Utah Utes football: No word on starting QB

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah coach Kyle Whittingham announced that the 13th-ranked Utes will not name a starting quarterback for Saturday's homecoming game against San Jose State.

"We'll know," he said. "But no sense tipping our hand (to the Spartans)."

Jordan Wynn, though, appears ready to go after missing the past two games with a thumb sprain on his throwing hand. He stopped wearing a splint on Sunday and tested it out in practice Monday. There was no swelling or pain.

On Tuesday, Wynn threw deep passes, handed the ball off and even endured a hit on his thumb. The contact, he said, made him "kind of freaked out for a second but then it was fine."

As such, Wynn thinks the injury is now a thing of the past.

"It's definitely nice to be back in the flow of practice," he said.

Whittingham acknowledged that Wynn did a nice job throwing the ball.

Nice enough to play Saturday?

"There's a good chance," Whittingham said. "Yep, there's a very, very good chance he'll play Saturday."

The coach declined to say if Wynn will be the starter. Back-up Terrance Cain has started the past two games and led Utah to victories over UNLV and New Mexico.

Wynn wouldn't say if he would be the starter this week.

"We'll see. That's up to the coaches. I'm just going to go out and do what I can to get better, get ready for San Jose," he said before being asked about being healthy enough to be the starter. "Yeah. It feels pretty good. We'll continue just seeing how it goes as the week goes on."

In other injury news, Whittingham said that center Zane Taylor (knee) and defensive end Derrick Shelby (ankle) will play Saturday. Neither saw action last week at New Mexico.

BUSY DAY: Whittingham liked what he saw from the Utes on Tuesday.

"The players were very good today. It was a positive practice," he said. "Tuesday is the day we're getting exposure to all the new wrinkles in the game plan. It's a heavy duty learning day as well as a heavy duty work day."

EXTRA POINTS: Utah's starting offensive line has yet to give up a sack this season. ... The Utes lead the MWC and rank in the top 20 nationally in pass efficiency offense (177.7 rating) and pass efficiency defense (101.8 rating). ... Utah coaches will wear "Coach to Cure MD" patches Saturday for the American Football Coaches Association's support of research projects for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

e-mail: dirk@desnews.com