of success with those guys. Zack Moss, Tyler Huntley. I mean, there's some guys that have really been major contributors for us. And so the answer is yes, that made sense for the series. You know, one of the reasons was was the recruiting footprint."

Running Backs

Jaylon Glover, Utah Utes Fall Camp / Courtesy of Utah Athletics

Question: As for the running backs, are you seeing with the talent in the room that maybe that's still shuffled a lot in the sense of who you play?

Kyle Whittingham: "Yeah, everyone will have their role. I don't think it's necessarily who we play, but just the game plan that particular week. What fits the strengths of different backs, each one brings something different to the table, and they're all going to play."

Question: What do you expect from Florida in an SEC environment?

Kyle Whittingham: "Yeah, this may may be the most hostile I mean, it's first game of the year, night game, new coaching staff, a lot of excitement. We're sure that that place is going to be very, very loud and difficult to play in. And we've taken, you know, every measure that we can to try to replicate that, with both noise wise, temperature wise. So we'll see what happens but we expect...they're right on top of you there. I don't know if you've ever been to the swamp but they're right on top of you. The crowd is a big factor in games in the swamp."

Question: When you get a new coaching staff do you find that they keep the schemes the same as the prior place or do they change relative to the talent that they have?

Kyle Whittingham: "I think generally speaking, you're gonna see a lot of the same schematics that they came from, from the place they came from prior. Obviously, you got to tailor those to your new personnel and play to the strengths there but as far as the just the basics, X and O's, offense, defense and special teams, all three coordinators came with him to Gainesville, made the transition there so we're putting a lot of stock in what they did at Louisiana Lafayette last year. The same concepts, a lot of the same concept showing up. But in any opener there's so many unknowns that you get, you got to be ready for everything and you got to be able to have in game adjustments early on. You can't wait till halftime and so you got to be able to adjust in game if you're seeing different things than than what you anticipate."

Question: How does having a veteran led team help going into a big game right off the bat?

Kyle Whittingham: "Well, having a lot of guys returning always is a big help and in particular, when you got an opener like we have this year, this game has got their attention ever since we started in January when we came back from the Rose Bowl and started school. It's been certainly something that they're aware of and been focused on. That's one of the positives of playing a game like this, is you don't have to worry about getting them focused, working hard in the weight room and all that because they understand the big challenge ahead."

Special Teams

Devaughn Vele, Utah Utes Fall Camp / Courtesy of Utah Athletics

Question: What led you to Devaughn and Micah in punt and kick returns. What do you see from that?

Kyle Whittingham: "In the punt return, Devaughn does a great job catching the ball and that's really job one. If you can't catch the ball, you're not really in consideration for returning punts. And so not that he's the only guy that we have that can catch them but he catches it the best. He's also got explosiveness to him. He's fast and he's a good open field runner and so that led to that decision. Micah Bernard, just a tremendous athlete, great speed, and just seemed to be the best fit for the kickoff returns and, you know, big shoes to fill. Britain Covey was as good as it was in the country. And so, big shoes for those two guys to fill but right now, they're the ones that are scheduled to do that."

Question: What's the biggest difference between this year's team and last year?

Kyle Whittingham: "I would say there's more similarities than differences. But as far as differences, Britain Covey is probably, Brit gave us so much last year. Particularly in the red zone and on third down in the red zone. He converted so many situations for us down there, so we got to find somebody to pick up the slack there. Defensively, you know, we had Devin Lloyd as our undisputed leader. We were more leadership by committee this year. There isn't really one guy, like Cam [Rising] is the leader of the leader on offense and for the whole team for that matter, but on defense we have half a dozen or so guys that have assumed that role but like I said, there's far more similarities than differences."

Anthony Richardson

Florida Gators quarterback Anthony Richardson (15) lofts a pass to a wide receiver the fourth quarter. Blue beat Orange 34-0 as the Florida Gators scrimmaged themselves during the annual Orange and Blue Game / Doug Engle-USA TODAY NETWORK

Question: You mentioned their quarterback, how much does his ability change the way you scheme?

Kyle Whittingham: "It changes it a lot because you've got to account for the QB run game, essentially every single down. I mean the guy reportedly has four-three speed I mean that size, that's incredible. It's Cam Newton-ish type of numbers with his physical stature and his ability to run. So that's something that coach Scalley, the D staff are well aware of and that's got to be taken into account in virtually everything you do...this guy's a dual threat in every sense of the word. He's got a big arm, he's got a live arm, he can make every throw. And so you truly have to to be able to defend everything when when he's at quarterback."

Nate Johnson

Nate Johnson, Utah Utes Fall Camp / Courtesy of Utah Athletics

Question: Does somebody like Nate Johnson help you in that scenario? Do you intend to redshirt Nate or might there be some sort of small role for him?

Kyle Whittingham: "It does. And Nate's done a great job as our scout quarterback. He's taken the vast majority of the reps as the scout team guy and Brandon Rose has also supplemented those reps. But Nate's the guy that gives us a very realistic look, although Nate doesn't have the size of this guy has he certainly has the speed...we'll see, to be determined with four games still the current rule where you can play in four games before you cross that threshold. We'll see how things develop and how things progress, he's a guy that we have a lot of belief in and think that he's got a bright future but that question wouldn't be answered until mid season or at the earliest."

Question: Can you give us a peek inside the running back room?

Kyle Whittingham: "Tavion obviously is the guy that returns with the most production, over 1000 yards and 20 plus touchdowns so he's a guy that was most likely to get the majority of the carries, not guaranteed, but most likely. Micah Bernard's skill set is outstanding, catching the ball out of the backfield is something he does exceptionally, he catches the ball as well any receiver that we have, he's that talented. Jaylon Glover, a very talented true freshman. He's got his things that he brings to the table, does a great job with the inside zone run game. Very, very shifty, really good instincts, vision. Chris Curry's a bigger back, 220 pounds, a lot like Tavion, and more of a tackle to tackle guy, exceptionally good at picking up blitzes and that type of thing. So everybody brings something different but if you're going to say who is most likely to get the most carries? It will be Tavion."

Question: What is the Gators best position group?

Kyle Whittingham: "Tough to say, I don't know if there's any real glaring weakness. First of all, the receiving core is really big. I mean, they're six-five, six-four, six-three almost across the board. Every single one of them had the six footer...but they got a big receiving core. Running Back, of course they have the transfer that came with them from Lafayette, D-line they get some really good D-line but I don't know if you can say which is the which is the most talented group because they're all very talented."

Offensive Line

Offensive Line, Utah Utes Fall Camp / Courtesy of Utah Athletics

Question: What gives you confidence in this offensive line?

Kyle Whittingham: "First of all, they've been playing together longer. We were able to come to the top five earlier this fall camp and that was by design. We knew we needed that to happen so they can gel I guess is the word you'd use and they have. We've got a lot of guys that have played a lot of football for us. Braeden Daniels, Sataoa Laumea, Jaren Kump, even though he was banged up last year, the year before he played a bunch of snaps for us so we got a lot of experience there. And so we just need those guys to be a cohesive high functioning unit from from the get go and that's what we expect.

Question: How would you assess your defensive unit specifically?

Kyle Whittingham: "I would say up front, just going by position group, Junior Tafuna is the leader of that group, him and Van Fillinger have played a lot of football for us. Tennessee Pututau has had an outstanding camp. The two young defensive ends Jonah Ellis and Connor O'Toole have really matured and become really good players for us. Linebackers where we had the biggest turnover, we lost two really good ones in Nephi Sewell and and obviously Devin Lloyd, but Mo Diabate, Karene Reid, Lander Barton, Justin Medlock, those are the four guys that have surfaced. The biggest differences, we're much more experienced in the secondary than we have been in the last few years. Two years ago, we were painfully young, but you just know there's no excuses. You got to play no matter what year you are. But that same group has really, it's almost the same group from two years ago, but they're just older and more experienced."

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