•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:

We’ll have the rest of the position articles coming, as well as player interviews and everything else. Media gets to view practice for 20 minutes today. What’s everyone eager to find out this spring?

Media was able to watch the last 20 minutes of practice today. During that time, we watched Barnes throw one pass - a short one incomplete. Johnson and Rose received a ton of reps.

Rose’s first pass was deflected by Cole Bishop. Then His next pass he went right at JaTravis Broughton with a beautifully thrown ball in the corner end zone to Vele for about a 30-yard TD.

Devaughn Vele looked like an NFL receiver today. He also had a contested catched thrown by Johnson were he went up with authority to snag it.

Rose throws an absolutely beautiful ball. It’s was what we were anticipating after hearing the reports on him running the scout team. Johnson had some really nice passes, mixed with a couple wobbly ones. Johnson’s running what everyone has come to expect from him. On one play, he faked the handoff left and rolled to the right for about a 25-30 yard gain. This is going to be an insanely interesting battle to watch over the spring.

My honest opinion on the QB battle is that Barnes is the fallback option for No. 2. With Johnson and Rose receiving the bulk of the reps, the No. 2 job is theirs to lose.

Broughton was attacked by the offense a lot today, and despite some really nice plays against him, he also had his fair share of nice pass breakups.

Even with Isbell’s odd late departure, this group will be ready to go. Sean breaks them down for spring:

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

Lander Barton and Karene Reid should continue to lead the linebacker group, but some transfers out of the program make the battle for the two deep one to watch:

O'Toole, Fillinger, and Elliss lead a group of athletic edge players, but who steps up into the rotation this spring?:

Lots of opportunity for some new faces to establish themself up front this spring with Daniels entering the NFL Draft and Maile transferring:

ALEX NOTE: Every question that Johnson was asked about himself, he talked about the team as a whole, instead. To me, that shows a lot for his future leadership.

-The energy was great on both sides of the ball for day-1.

-Asked about his opportunity with Rising out for spring ball, Johnson said in general spring is just a big opportunity for all of the newer guys to take advantage of.

-Execution is key when it comes to separating himself.

-He mentioned that accuracy is something the team and fans can expect from him.

-The Rose Bowl didn’t go their way, but it motivated everybody.

-Him and Rose have been able to learn a lot from Rising, Barnes, and Ludwig.

-Rising is a great leader and a great guy to look up to. He brings the energy and that’s something that hurt them when he went down in the Rose Bowl.

-It’s huge having Ludwig back and not going to ND. He’s one of the best in the business, and same with Rising, so it's great learning from both of them.

-It’s new, but he’s enjoying the position switch.

-It was a difficult decision but he was persuaded by Ludwig and Freddie Whittingham after a while, believing that the next level was more attainable with this move.

-They gave him time to think about it. He come into winter conditioning focused on getting faster and stronger. Then when spring ball started approaching, he started taking it more serious about switching over.

-The move was perfect for him because he felt like he needed to lose weight, so he dropped 10-15 pounds. More athleticism came with the weight drop.

-He’s really leaning on Kuithe, Yassmin and Taniela Pututau, but one interesting guy he mentioned is leaning on Noah Bennee for his route running.

-He said it’s important to take everything with a grain of salt and know that not everything is going to work for him.

-He hasn’t played TE since pop Warner in 8th grade.

-Laughing, he said no offense to Logan Kendall — it was horrible being on the other side of the ball from him — but he (Miki) can catch passes.

Ike is just what the Ute need a high scoring/hi reb power forward.

Wonder if Utes/Ike have interest in each other?