'Working in the dark:' Utah's offensive line ready to prove itself in season opener

SALT LAKE CITY — Turn off the lights.

Starting offensive tackle Zereoue Williams feels more comfortable there — and so does the rest of the offensive line.

Coming off a season where the spotlight was squarely shined over the highly-touted, veteran line that sent two of its tackles to the NFL in the first round, and a third lineman who recently made an NFL 53-man roster, this year's offensive line is seemingly in the dark.

Few are expecting anything of significant value for this year's line — at least to the magnitude of last season — and the spotlight is burned out or focused elsewhere (hello, wide receivers).

Welcome to the darkness, friends.

For those unaware, Utah is replacing its entire starting offensive line, which ranked as one of the best in the country last season. And five new Utah players will get to "rebuild" that room in an attempt to make a name for itself.

It's a tall task, no doubt, especially with an offensive line coach who is in the first year of his coaching tenure at the Division-I level (we'll forget for a second his long playing career in the NFL and at Utah). But with few outside the program putting much stock in the line — or is it more appropriately labeled cautious optimism? — the offensive line has quietly gone to work with little fanfare.

"It's a lot of working in the dark, and I'm really happy that it is that way because that's personally how I like to work," Williams said. "I don't know how we can show it before game day, but just in practice, we're just trying our best to just do what we can do to build chemistry, and I think that's really coming along really well."

That sentiment was echoed by starting center Alex Harrison, who has spent the last six seasons waiting for his chance.

"It's great," he said. "I mean, it's working in the dark. It's people — nobody believes in us. Nobody knows what to expect, and it's we don't have anything to prove to anybody; we're gonna prove it to ourselves. The bar's been set from last year and years past, and we're just here to live up to our own standard that we've set in our own room."

That new line will get its first official test Thursday against an Idaho team who will be hungry to make a name for itself in Rice-Eccles Stadium. A good showing won't necessarily foretell a great season, but a bad showing against an FCS opponent almost certainly won't ease any concerns.

There will be mistakes, head coach Morgan Scalley said — especially with several players rotating in and out as Utah solidifies its starting five — but the hope is there aren't many "intolerable penalties."

"We just want to play clean. Want to play clean, and you're not going to be perfect, but aggressive," Scalley said. "We want to be physical. We don't want to be soft. And for me, success is running the ball well and playing clean."

It's a seemingly simple task; but if it were that easy, every school around the country would have a dominant offensive line. It's about building trust — within the offensive line, with teammates and the coaching staff, and with fans who have high expectations for Utah football's success following a double-digit win season.

But for all the consternation — or concern — about this year's makeup of the offensive line, there's hope for a positive season.

And that largely begins with the room itself, which has had very little turnover over the last few years. While Spencer Fano and Caleb Lomu were stealing the spotlight — and for good reason — the backups were quietly putting in the work behind the scenes to get better each season for when their time came.

Look no further than Utah's win over Nebraska in the bowl game. Both Fano and Lomu sat out to preserve draft stock, and the offensive line didn't miss a beat. And though a strong performance in a glorified exhibition game isn't a major point to convince anyone that Utah will be set for the 2026 season, it's a start.

Between the four returners who are expected to make up the five starting spots — Williams, Harrison, Solatoa Moea'i and Keith Olson — the group combined for 930 snaps last season. Add in transfer Cedric Jefferson's 945 from Montana State last season and there's at least a good baseline of experience

It's not all fresh-faced players with limited playing experience — though freshman five-star Kelvin Obot would like to have a say about that as he works to get into the starting unit this season. There's experience and consistency, just not as much as there used to be with last year's unit, and that's the biggest difference.

The four returners combined for slightly more than Fano's snaps (822) alone last season, which shows there's still a ways to go for each player on the line. But Harrison believes "we've got a really good group of guys that are going to be rotating during the game."

"Every single one of them are trustworthy, and they all know what they're doing," he said. "I'm excited to play with them."

But that has to show up on the field to breed confidence.

Thursday will be the offensive line's time to step out of the darkness and into the spotlight. And though perfection isn't expected, there's a healthy amount of optimism all around Utah that it could be good up front for another season and not have a significant drop off.

"I'm so impressed with the job that Jordan Gross has done with this front, and that is hopefully going to show itself on Thursday," Scalley said.

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