Here’s what Scalley had to say when him and the other assistants had their media availability:

-No pads on yet so it tough to tell who they are. The returners have made some nice strength gains.

-Scalley says he’s excited for the depth at corner, but they’ve got to put the pads on and see how physical they can be. Miles Battle has been everything they expected so far and it looks like Tao Johnson and Elijah “Scooby” Davis look like they’ll provide nice depth.

-The progress of the interior line looks promising. Fotu is someone they’ve really come along and he looks really good right now. Same with Keanu Tanuvasa. Add them to Vimahi, Tafuna and Pepa, and that’s a pretty solid group.

-In this league, it’s not just “who is starting.” You have to have depth. Injuries are going to happen and the second or third guy has got to help you win football games. Scalley believes CJ Blocker and Smith Snowden can both come in in the fall and play meaningful reps. Depth is a huge part of winning championships

-They’re definitely more experienced at linebacker. Lander had made a ton of progress in the weight room and he’s faster and has learned the defense. You’ve got Karene Reid as well, and Justin Medlock is really coming into his own. Then there’s Levani Damuni transferring after spring and Sione Fotu back off his mission. There’s a lot of depth here, and smart tough guys who can communicate with the defense and run the show.

-Scheme doesn’t win you football games. Behavior does. There were certain things from last year that they needed to be better at like press-man inside hands with the defensive line, tackling better. It’s a lot about fundamentals.

-Spring is a lot about individual development periods and drills than it is team football.

-Sione Vaki and Cole Bishop are as solid as can be. Playing free safety is so much about your ability to get from sideline to sideline. It’s not as much about 40 speed as it is your ability to plant your foot and go. Bishop and Vaki have that. Nate Ritchie will have the ability to do that. Spring will be about developing that in guys like Pearson and Stewart. They’ll definitely miss Clayton Isbell and wish him the best.

-Phillips was a great leader and Utah is fortunate to have great leaders in place already with Broughton and Vaughn. They’ve stepped up and they’re ready. They’re experienced. Leadership is about owning your role and others will follow.

What a season by the ladies, despite the unfortunate end.

https://utah.rivals.com/news/utah-women-s-basketball-falls-in-the-sweet-16

Alex, can you tell when you will have practice observation periods for the media?

Here's Halie's recap of Utah's Pro Day:

The rebuild of the rebuild continues for Smith. He now has five open scholarships to fill.

A bit of a surprise but outside of Exacte, and Keita nobody on the roster is irreplaceable.

Desperately need Br Carlson to return

Here’s what Dalton had to say, after being cleared but not participating today:

-He was cleared for activities on Monday.

-The interviews have been fun. A little bit of its been talking about his upbringing and also football.

-His favorite part is that he learns a lot in these interviews about the teams and terminology. It’s a good time to grow and learn a lot about the game.

-It’s crazy and a dream come true from him. He’s grateful for everyone that’s sacrificed and put him in a position to succeed.

-The process to prepare for the draft has been a lot about videos for him, since he recently got cleared. When he got cleared, the difficult decision was deciding on if he should train for the 40 yard dash or for NFL camp. For him, he’s choosing to be in his best shape and best form for NFL camp.

-He believes his best attributes are his pass catching and all the winning he's been a part of.

-It’s a good time to be a tight end and be eligible for the draft. The game is still evolving and he thinks the role is getting better and better for TEs.

-Opinions and conversations have been different from team to team with him not being able to participate.

-He joked that the projections are really more for his dad than anything. He thinks it would be awesome to go in the first round, as a nice reflection on the program. It reflecting well on the program — Ludwig and Freddie Whittingham —is what would mean the most to Dalton.

In a matter of days, this offseason for the Runnin’ Utes just got a lot more difficult.

https://utah.rivals.com/news/utah-s-carlson-declares-for-the-nba-draft

I missed Lazar leaving. Are there any other losses?

•Talking about his freshman season Lander says he had a lot of fun, big learning curve, the biggest thing he took away from it was the speed of it. Coming in the spring he had to catch up with the speed, once the season hit it was a little bit of an adjustment again but happy with the season.

•He says in the offseason he’s been working on his foot speed and quickness overall.

•Feels like they have a lot more depth this season, a lot of guys coming back from last year and the year before. Familiar faces in the room to play with a lot of depth and talent.

•Coach Swan is really pushing them to get the defense down and be able to play fast, he knows they’re going to make mistakes but to learn from those and continue to play with that speed.

Pro Day is underway, everyone is now in the field house getting ready for field testing.

•Karene says It took them minute to mesh as a defense and come together last year. Thinks a lot of it had to do with practice habits, they changed the way they practiced and made sure everyone was getting to the ball which ultimately resulted in less points being scored on them.

•Being a senior this year he’s says being a leader of this group. it’s easy with this group — everyone meshes so well. He says it’s important to make sure he’s leading them in the right way, leading by example and be an extension of Coach Swan.

•Karene also noted it’s all about building a culture where some of these guys are brand new, they’re not sure how things are ran. Stating they’ve got to show them early on how they run to the ball and are aggressive and hopefully carry on to the fall.

I'm not sure if this got posted to the board, but the spring game has been rebranded as the 22 Forever Game:

https://utahutes.com/news/2023/3/22/utah-football-spring-game-named-22-forever-game.aspx

I’m not sure what to think of this one right now combined with Lazar leaving. I don’t know that it’s a slam dunk that Branden is back. We’ll see…

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I was told this a couple days ago by a source extremely close to Dalton, but they said he was probably not going to participate at Pro Day. There’s not enough time to prepare sufficiently now that he’s be clear for football activities.

I wanted to hold back at the time out of respect to Dalton, but also because I didn’t want that news risking some teams not showing and reducing the opportunity for the others to be seen.

Good news is that Dalton can still do private workouts.

I talked with Freddie Whittingham today about his stacked position group, despite the big loss of Dalton Kincaid:

-Freddie is excited to see where Dalton lands in the draft. And he is also eager to see who steps up to fill his role.

-He’s obviously excited about eventually getting Kuithe. He’s looking forward to seeing what Yassmin can do this spring and also with an increased role.He also highlighted his excitement about the switch with Suguturaga and mentioned that he’ll fit the LOS role like Thedford, Fotheringham, and Kendall before him.

-He wants his guys to focus on getting better at their fundamentals and technique, and then letting their natural talents take over. It’s such a tight end oriented offense.

-Kuithe has been vital to still be in the room, while he’s recovering. Freddie said so many of the clips he shows for the new guys of technique, process, route running and everything involves Kuithe. To have him in the room explaining things and sharing tips and tricks has been vital for everyone. He’s stayed heavily engaged. He embraces the role and Freddie is excited to have him back.

-They’ve been talking about Yassmin for years now and he made the most of his chance when he was given the opportunity. He said laughing that he thinks Yassmin had the highest TD to reception ratio he’s seen in a long time. Now it’s time for him to bring that effort and production into more snaps every game and be effective in every type of assignment he’s given: run blocking, pass blocking, the throw game. The next move for Yassmin is for him to be a high performing TE in every phase of the game and every play of the game.

-He believes Suguturaga is really embracing his position switch and making the most of it. Freddie truly believes the move can benefit Suguturaga long-term and potentially for the next level.

-He wants to see the same productivity that Kincaid provided the team, but knows that it will likely not just come from one guy and that it could come from a combo between 4-5 different guys.

-McClain is out for the spring, but Freddie believes he has a really high ceiling. He has great hands and a great feel for route running. He believes McClain can be a big part of what they do.

-Of the young guys, both Isaac Vaha and Noah Bennee (former WR) looked really good on the first day.

Here’s Sean’s breakdown of the receivers for this spring:

https://utah.rivals.com/news/utah-spring-preview-wide-receivers

I caught up with Ganther 1-on-1 today and here’s the notes on what he had to say:

-He loves seeing the brotherhood in the room. He mentioned that 10 years down the road these are guys you want to lean on, so they’re closeness is special. It’s also something Ganther preaches.

-Ganther and Ja’Quinden had similar upbringings so it’s easier for Ganther to relate to Jackson. It’s easy for him to do the right things and keep pushing forward. He wants guys to gel together, lean together and bond together, because it’s a hard game.

-Every time he goes to recruit the Dallas area, everyone wants to know how JJ is doing.

-He talks to his guys all the same, but he wants them all to be leaders. Being a leader is a big responsibility because you have to do things the right way. Being a leader you have to show up every day. He won’t coach any man softer than another man. He’ll treat them the same and he loves them all.

-He said there were 6 different running backs that scored TDs last year, something that Ganther believes is a Ute record. That shows the resiliency of the group with the adversity they went through. His guys just kept coming to work and it all paid off for them. No one gave up. If you keep fighting, you stay in the race and they did that and were able to get good results out of it.

-This spring he wants to see less mistakes, a group that carries the team. He also wants a group that’s dependable and holds each other accountable. He says he doesn’t have to say much anymore, with this group has developed into a bunch of leaders.

-The best teams he’s been around police themselves and the coaches don’t have to. That’s what he sees with this group.

-He expects to see huge improvements from Glover this season and Ganther says if that doesn’t happen, that Ganther himself would own the fact that he failed Glover.

-The make the depth chart for him being warming it with their production in practice. He said Ja’Quinden and Charlie Vincent weren’t given anything last year, they both earned it.

-It’s still surreal being back at his alma mater. He said he’s starting to get more comfortable but that you can never get too comfortable and you need to stay hungry. He feels like he’s really able to start putting his personality and imprint on the RB room.

It’s been a crazy day for me and it’s starting to slow down, so I’ll have the interview notes up soon. Today they had all of the offensive coaches in the press room in a group session.

Here’s Halie’s look at the cornerback situation going into spring ball:

https://utah.rivals.com/news/utah-spring-preview-cornerbacks

Here’s Halie’s article on Thomas Yassmin:

https://utah.rivals.com/news/utah-s-yassmin-ready-to-prove-himself-in-a-bigger-role

The ASU president has spoken up about the Pac-12:

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Kincaid off to the NFL and Kuithe still recovering from his injury opens up the door for Yassmin and co. to show what they can do this spring: