Takeaways: Kyle Whittingham Addresses Media After Utah Football’s First Spring Ball Practice

Mar 20, 2025, 6:05 PM | Updated: 6:12 pm

Utah Insider

SALT LAKE CITY – On Thursday, Kyle Whittingham and Utah football welcomed the media to spring ball for the first time in 2025.

With so much change from the previous season, there is a lot to learn about the Utes this year.

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

Most of the questions revolved around the offense, but there was more that Whittingham addressed beyond what’s included here.

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Jason Beck, Devon Dampier, new Utah offense

After several great seasons of offensive production, Utah enters 2025 with a new offensive coordinator and (projected) starting quarterback. Both Jason Beck and Devon Dampier came to Utah after an impressive season at New Mexico.

Though it’s only the first spring practice, the new offense has hit the ground running a little bit faster than in years past. “A little different this year, in regards to the new offense that we’re putting in,” Whittingham said. “I thought for the first day, the offense did a nice job relative to how much they have in.”

Whittingham also shared that new rules have sped up the acclimation process. “With the new rules, you have more opportunity to get players up to speed prior to spring ball starting with walkthroughs and things like that which we didn’t use to have.”

With Dampier specifically, having him under center has been a big positive. “To have Devon, who is completely versed in this offense and knows the intricacies of it, the ins and outs of it, has been a big plus,” Whittingham shared. “Isaac Wilson has done a nice job of picking the offense up as well.”

“We’ll see how it evolves, but Devon Dampier, you know what he did last year, he put up some really good numbers throwing the football, rushing the football, so it was a very prolific offense” Whittingham said. “Wayshawn Parker is a dynamic running back, and we’ve got a very good offensive line, or at least we think we do.”

This offense really suits the offensive line and Wayshawn Parker quite well. There should be a decent amount of optimism around Utah’s new running game. As for what needs to be sorted out, receiver and tight end are the two positions that will be of focus this spring.

“Receivers, we’ve got to sort that out, that’s the one position that needs the most sorting out,” Whittingahm shared. “Tight end, Dallan Bentley is the lead guy in terms of the attached tight end, and then Landen King is sort of the H-back type of role, but we’ll see where it goes.”

No surprise that receiver is the position group most up in the air. Utah had a lot of turnover at the position, which included five newcomers at the mid-year point. As for tight end, Dallan Bentley and Landen King leading the way, but that group has potential beyond those two.

Do the improved vibes speak to improved culture?

This past season was an absolute grind and made difficult for a myriad of reasons. There were injuries to star players and unforeseen difficulties, like having to say goodbye to a long-time friend and quality offensive coordinator, Andy Ludwig, midway through the season.

However, with all of the changes the program has made, the vibes seem to have improved.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of juice and energy with this football team,” Whittingham stated. “That was evident all throughout winter conditioning is this team really has a lot of positive energy.”

The improvement is not only felt internally; it seems that there’s an emphasis on being more involved in other athletic programs’ events.

“That infusion of new players, not the old players were bad, but just guys that are new to the program, and coaches that are new, I think that’s very apparent that that’s a big difference from the last couple of years.”

Sometimes change can be a good thing and it seems like the influx of new players and coaches has had a really positive effect on the vibes around the program.

What about the defensive tackle position?

Speaking of the injury issues, Whittingham also touched on what is being done to further address their injury woes.

“D-tackle room is solid, we’ve got one, Aliki Vimahi, is the real veteran in the room, and then Dallas Vakalahi played a lot of snpas for us last year,” Whittingham shared. “But beyond that, we’re going to have to have a couple of young guys step up as contributors this year.”

This spot will be worrisome but there are pieces for Utah to develop. Karson Kaufusi is a promising true freshman, while Jonah Leaea should be getting closer to where he needs to be with every day that passes. No doubt though, there is a lot of development needed from this group.