Scrimmage OK; Utes want more

Utah quarterback Brian Johnson said there's an ongoing battle in the game of football — you fix one thing and something else pops up.

In Saturday's camp-ending situational scrimmage at Rice-Eccles Stadium, the offense progressed after a subpar performance earlier in the week.

"We did a good job," Johnson said. "... It was a good, solid day's work, but definitely a lot of room for improvement. Time is of the essence now. So we need to get better fast."

The Utes, who open the season Aug. 30 at Oregon State, scored two touchdowns in the scrimmage — off a 48-yard pass from Johnson to Marquis Wilson and a 37-yard scoring strike from Tommy Grady to Derrek Richards.

Louie Sakoda added field goals from 45 and 46 yards out. Ben Vroman connected on a 52-yarder.

"It was better," acknowledged coach Kyle Whittingham, who wasn't happy with the offense in Tuesday's scrimmage. "It was certainly better but still not clean enough. We have a drop here or there; a penalty here or there; things that are just drive-killing type things that we've got to get rid of."

Johnson completed 5-of-10 passes for 102 yards. Grady was 8-for-13 for 77 yards. Senior Brian Hernandez led all receivers with three catches and tied Darryl Poston for team-high rushing honors with 19, on a reverse.

"The first unit was better," said offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig, who noted that the second offense needs to tighten up. "We've got a lot of room for improvement. The next nine days of practice have got to be huge for us."

Settling the tailback situation will help. Highly touted Snow College transfer Matt Asiata, who has been sidelined for much of camp with a sprained foot, did not participate in the scrimmage. Six defensive starters were also held out for precautionary reasons.

All are expected back when practice resumes next week, including Asiata.

"He's jogging and doing some things. We're hoping we can start working him in Monday," Whittingham said. "(The running back) position should have been settled by now, but we couldn't do it with the injury situation.

"We've still got time," he added. "We need to start getting him reps. That's the bottom line."

In a depth chart released Saturday afternoon, Darryl Poston, Ray Stowers, Darrell Mack and Asiata share the top spot at running back.