U. coach seeing who will compete

Utah's first spring scrimmage differed from those of a year ago.

Unlike last season, when new coach Urban Meyer and his staff used three-hour sessions to try and identify players who would compete, Saturday's scrimmage at Rice-Eccles Stadium was shorter in length and somewhat more focused.

"Now we're trying to develop guys and find out who the next run of players are," Meyer said. "There are certain guys who don't need to prove something and there's certain guys that need to step up. That's what spring ball is for right now."

With projected contributors Bryan Borreson, Kawika Casco, Steve Dahl, Jonathan Fanene, Thomas Huff, Marty Johnson, Travis LaTendresse, Morgan Scalley, Eric Weddle and Jerome Wright sidelined for various precautionary reasons, the Utes pleased Meyer with their intensity.

"It was pretty good," he said in evaluating the scrimmage that pitted a combination of scenarios involving first, second and third teams offensively and defensively.

The only touchdown of the scrimmage came on the fourth series when wide receiver Paris Warren ran 27 yards on a misdirection play for a score.

"Everything was executed perfectly. The line did their job up front, and I give a lot of credit to them," said Warren, who joined teammates Steve Savoy and John Madsen with two receptions. "Basically the offense is in. . . . All we can do is build on it, build on it every day."

Tailback Mike Liti led all rushers with 52 yards on eight carries, while quarterback Alex Smith added 42 on seven attempts. Smith also completed 6-of-15 passes for 93 yards while sporting a dark green jersey to signify he was off limits to would-be tacklers.

"I enjoy that part of the game so much, getting in there and getting hit, I kind of lose myself in the game when I do that," Smith said. "But being realistic, obviously, I don't want to do that — especially with my back the way it is.

"It's getting better," he added while noting his back still gets a little stiff at times but is not as painful as a year ago, when soreness limited his mobility early in the season. "There's no reason to re-aggravate it in spring ball."