- Utah's first Big 12 injury report is due Wednesday evening before Texas Tech.
- The Big 12 mandates four injury reports before games starting this season.
- Coach Kyle Whittingham is known for being coy about non-season-ending injuries.
SALT LAKE CITY — As the University of Utah prepares for its Big 12 opener Saturday morning against Texas Tech, here is an important reminder.
Beginning Wednesday evening, the Utes are going to have to produce availability reports, which is merely another way of saying injury reports.
Last month, the Big 12 announced it would institute availability reports for conference games in football, as well as men's and women's basketball.
Specifically for football, teams have to produce their respective availability reports four times leading up to a game.
In Utah's case this week, it will produce one Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday — all by 8 p.m. MDT — then a fourth and final report Saturday, no later than 90 minutes before kickoff. Given that Utah-Texas Tech is a 10 a.m. kickoff, that means the final report will be available no later than 8:30 a.m.
Big 12 availability reports will force Utah to be at least a little transparent with its injuries. Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham is notably coy when discussing injuries.
Before this Big 12 mandate, Whittingham would only discuss season-ending injuries, while balking at injuries that are not season-ending.
For example, Whittingham on Monday confirmed that safety Rabbit Evans is done for the season after suffering a lower leg injury in Saturday night's win at Wyoming. On Tuesday, he added wide receiver Daidren Zipperer, who has yet to play a snap this season, to the season-ending list.
The Big 12's designations for the availability reports will be "available," "probable," "questionable," "doubtful," and "out."
Evans will obviously be listed as "out," but it will be interesting to get a more thorough, not to mention public look, at Utah's full injury situation as a game week progresses.
Furthermore, in fairness, there are gray areas on the availability reports that all coaches, not just Whittingham, could exploit if they want to.
Jaren Kump, Michael Mokofisi and Logan Fano were all injured vs. Cal Poly, but all played and started at Wyoming. Barring something unforeseen, all three are mortal locks to play Saturday, but if there is a maintenance/rest day mixed in this week for any of them, do they pop up as "probable" one day?
The Big Ten was the first Power Four conference to do a football availability reports policy 2023; but unlike the rest, it requires only one submission, two hours before kickoff. The SEC began its availability policy last season, while the ACC, like the Big 12, is on board beginning this season.
