Utah went into last season looking to take the next step as a football program. It won the Pac-12 in 2021 with a romp of Oregon. It went to the Rose Bowl to represent the conference for the first time. It went into fall camp viewed as a fringe College Football Playoff contender. Coach Kyle Whittingham talked about the internal motivation his group had to continue pushing the envelope.

Yes, the Utes won a second consecutive Pac-12 championship in 2022. Yes, they posted a second consecutive 10-win season. But the setting in which they find themselves at the outset of the 2023 season doesn’t really feel all that different from where we were a year ago.

Whittingham is back for his 19th season. Both coordinators are back — despite a Notre Dame push. Cam Rising and Brant Kuithe return for their 17th season (I kid). Pieces are everywhere. Recruiting is trending up.

But that next step remains an elusive one. It should be; it’s a big step.

The Utes stubbed their toe out of the gates last season in Gainesville. Tackles were missed all over the field and, for the most part, the moment looked too big for a defense that is usually one of college football’s toughest.

They came up short in Pasadena, in Eugene, and then again at the Rose Bowl.

I suspect we shouldn’t need to worry about complacency with this group. Utah should enter the new year feeling like it still has a few things to prove.

“Nobody has ever three-peated in the Pac-12. That’s one thing right there that we can accomplish that has not been done. Still not made it to the College Football Playoff. That’s something else we’re looking at,” Whittingham said at Pac-12 Media Day. “There’s a lot of things that we have yet to accomplish at Utah and are excited about getting another opportunity this year to try to raise the bar even higher.”

I don’t think that’s coach speak. He’s exactly right. That step is right there for the program to take it. And this season is a do-or-die moment for a lot of Utah’s biggest names.

At A Glance

Coach Kyle Whittingham

  • Years with program: 19
  • Record at Utah: 154-74
  • Home record: 85-25
  • Bowl record: 11-5

Players to know

  • RB Ja’Quinden Jackson: A converted quarterback, Jackson has gone through his first full offseason as a running back and now enters his first full season as the clear-cut top choice at the position. The 6-foot-2 Texas native made the move mid-year in 2022 and once the calendar flipped to November, he took hold of the position and showed real promise. He totaled 531 yards and nine touchdowns on 78 carries last season — including a 105-yard, two-score outing in the conference title game against USC. He was Pro Football Focus’ fifth-highest-graded tailback in college football in 2022. A similarly efficient season will be expected in 2023.
  • DL Simote Pepa: A redshirt freshman 330-pounder on the interior of the defensive line, Pepa went from seldom-used reserve to breakout cog for the Utes in 2022. The defense as a whole embraced its youth after the opener, and no one matured more throughout the campaign than Pepa. He posted 27 tackles, six tackles for loss, four sacks, and two pass breakups. He’s a mountain of a man, and his 10-yard sack on Caleb Williams in the title game was eye-catching. Despite his size, there’s some explosiveness there.
  • LB Karene Reid: A 6-footer from American Fork, Reid played immediately as a freshman defender for the Utes in 2021 and he exploded onto the scene with a 15-tackle, one-interception performance against Washington State on Sept. 25. He earned Freshman of the Week honors in the Pac-12 and just kept growing in confidence. Last season, he took another step, starting all 14 games and earning a first-team All-Pac-12 nod. Reid posted 72 tackles (third on the team), 9.5 tackles for loss, and five sacks. Lander Barton is going to draw a ton of attention, but Reid feels like he’s going to be not just a leader on defense but perhaps the heartbeat of the group.

Numbers to know

  • 21: The Utes have 21 home victories in 22 games at Rice-Eccles Stadium since the start of the 2019 campaign. The only loss came during the Covid-shortened 2020 season. The Utes’ league title seasons have both featured perfect 6-0 marks at home.
  • 90: For the second consecutive season, Utah led the Pac-12 in tackles for loss and ranked among the top 25 teams nationally. It’s an impressive accomplishment considering the production was split up much more in 2022 after the departure of Devin Lloyd. Last fall, eight different players had at least five, though no one had more than 14.
  • 695: Devaughn Vele took a step forward as a threat at wideout, but falling 5 yards shy of 700 meant Utah’s string of consecutive seasons without a wideout clearing 700 receiving yards stretched to five. He’s back for another year and Utah needs him — or anyone else — to make another step as a downfield playmaker.

Offense

What Utah did well

You know the answer to this question. I know the answer to this question. Every other defensive coordinator in the Pac-12 knows the answer to this question. And yet year after year Utah continues to find success with the ground game.

Last year was no different. The Utes ranked ninth nationally in rushing efficiency, despite a rotating cast of characters at tailback for most of the year. The offensive line did its job and mitigated negative plays. Utah had a stuff rate of just 12.8% (10th in FBS) and picked up 4 yards when available on 56.8% of its runs (fourth in FBS).

Offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig is old-school, throwing out two and sometimes three tight ends in packages. The versatility and pass-catching chops of that room help the Utes to stay balanced while still being able to punish teams on the ground.

And the 2023 squad once again looks poised to play by the same script. The tailback room is loaded. Jackson leads the way, joined by do-everything back Micah Bernard, bruiser Chris Curry, and the fleet-footed Jaylon Glover. Ludwig has a little of everything at his disposal.

Curry is coming off injury, and however impressive Jackson’s 2022 campaign was, it was still a relatively small sample size. Can Utah have another top-10 rushing attack? Seems likely on paper.

Where Utah struggled

Back-to-back seasons for quarterback Cameron Rising ended with injury. In the Rose Bowl loss to Penn State to close out the 2022 campaign, it was an ACL injury for Rising, and that put him on the shelf throughout the offseason. Rising has seldom had a fully healthy offseason to work, which makes what he’s been able to do so far throughout his career all the more impressive.

Utah expects Rising back early, if not to begin the 2023 season. Coach Kyle Whittingham said Rising is “right on track” in his rehab but it’ll come “right down to the wire” if he can play in the opener.

It’s important for Utah that Rising is back to form right away. Nonconference ball offers no quarter and the gap between the defending champs and the rest of the Pac-12 contenders this fall seems razor-thin. The Utes need to show some growth as an offense to pull off the three-peat.

And that’s on Rising and the pass game. Utah needs evolution there.

In 2021, Rising took a shot 20-plus yards downfield on 15% of his throws but only completed them at a 37.5% clip, per PFF. Last fall, he looked deep on 14% of his throws and posted a 31.5% completion rate. Both seasons represented low marks among qualified Pac-12 throwers.

Dalton Kincaid (70 receptions, 890 yards, eight scores) was the top option last season, though not exactly a “take the top off” kind of playmaker and now he’s off to the NFL. Someone needs to step up.

Rising was still top-10 in QBR last season. He was once again excellent at evading pressure and avoiding sacks. The deep-shot pass game remains a work in progress. Perhaps more play-action — Rising used it only 24% of his dropbacks, a relatively low number among peers — could help.

Defense

What Utah did well

No one in the Pac-12 made more plays in the backfield than the Utes did last season.

Utah closed out the year with 41 sacks and 90 tackles for loss in 14 games. From a sack production standpoint, they were right on par with what they had done the season prior.

You see the “next man up” mentality all throughout this program and here was no different. Devin Lloyd and Mika Tafua combined for 35 TFLs and 17.5 sacks in 2021. That’s big-time production to replace, and there was little dropoff.

Edge Van Fillinger even went down with injury after eight games and the Utes kept plugging. Gabe Reid, Mo Diabate, Karane Reid, and Fillinger each had at least five sacks. Lander Barton and Simote Pepa had 4.5 and four respectively.

Defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley has a whole crew of defenders he can send and feel good about their chances to get home.

Diabate and the older Reid are gone, but Utah gets Fillinger back healthy on the line as well as Pepa, Junior Tafuna, Connor O’Toole, and Jonah Elliss. There has also been plenty of buzz about BYU transfer Logan Fano.

The younger Reid and Barton give Utah one of the top linebacker duos in the conference and Levani Damuni comes to town after leading Stanford in tackles last fall.

Lots and lots of pieces for Scalley to continue to try and be aggressive in the front seven.

Where Utah struggled

The Florida game to open the 2022 season was eye-catching. The coaching staff charted nearly 30 missed tackles and Whittingham slammed the effort as “soft and sloppy.”

Scalley’s unit last season was unusually young, and there were new roles for guys all over the field. As can be expected when that’s the case, things were a little too boom-or-bust for a stretch.

Utah gave up 7.3 yards per run to Florida; then it gave up 4.6 to Oregon State, 5.3 to UCLA, and 6.5 to USC within a three-week span. From the bye week through the Pac-12 title game, Arizona was the only Utah opponent to top 2.5 yards per carry.

“I think we had a lot of guys that started to really come of age during the season. We had some young guys in the lineup, particularly in the secondary,” said Whittingham. “I think as the season went on, those guys got better and better, more acclimated and settled in.

“I just think we gained momentum defensively throughout the course of the season.”

The coaching staff is hoping that time and experience will pay dividends as we move into the new season.

2023 Schedule

  • Aug. 31 (Thurs.): Florida
  • Sept. 9: at Baylor
  • Sept. 16: Weber State
  • Sept. 23: UCLA
  • Sept. 29 (Fri.): at Oregon State
  • Oct. 7: BYE
  • Oct. 14: Cal
  • Oct. 21: at USC
  • Oct. 28: Oregon
  • Nov. 4: Arizona State
  • Nov. 11: at Washington
  • Nov. 18: at Arizona
  • Nov. 25: Colorado