Utah Utes football notebook: Kamaron Yancy, with late start, tops Utes' old-guy list

With more than two dozen returned LDS missionaries on the roster, Utah has one of the older football teams in college football.

On the 105-man roster, 38 players are 22 or older with a dozen players 24 years old.

However, the oldest player on the team happens to be a 25-year-old defensive back from Los Angeles, who never went on a mission.

Kamaron Yancy, who is battling Conroy Black for the starting cornerback spot next to Brandon Burton, is the only player on the team born in 1984. He turns 26 in early September.

So why is he so old?

"I went on my own mission," he says with a laugh.

Yancy actually worked for a mortgage company out of high school, but was convinced by his father, Billy, an assistant coach at Pierce Junior College, to join the team at the age of 21. After playing a Pierce, he then was planning to go to Cal. However, when it didn't work out because of some technicalities, Yancy ended up at Utah.

"As far as football, I've been playing the same as anyone else has been playing," he said. "But as far as off the field, I have more maturity."

Yancy is looking forward to getting out on the field after breaking his foot last year and missing nine games.

If he doesn't get the starting corner spot, he'll still play a lot as a member of every one of Utah's special teams.

"They're all exciting to me," he said, declining to name a favorite special team.

UTE NOTES: Former Ute placekicker Louie Sakoda was spotted at practice Tuesday. Sakoda is playing for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League after getting released from Saskatchewan earlier this month. ... Coach Kyle Whittingham said "the pit is thinning out" after a couple of more players started practicing again. Among those emerging from the pit recently are receiver Mo Lee and tackle Kapua Sai. ... Freshman receiver Kenneth Scott had surgery on his injured ankle Tuesday and is in for a long rehab, according to Whittingham. ... The annual Ute Fan Fest, co-sponsored by the Deseret News, will be Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Olympic Park just south of the stadium.

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