Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — The path to Division I football was an unusual one for tight end Caleb Lohner.
The former Wasatch Academy basketball star who originally committed and signed with the University of Utah in 2019 before asking out of his letter of intent to join rival BYU has been on a circuitous route over his collegiate career.
Following a two-year stint with the Cougars, Lohner transferred to Baylor, where he averaged 2.8 points and 2.9 rebounds in only 10 minutes per game over two seasons. In the end, he wanted a change of scenery ... but one from the hardwood to the field.
Lohner, though, hadn't played football since junior high. Still, his 6-foot-8, 235-pound frame was hard to ignore as a potential tight end.
So Utah offered a scholarship to the former basketball player, with hopes that he could add to an already loaded tight end room. With his size and fluidity as a basketball player, there was potential.
"I just think it maybe was a long time coming," Lohner admitted. "I think I've been given certain gifts — my body and just the way I move — that it kind of made sense. And Utah came to me and presented an opportunity, and I just kind of felt like I'd be a fool not to take it.
"It is new, it is a challenge, and there was a little bit of anxiety up front, just because it is completely different at the end of my collegiate career, but been having such a great time, pushed every day, and I couldn't be in a better spot."
Lohner said it's been like learning a new language in just a few months' time, but he's "genuinely enjoying" his time on the football field — even if he has to ask questions at times that teammates "look at me, like, we learned that in fifth grade."
"They've been awesome," he added. "They've been helping me every step of the way, challenging me every step of the way."
He joins a room that features proven players like Brant Kuithe, Landen King, Carsen Ryan, Miki Suguturaga and Dallen Bentley. But he has the traits and work ethic to be included as an equal in the group, according to coaches.
Lohner is not just an experiment — though there may be some of that as he acclimates to football — but is someone Utah believes who can have an impact on the offense.
"Caleb is a guy that has all the traits that you look for in tight ends," tight end coach Freddie Whittingham said. "He's tall, he's 250 pounds now, he can run, he's got good hands. And I would say from when he arrived in May through all of the summer work that was done, he'd get a grade of an A for everything that he was able to do in summer ball.
"We don't have pads on in summer ball, so now that the pads come on and the football is real and it's no longer done in shorts, that's going to be another benchmark for him, another stepping stone for him to be able to display that he can catch on quickly into the physicality and the speed of the game. But as far as just pure skills that would show up like an NFL Combine, he is elite."
Offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig called him a "unique athlete" with a "unique skill set" that has the coaching staff "anxious to see" what he can do.
And after a little over a week of fall camp, Lohner continues to impress coaches. There's still much to learn, but he's making the progress needed to be in the conversation.
But Lohner doesn't have to have a full mastery of the position, either. With the talent and diversity in the room, Lohner can be used in specific packages — ones that he's comfortable with as he continues to understand everything there is to know about football and Ludwig's complex playbook.
"We've got the benefit of being able to be really diverse with our tight end packages and have a variety of different personnel groupings," Freddie Whittingham said. "It's not just going to be 12 (personnel) with the same two guys all the time. It'll be 12 maybe with two pass receiving type tight ends, 12 with too big blocking tight type ends, things like that. We just have to figure out what each one of them does best."
But will Lohner adapt to the physicality of the game? His position coach isn't too worried about that, either.
"I do not believe he will have any type of aversion to the contact or will be shocked by how violent the game is; we've tried to prepare him with that," Freddie Whittingham said. "But anything you tell him verbally, it's not going to really be understood until he feels that in the course of a full contact practice."
And what about basketball? Is that still an option he's considering as a potential walk-on athlete on Craig Smith's team?
"I'm 100% football right now," Lohner said. "My goal is to help this team in any way that I can. My goal at the end of the day is to win a Big 12 championship, and so we're gonna focus on one game at a time, and for me personally, one day at a time, just because it is a lot. But that's my that's my goal right now."
For now, he's simply focused on "learning the offense, learning how to be a football player."
