Utah Utes football: Monday's scrimmage a big deal for U.

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's second spring scrimmage was supposed to take place on Saturday. Snowy weather, though, prompted a move to Monday.

"It anything it re-emphasized how important it is," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said as his team enters the final week of spring ball.

While Saturday's Red-White Game has all the pomp and circumstance, the second scrimmage carries a lot more implications for the coaches and players.

Simply put, it's kind of a big deal.

"It's the most important scrimmage of the spring," Whittingham explained.. "The spring game is a watered down version of everything we do."

Monday's scrimmage, though, is expected to an extension of the one on April 1 — with higher expectations.

"It needs to be more of the same as far as the structure but it needs to be cleaner," Whittingham said. "We need to be more productive on offense. We need to continue to flying around and tackle well on defense."

The bottom line, he added, is it needs to be as error-free as possible. That, in large part, was why it was moved to a different day.

"It is the most important scrimmage of the spring and that being the case we wanted to make sure that we had the best weather possible for it," Whittingham said. "So we can have as clean of a look as we can get."

Offensive coordinator Norm Chow agrees.

"It's extremely important, he said. "Mainly because of the execution."

Whittingham said it'll give the coaching staff as good idea of how much the players have taken in this spring and establish "where we are as an offense, where we are as a defense and where we are as a football team."

The public is invited to attend the scrimmage, which is set for 3-5 p.m.., at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

HELLO, LARRY: Whittingham said he hasn't had a chance to meet Utah's new basketball coach Larry Krystkowiak.

"I'm looking forward to it. But with his schedule and my schedule we have not hooked up yet," Whittingham said before being asked about the selection of Coach K. "I'm not real up to speed as far as the basketball world, but it sounds like a good hire and I'm looking forward to getting to know him."

When told that Krystkowiak sports a goatee, Whittingham acknowledged that was "a plus."

EXTRA POINTS: Whittingham said that a few veterans will probably be held out of today's scrimmage . . . Tight end Kendrick Moeai is sidelined for the remainder of the spring with a calf strain . . . The Utes are scheduled to practice again Wednesday and Friday before concluding things on Saturday.

Email: dirk@desnews.com