Utah Utes football: Johnson shines in limited time

On a day when defense dominated Utah's situational scrimmage at Rice-Eccles Stadium, quarterback Brian Johnson had a pretty strong showing of his own. He completed 9-of-10 passes for 93 yards.

"Brian Johnson was very sharp," said head coach Kyle Whittingham. "When he's in the football game, we're a much more efficient offense. That's very plain to see."

Johnson and most of the first unit saw limited action in Tuesday's 85-play scrimmage. A point of emphasis, Whittingham said, was to find reserves who can play. The twos and threes, he estimated, were on the field for 60 of the snaps.

The scrimmage, Whittingham continued, got off to a little bit of a slow start with sloppy play and early penalties.

Things, however, gradually improved.

"It cleaned up as the scrimmage wore on," Whittingham said. "And we finished pretty decent, especially with the ones and twos."

Besides Johnson's strong showing, other bright spots on offense included Eddie Wide's 32 yards rushing and Ray Stowers' four receptions for 49 yards. Touchdowns came on a 12-yard scoring strike from Corbin Louks to Stowers and a 1-yard run by Wide.

All-American kicker Louie Sakoda contributed field goals from 47, 32 and 25 yards to round out the scoring.

"Offensively, there's still a lot to work on. I felt like the ones, when we were all in there together, we played pretty well," said Johnson, who pointed out that some holding penalties proved to be drive killers. "The bottom line is we've just to be cleaner, and we've got to be faster on Saturday."

The key before Utah's next scrimmage, he said, is to watch the tape and not make the same mistakes again — get them corrected.

"I loved the effort of the team," Johnson said. "I loved the way guys were working. Obviously, we've just got to go and execute."

Whittingham is looking for a big jump overall as the Aug. 30 season-opener at Michigan draws near.

"(We'd) better. We've got to take steps forward each and every day," he said while noting that the Utes have a pair of two-a-days and a single practice before their next scrimmage.

"I expect the execution level to be better on Saturday," Whittingham said.

The defense, however, may have a difficult time doing so. They dominated Wednesday's scrimmage by racking up 12 tackles-for-loss, nine sacks and four pass breakups.