Utah QB Ratliff's ankle sprain a concern to Whittingham

Utah quarterback Brett Ratliff didn't practice much Monday. The left ankle sprain he suffered last week is still bothersome as the Emerald Bowl draws closer.

"It's starting to concern me now," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. "I thought it would be healed by now. I'm not overly concerned but I was anticipating he would be practicing by today."

Ratliff, however, saw only limited action in the morning workout at the Spence Eccles Field House. Three days have passed since hurting his ankle while making a cut and having it stepped on.

"He's still a little sore," Whittingham explained. "He could have gone if we had to have him, but we don't want to have him miss too much more time. We're starting to get close now, we're 10 days away."

The Utes face 24th-ranked Georgia Tech Dec. 29 at SBC Park in San Francisco.

Whittingham, thus, is hopeful Ratliff will resume full-time practice in the next day or so.

In the meantime, backup Danny Southwick has been most of the reps. The junior has yet to play a single down for the Utes since transferring from Dixie State College.

Whittingham acknowledged the heavy practice work for Southwick could be a silver lining as Utah awaits Ratliff's return.

"You look at the positive of things and that's one of them," Whittingham said. "But that may be the only one."

Ratliff inherited the starting job when Brian Johnson suffered a season-ending knee injury late in Utah's loss to New Mexico on Nov. 12. Seven days later, Ratliff led the Utes to a 41-34 overtime win at BYU. He earned Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors after helping the team become bowl eligible.

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