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SALT LAKE CITY — Kyle Whittingham stood with his back against the wall at the Utah football practice field Monday afternoon, joking that he's been in that spot his entire career.
Really, though, Whittingham is at the front of the Big 12 as his team enters the 2024 season as the projected favorite to win the conference and earn a playoff bid for the first time in program history.
After a disappointing 2023 season, in which the Utes were without several key players due to injury, Utah was ready to get back at it for a new season. Call it a redemption season or whatever you'd like, but Utah is singularly focused on being one of the best teams in the country.
And with a loaded roster of veteran players, Utah has the talent to do it if everything comes together this season.
Though the team officially reported for fall camp Sunday, the work began in spring (and even before that). Everyone — from the players to the coaches to the support staff — has been ready for the 2024 season to begin.
It's why Monday went off without a hitch, according to Whittingham.
"It was pretty smooth, given the first day out," Whittingham said. "Execution was pretty good. ... It's just mainly assignment football, but about what we expected for the first day. It was a good, solid day."
It was a good day because the players had already set a standard in the summer during "player-run practices," or PRPs as Whittingham called them, that allows for the team to start at a higher level.
Offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig said the coaching staff came together in February — the first time in his career, he said — to start breaking down the film of all the Big 12 teams. They reconvened in June to do a deeper dive of each team to give themselves a better understanding of what to expect.
There's no formal game plans yet, Ludwig said, but it was a way for the team to not experience any surprises in their first year of the Big 12. Even the way fall camp is designed — a ramping-up approach similar to the NFL — is there to help the team start at a higher level this season.
It's why Ludwig said the offense, especially with the quarterbacks on roster, will experience a "very aggressive" install of the schemes the team expects to run this season — even as coaches look to solidify depth at a few key position groups.
That all starts at quarterback, where Cam Rising is the unquestioned leader and starter. But behind him, it's a three-way race to see who his backup will be for the 2024 season. And that race will remain a "daily and highly competitive situation," Ludwig said, until there is separation.
Once that separation is identified, the coaching staff will divvy up the reps accordingly and go on their way — while still giving the bulk of the reps to Rising to prepare for his return to action.
"We need to see separation from one of those three young men, between Brandon (Rose), Isaac (Wilson) and Sam (Huard)," Ludwig said. "And as soon as there's some separation, that young man will start getting more reps, the other two guys a little fewer. That's going to be continuing on as long as it has to; but, obviously, the sooner the better.
"But I want to make the right decision rather than a rushed decision."
Rising, too, said he's eager to help his fellow quarterbacks in their battle as his backup.
"Yeah, just anywhere I can help them, any questions they have, I'm gonna try to answer it," Rising said. "And if I don't know the answer, I'll try and figure out the answer through the coaches somehow just to make sure."
Already, he's been "fired up" by the way Cal Poly transfer Sam Huard, who joined the team a month ago, has understood what Utah wants to do.
"It was a good day for the QBs," Whittingham added. "And probably the biggest reason for that is the things we put in today with the things they've been doing all summer. And so that's what's going to be the first three or four days of stuff that we worked all summer on. You start getting into practice five, six, seven, now you start introducing new concepts. And that's where you really start to see separation."
Beyond the QB battle, it's the continued development of every other position on the team.
There's a loaded receiver and tight end room with high expectations, and a running back room looking for a leader — Whittingham identified Micah Bernard as the Day 1 leader — and then an offensive line looking to solidify its depth behind an expected starting five that has gotten several reps together.
Defensively, it's trying to find playing time for all the talent on the line that is finally healthy, and a linebacker corps that will continue to call on Karene Reid and Lander Barton, while trying to find more contributors like Sione Fotu.
And then in the secondary, it's finding players that can be trusted when the bright lights come on. Cornerback coach Sharrieff Shah said he has confidence in about 2.5 players because they've shown it consistently in games, but there's more that need to step up and fill that depth.
It's a fall camp with some questions — like every season before it — but one that already has a solid baseline for a successful season. But in four weeks, as Utah prepares to kickoff the season against Southern Utah, that's when the questions get answered.
Utah is simply just ready for another crack at a champions.
