Utah Utes football: Camp brings long hours, big decisions

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham and his staff may be a bit blurry eyed Friday morning.

After Thursday's scrimmage at Rice-Eccles Stadium, they planned to spend about four hours analyzing the film. Following that, a scheduled meeting with the players to go over what was evaluated. Then, perhaps late into the evening, another coaches meeting to talk about decisions that need to be made.

The top priority?

Quarterback, where Corbin Louks, Terrance Cain and Jordan Wynn are competing for the starting job.

"We will come out of this with a depth chart," said Whittingham, who plans to release the results after practice Friday morning. "We're still three weeks out from the game (Sept. 3 vs. Utah State) so it's not set in stone, but we will come out with a one, two and three quarterback."

Before Thursday's scrimmage the competition was described as a "dead heat" by Whittingham. The depth chart, he emphasized, is just a way to get some semblance of pecking order since a lot of things can happen between now and the season opener.

"It's a starting point more than a definitive end," Whittingham said.

All three quarterbacks, he continued, took turns doing good things and not-so-good things in the 100-play situational scrimmage that was closed to the public. Media were only allowed to watch the final 45 minutes.

They headlined a gathering where several projected starters, including Stevenson Sylvester, Mike Wright, Kepa Gaison, Robert Johnson, Joe Dale, Koa Misi, Zane Beadlers, Matt Asiata and Davis Reed, were held out for precautionary reasons.

No statistics were kept, but Utah's sports information department did note some highlights to share with the public.

Cain teamed with Eddie Wide on a 60-yard touchdown pass and Wynn connected with Jereme Brooks on a 35-yard scoring strike. Wynn also directed a red-zone drive that ended with a 10-yard touchdown run by Wide. Running back Sausan Shakerin capped a red-zone drive with a 3-yard run for a score on a direct snap.

Other bright spots included kicker Ben Vroman going 7-for-7 on field goals and Justin Taplin-Ross returning a punt for a touchdown.

On defense, Junior Tui'one had two tackles-for-loss. Mo Neal and Tysen Clements each picked off passes.

The quarterback battle, however, took center stage.