Utah's Mr. Everything: U.'s Weddle is one of nation's top defenders

Morgan Scalley, who played in the same defensive backfield with Weddle for two years and now helps coach him as a Ute graduate assistant, says there are several things that make Weddle such an excellent defensive back.

"His instincts are amazing," Scalley said. "He's instinctive and tough, but the one thing he does is say, 'I'm going to be better than you and you're going to know it by the end of the day."'

If you ask Weddle, he says it's his meticulous preparation that sets him apart.

"It's athletic ability and stuff like that, but I think it's more preparation and film study and knowing the routes and what the receiver is going to do," Weddle said. "That's really what it comes down to, knowing what they're doing so you can react quick and make a play on the ball."

Scalley says, "He'll watch film all day long. He knows it so well that a scout team wide receiver will run the wrong route and he'll let them know. He knows it better than they do."

Both Scalley and Whittingham knew Weddle was something special when he first stepped on the Ute campus.

"It was very apparent from day one," says Whittingham. "He was head and shoulders above everyone else in that class in our agility tests and practices. He was the best safety, the best wide receiver, the best everything."

Scalley, the starting free safety Weddle's first year, recalls Weddle being a "confident, bordering on cocky kid" when he reported for fall practice in 2003. Weddle acknowledges he was cocky and claims he wasn't well-liked when he first came to Utah because of his attitude.

"My mind-set was that I wasn't trying to make friends. People didn't like me because I didn't take any crap. A lot of guys thought I'd bow down to them, but I wasn't like that. I was just trying to play football and do my thing."

Scalley says it wasn't that Weddle wasn't liked, but he rubbed some players the wrong way. He recalls how starting strong safety Dave Revill would pride himself on being the first to answer questions by safety coach Bill Busch. However, Weddle would sometimes beat him to the answers, causing Revill to ask, "Who does this kid think he is?"

Whittingham remembers the same thing.

"He was assertive and aggressive in meetings on the field. Some of the senior players were like, 'Who is this punk?' But if you're going to work your way into the lineup, that's how you've got to be. You've got to show up and make your presence known, which he did."

Scalley said it soon became apparent that Weddle needed to be on the field, so some of the players secretly went to coach Busch and told him, "This guy's making plays and needs to be on the field."