Kyle Whittingham’s Availability In Week Four Of Utah Football Spring Ball

Apr 8, 2025, 5:54 PM | Updated: 5:57 pm

Utah Insider

SALT LAKE CITY – On Tuesday, Kyle Whittingham and Utah football welcomed the media back to spring ball for their fourth week of practice. Utah is coming off of its first scrimmage in Rice-Eccles, where Devon Dampier and the passing game shined.

Coach Whittingham addressed members of the media and hit on several different topics. Here are the big takeaways from Whittingham’s commentary.

Most of the questions revolved around the offense, but Whittingham addressed more than what’s included here.

Kyle Whittingham shares assessment of Utah’s offensive progress

“We’re about halfway done, and relative to that, we’re in good shape,” Whittingham shared. “But still a ton of things we need to get better at, no doubt about that.”

Whittingham shared that there’s been consistent progress on the offensive installation.

“Offense continues to tighten things up, less mental errors, less physical errors every practice,” Whittingham said. “We’ve got to stay on this track, we’ve got to finish strong. We’ve got six practices left, we’ve got to make every single one of them count.”

After nine practices, one thing has become clear: Utah’s offensive line is the best position group on the roster.

“Offensive line, our offensive line is going to be—they better be really good,” Whittingham said. “We’ve got really good players up front; they’re the nucleus to the offense; we’ve got two outstanding tackles, really good interior three, and depth behind them. They’ve got to lead the charge.”

At quarterback, Devon Dampier continues to lead the way. Isaac Wilson and Byrd Ficklin continue to split the reps behind him and those three seem to be the guys Utah will roll with moving forward.

“Those three are getting all the reps right now, and that will continue for the foreseeable future,” Whittingham said of the quarterbacks. “By no means is everything set in stone, but as far as the guys getting the reps, you’ll continue to see that.”

In terms of the pass catchers, Whittingham shared that Zacharyus Williams has done a really nice job and separated himself within the receiver room.

“Zach Williams is becoming—if we had to play today, Williams would be WR1,” Whittingham shared. “He’s making the most plays, he’s getting open, running the best routes, catching the football clean, and is really dangerous after the catch.”

Williams was arguably the top pass catcher in Saturday’s scrimmage. He was a big factor in the offense, as were multiple tight ends. His emergence is vital to the group, as there has been good production from the collection of players, but the offense needs one to emerge as a go-to option.

Signs of progress along the defensive line

“First of all, outside we feel really good,” Whittingham said of the defensive line. “We feel we’ve got six guys we think can play for us, which is a big luxury, and we feel we’ve got great depth there and guys that are game-ready.”

That’s significant for a pass rush unit that lost two veterans in the room. The tone was a little different along the interior, though there are good signs from the tackles still.

“Inside, we still need some development to take place,” Whittingham said, acknowledging that Alike Vimahi missed some time due to an injury.

“Dallas Vakalahi is doing a good job, Jonah Leaea is doing a nice job, but we’ve really got no experience behind those guys,” Whittingham continued. “One or two of those new freshmen have to step up and become a factor for us. We’ve got a couple coming in this summer, but we’re still a little bit behind depth-wise.”

Utah currently has freshmen Karson Kaufusi and Sione Matuapuaka in spring ball. They are expecting Mater Dei defensive tackle Semi Taulanga and St. Louis (HI) defensive tackle Pupu Sepulona to join the program this summer.

Thoughts of spring game cancellations

“We talked about it, but you know, we still have six practices left, and if we get so banged up, that would be a reason to modify or change the format completely,” Whittingham said.

A lot of programs have canceled their spring game over concerns of other programs poaching players.

“I guess there’s some validity to that,” Whittingham said. “You can’t be scared and worried—we’ve got to get guys better, that’s our main objective. There are a lot of guys that could use the spring game to get better.”

With the spring game, Whittingham acknowledged that many key players will likely sit out the game. There’s no need to put proven commodities at risk.

“You’re not going to see a lot of starters in the spring game, guys that have proven themselves,” Whittingham said. “You’re going to see a lot of young guys and guys that need the reps. It may not be a game format, in terms of red vs white, but it’s still going to be a valuable opportunity for a lot of guys.”