Utah Utes rider Tavion Thomas (9) celebrates his touchdown with Utah Utes offensive lineman Bamidele Olaseni (77) during the season opener at Salt-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Thursday, September 2, 2021. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY: The roster of errors was long for Utah No. 24 coach Kyle Whittingham after Thursday’s season opener at Weber State.
Whittingham said he got tired of writing it down at one point, as there were a lot of problems: down passes, there weren’t enough players on the field, allowing for an initial return for a touchdown and a lost PAT, between a group of others. In the end, 24th-placed Utes retired to win 40-17 at the state’s FCS center, but it was anything but a solid demonstration for the home team.
“We have a whole list of clothes to work on this week; it will keep us busy,” Whittingham said after the match. “As players and coaches, we need to be better next week.”
This challenge will not be easier a week from Saturday, when Utah (1-0) travels to hostile territory to adopt a BYU program ready to break a streak of nine defeats. But that can wait another week; on Thursday it was Weber State (0-1).
Thursday’s game was far from flawless, but Utah showed an offense capable of moving the ball and scoring points with senior quarterback Charlie Brewer under center. The Baylor transfer threw 233 yards on 19 of 27, with two touchdowns and an interception, though Whittingham said he was doing what “he was trained to do” in a Ave Maria attempt at the end of the second quarter that led to the choice.
“I thought he was doing a good job. His numbers were good; not fantastic, but good,” Whittingham said when evaluating his initial QB. “I thought I was very fit in my pocket, that I was doing a good job keeping my eyes down, I was accurate (about 70%) and that I was doing a good job running the office, so I thought it was positive.”
Brewer put his team in a position to score points, but his team did not always follow.
In the team’s first action after the defense forced a hat-trick for Weber State, Brewer marched the team to the field on a mostly heavy offensive plan and had the Utes in a scoring position on the 7-yard line. . But runner TJ Pledger threw a touchdown pass to the 2-yard line and the Utes were forced to settle for a field goal.
Later in the quarter, Brewer connected with Cole Fotheringham in the end zone to get another score, but Fotheringham let the ball pass and Utah, again, was forced to settle for a Jadon Redding field goal. .
But not everything was bad during the first quarter. Brewer found Dalton Kincaid, whom Whittingham called a “best-kept secret in the Pac-12,” for a 17-yard attack to give the Utes their first offensive score of the season. Kincaid grabbed his second touchdown of the game (an 11-yard strike in the fourth quarter) from Cam Rising two plays after the safety QB came into play.
Brewer also found wide junior receiver Solomon Enis with an 8-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to put some distance away from a Weber State team that refused to back down to the Utes. Enis finished the game as the second receiver with 62 yards on four catches, just behind Kincaid’s 75 yards on four catches.
The Utes also received help from Tavion Thomas, who went on to junior college, who led the Utes ’path in a quiet running game with two touchdowns and 107 yards in 12 runs. Thomas had his own mistake to start the second half with a bang recovered by Weber State. But the second year did enough to probably earn a place at the top of the depth chart.
“Well, we’ll see. He put the ball on the ground: you can’t put the ball on the ground,” Whittingham said of Thomas. “And so it was the big downside, but he showed you a taste and a little bit of vision of what he’s capable of and what he’s about, so we’ll analyze the film, classify it, and come up with a peak order.”
The Utah defense kept Weber State’s offense at just 3 points for most of the game until a final touchdown. The defense got an interception and forced the uproar – both from Devin Lloyd – against a talented Weber State quarterback Bronson Barron, who ended the night by throwing 213 yards and a touchdown in the 21 of 33 finishes.
But the Wildcats ’most notable play came in the first quarter when the Utah special teams unit threw Rashid Shaheed, the dynamic returner, who returned him for a 99-yard touchdown to give the Wildcats an early lead. of 7-3, just as lightning caused a delay in the area.
Whether it was Whittingham asking for a favor from Mother Nature or just a casual break just after Shaheed’s score, the game was postponed for an hour and a half.
Weber State almost took the lead in the first half on a drive to Utah’s 1-yard line, but the Utah defense filled the Wildcats to avoid the scoreboard and the Utes began to pull away. definitely. Lloyd led the Utes with 12 total attacks, including two to lose, and a sack, interception and forced.
Justin Malone caught five passes for 50 yards for the Wildcats, and Ty McPherson added five catches for 48 yards.