Utah Utes football notebook: Vroman erasing worries about replacing Sakoda as kicker

Besides getting settled on a starter at the quarterback position, perhaps the biggest concern for Ute football coaches in camp has been the kicking game. Replacing a player such as all-American Louie Sakoda, a three-year starter at punter and placekicker, is a tough task.

After Thursday's scrimmage, coach Kyle Whittingham was all smiles while talking about the kicking game.

Ben Vroman, who handled kickoffs the last two years, is No. 1 on the depth chart at placekicker, and he showed why Thursday.

He went 7-for-7 on the day, making field goals from 49 and 43 yards as well as from 39, 36, 35, 31 and 26 yards.

"I was very pleased with the placekicking today," Whittingham said. "We did a bunch of placekicking in live situations, and Ben Vroman was clearly the top guy and right now unless something dramatic happens, he'll be handling the kickoffs and the placekicking."

Besides Vroman, freshman Nick Marsh made a 33-yard field goal and Joe Phillips a 36-yarder.

"It was a good day for the specialists group," said Vroman, a senior out of Skyline High. "Spring was a little rough for us, but the first part of the camp we've definitely taken some steps forward."

Whittingham also said punter Sean Sellwood was back in action after sitting out earlier in the week and did a "nice job" punting the ball Thursday.

"I'm very happy with the whole kicking battery," said Whittingham. "It's all way ahead of where we were in the spring."

NOT GOOD ENOUGH: While much of the focus has been on the offensive side of the ball, the defense has been improving each day of practice. However, new defensive coordinator Kalani Sitake was not happy with the defense at Thursday's scrimmage.

"The guys are energetic and running around, but we had too many missed assignments and too many missed tackles," he said. "Nobody was great today. We were just good. But good is not good enough for this program."

Sitake said the defense did rest seven starters as a precaution, but he still expected more.

"It was an opportunity for our inexperienced guys to get in there and play some ball and get some experience," he said. "But it wasn't clean enough and crisp enough. We had a lot of mistakes. We need to stay focused on our fundamentals and our technique. We're anxious for the next time to go live."

ROBLES BACK: Lost amid all the talk about the three-way battle for quarterback is the return of Griff Robles, the highly recruited QB from Spanish Fork High School.

The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Robles returned from an LDS mission in June and wasn't expected to play this fall but was given the scholarship saved for James Aiono, who didn't qualify academically for this fall.

If Robles doesn't get a chance at quarterback, he may have a future as a defender, a another former quarterback from Utah County, PaulKruger.