There’s no gimme on Saturday night for the University of Utah.
Unlike previous seasons, when the Utes have opened against an FCS or a bottom-tier FBS opponent, Utah is getting an early test in Week 1.
It’s not a foreign concept for the Utes — they’ve opened seasons against Michigan and Florida — but it comes with its own positives and negatives.
“What we do right now is not sustainable, I don’t believe it is, personally, so they’ve got to figure out a way to get some sanity to the whole thing.”
— Utah coach Kyle Whittingham on state of college football
The biggest thing — and this can be a positive or negative depending on how you look at it — is there’s no time to ease into the season and no room for mistakes like there is against an FCS team, which is all but a guaranteed win.
“Well, it gets your players’ attention right away,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “They’ve been pointing towards this game since last January essentially, so it’s a little more of an attention-getter in that respect.”
Whittingham said that he’d prefer to have a “lesser opponent” so the Utes can find out who they are early on.
Either way, we’ll have a better idea of where the Utes stand — especially on offense — after Saturday’s opener in the Rose Bowl.
Whittingham also floated the idea of a college preseason, where games don’t count, his latest pitch to make college football align more with the NFL as the sport continues shifting to more of a professional model by paying players.
UCLA and Utah share plenty of similarities heading into Saturday’s contest. Both teams are coming off 5-7 campaigns in new conferences and feature brand-new offensive coordinators and quarterbacks.
Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who has since transferred to UCLA, rolls out to pass during game against Alabama, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, in Knoxville, Tenn. Iamaleava will be under center when the Bruins face Utah in the Rose Bowl Saturday night.
Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who has since transferred to UCLA, rolls out to pass during game against Alabama, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, in Knoxville, Tenn. Iamaleava will be under center when the Bruins face Utah in the Rose Bowl Saturday night.| AP
The Bruins are led by former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who held out of the Volunteers’ spring practices due to a contract impasse, resulting in Iamaleava’s transfer to UCLA.
Whittingham declined to comment on Iamaleava’s specific situation, but when asked about multi-year revenue-sharing deals, he again espoused the idea of bringing college football more in line with the NFL.
“Multi-year contracts. I think there’s some merit to that, but I think somehow you’ve got to get to the point where, again, I say a minor league NFL model, not technically, but theoretically just same type of setup, same structure, salary cap,” Whittingham said. “With it will probably come a union, players union, all that. What we do right now is not sustainable, I don’t believe it is, personally, so they’ve got to figure out a way to get some sanity to the whole thing.”
Whittingham mentioned earlier in his press conference that between freshmen and portal players, 50% of Utah’s roster is brand-new, and it’s similar at UCLA. Portal players are more expensive than retaining your own players, Whittingham said, so it’s become a financial balancing act.
Utah, like all schools, has a general manager and a person whose job it is to balance the “salary cap.” (Utah can distribute $20.5 million to its players across all programs this year; the vast majority of that will go to football.)
Even with new rules designed to level the financial playing field (NIL contracts now have to pay fair market value and serve a valid business purpose), there’s still the issue of every player being able to leave a program whenever they want and immediately be eligible at their new program.
Eventually, this will either end with federal legislation providing guardrails or collective bargaining.
“The prices are spiraling out of control for the rev share money now. So it’s still in a place where I don’t think you can continue this way without some major changes,” Whittingham said.
More from Kyle Whittingham’s UCLA week press conference
On his team after the conclusion of fall camp:
“There’s a lot of new faces, I can tell you that. So 50% of the guys we got weren’t a part what went on last year, but we’re excited about some things we’re doing on offense. It’s a new scheme and new quarterback and I think there’ll be hopefully some good stuff there.
“Defense has been very solid all through fall camp and although they’ve had some difficulty stopping the offense at times, so hopefully that’s a good indicator for an offense, but you never know what you’re going to get until you line up to play somebody else.
“You can only learn so much playing against yourselves, but I know our guys that were here last year and went through that debacle, I guess for lack of a better word, are excited to get back on the field and get going and try to make a better showing.”
On receiver Tobias Merriweather:
“Well, what we’ve seen in practice gives us confidence. He’s got a big catch radius, 6-foot-5 or close to it, 200 pounds, very smooth, athletic guy, runs real well and just has a real knack for playing the contested ball as you expect with a guy with that frame. So what we’ve seen in practices has been very encouraging, but you’ve got to do it on game day.”
On establishing the run:
“Well it is very important in the way that Devon runs the football with the quarterback run game. We think that’s going to force teams to really load the box in order to be able to combat that, which in turn opens up the throw game and so they work off of each other, but it’s important to be balanced on offense.
Utes on the air
Utah (0-0) at UCLA (0-0)
Saturday, 9 p.m. MDT
Rose Bowl Stadium
Pasadena, Calif.
TV: Fox
Radio: 700 AM/92.1 FM
“I don’t think it’s critical to be really good at one and just subpar at the other. I think balance is the key to all great offenses to make teams respect both the run game and the throw game.”
On how he’s changed throughout his career:
“I probably mellowed a little bit, I would think. I think if you talked to some of the guys when I first came on board as the head coach, it was very intense and very, maybe, too intense, but hopefully I’ve become, I know I’ve become, a better wrestler through the years and being able to not have some knee-jerk reactions and be able to think things through a little better than I did at the very beginning and be patient, a little more patient than I used to be.”
Utah receiver Tobias Merriweather at fall practice. The Cal transfer provides a big target for new Utah QB Devon Dampier to target.| Utah Athletics