5 burning questions for Utah football going into bye week

Looking at the biggest questions the Utes have a chance to answer after their bye week

Utah Utes running back Wayshawn Parker (1) celebrates after his touchdown catch was ruled a catch during the third quarter against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Milan Puskar Stadium. | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

The Utah football team is idle in Week 6, providing Kyle Whittingham's program an opportunity to rest and heal up following a grueling first month of the season.

But a bye week doesn't mean Utes fans won't have their team on their mind as they watch other teams around the Big 12 take the field on Saturday.

At the unofficial halfway point of the regular season, let's take a look at five burning questions the Utes will have an opportunity to answer after the bye week.

Does a wide receiver outside of Ryan Davis need to step up?

Utah's passing attack, for the most part, was efficient through the first five games of the season. Devon Dampier came out of the gate hot and hardly cooled off, racking up over 1,000 yards through the air while completing 72.5% of his passes (No. 1 in the Big 12). He also had 11 touchdown passes to just three interceptions — two of which came in the Utes' only loss in September, a 34-10 setback to Texas Tech.

Despite Dampier's effectiveness, there seemed to be something missing from the Utes' air attack. Because while the New Mexico transfer had clearly improved in multiple areas over the course of the offseason, Dampier didn't seem to be getting much help from Utah's newly formed wide receiver corps.

Sep 27, 2025; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; Utah Utes wide receiver Ryan Davis (9) celebrates a first down during the first quarter against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Milan Puskar Stadium. | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

Outside of Ryan Davis, who followed Dampier from New Mexico to Utah, none of the true wide receivers on the roster had more than six receptions through the first five games. Most of Dampier's passes were completed to Davis, who paced the team with 36 receptions for 348 yards and two touchdowns, as well as tight end Dallen Bentley (22 catches), H-backs Hunter Andrews (10) and JJ Buchanan (9), and two-way standout Smith Snowden (13).

Meanwhile, 6-foot-5 junior and former Notre Dame commit Tobias Merriweather had just 1 catch in the Utes' first two Big 12 games; Southern Miss transfer Larry Simmons sat at 1 catch on the season until hauling in 2 receptions for 47 yards in the West Virginia game.

Merriweather was someone Kyle Whittingham has wanted to get more involved, though that's apparently a task that's easier said than done. Granted, the stat sheet doesn't account for the pass interference penalties Merriweather has drawn while going up for deep balls in coverage.

Sep 6, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Utes wide receiver Tobias Merriweather (18) runs after a catch against Cal Poly Mustangs cornerback Boston Wilson (30) during the second quarter at Rice-Eccles Stadium. | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Again, the Utes didn't necessarily have trouble moving the ball through the air to start the season. But as the schedule ramps up and teams have more opportunities to game plan against Utah's tendencies, it's reasonable to wonder if a true receiver outside of Davis will need to step up to keep defenses honest.

What is Devon Dampier's ceiling?

This question might need the previous one to get answered in order to resolve itself — then again, Utah's dynamic signal-caller has been electric regardless of who's on the other end of his pass attempts to this point in the season.

Prior to Week 6, Dampier was one of seven quarterbacks at the Football Bowl Subdivision level with over 1,000 passing yards and over 250 rushing yards, and the only one in the Big 12 to put up those numbers while completing over 70% of his pass attempts. Utah, as a result, checked in as the conference's No. 3 scoring offense (39.0 points per game) while boasting the league's second-best rushing attack (242.6 yards per game), led of course by Dampier's dual-threat capabilities.

Sep 27, 2025; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; Utah Utes quarterback Devon Dampier (4) reacts after running the ball for a touchdown during the first quarter against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Milan Puskar Stadium. | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

Dampier's ability to reinvigorate an offense that struggled to find the end zone in 2024 quickly asserted his name into the Heisman Trophy conversation in early September. That buzz calmed down a bit following the Texas Tech game, but with some productive outings against teams like Arizona State and BYU, Dampier could be seen as one of the nation's top quarterbacks at season's end.

Will the running backs separate themselves?

Going into the 2025 campaign, the Utes' running back situation was described as a "1A-1B" relationship between Wayshawn Parker and NaQuari Rogers.

Parker and Rogers split carries in nonconference play, each bringing their own style of running to the table to form a dynamic rushing attack out of the backfield. Utah's run game ranked near the top of the country in rush yards per game with those two keeping defenses off balance (along with Dampier). But after the 24-point loss to the Red Raiders, Whittingham expressed interest in establishing a true "RB1."

Aug 30, 2025; Pasadena, California, USA; Utah Utes running back Wayshawn Parker (1) runs the ball against the UCLA Bruins during the second half at Rose Bowl. | Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

"I would like to see that play out where we have a lead back, but right now, through the first four games, there just hasn't been a ton of separation," Whittingham said. "NaQuari's maybe a little bit better in short yardage, more efficient; Wayshawn's a little more of a home run back and able to rip off the big run. They're both good football players, but ideally it would be nice to have one come to the forefront and become 'RB1.'"

To be fair, both running backs were productive in their first five games with Utah; Parker posted the higher yards per carry average (6.7 to 4.2), though Rogers had the slight edge when it came to total touches from scrimmage (62 to 48, including receptions).

Whether one earns the de facto "RB1" title remains to be seen, but for now, Whittingham and company are surely happy with the production both have contributed to this point.

Can the defense be even better?

There hasn't been much to gripe about on the defensive side of the ball for the Utes — they yield just over 300 total yards per game and boast the nation's leader in sacks along their defensive line in John Henry Daley (6.0 sacks).

If there was any aspect Whittingham and company would want to improve upon, it would be tackling.

"We're certainly going to work on tackling, I can tell you that," Whittingham said after the West Virginia game. "And it's a matter of coming to balance and breaking down. We're in bad body position too often, and we got to get that corrected, and we will."

Sep 20, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders running back Cameron Dickey (8) runs the ball against Utah Utes defensive end John Henry Daley (90) during the fourth quarter at Rice-Eccles Stadium. | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Whittingham noted earlier in the season that while the Utes spend time on tackling in practice, the emphasis during fall camp was to make sure everyone came out healthy and ready to go for the UCLA game. Perhaps that decision led to some missed tackles early on in the season; if so, it'll be worth monitoring how the Utes improve in that regard moving forward.

Are Utah's playoff aspirations still intact?

Of course, capturing the Big 12 championship following the regular season's conclusion would render this question moot. But if the Utes aren't at AT&T Stadium on Dec. 6, they're path to the College Football Playoff would get much trickier.

The Big 12 appears capable of sending two teams to the 12-team playoff, depending on which two play for the conference title in December. Utah would probably need to run the table in order to earn a spot in the Big 12 title game, given Iowa State and Arizona State jumped out to 2-0 starts in league play while Texas Tech, already owning the head-to-head tiebreaker over Utah, has a chance to sweep its Big 12 slate as well.

Sep 27, 2025; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; Utah Utes fans celebrate after defeating the West Virginia Mountaineers at Milan Puskar Stadium. | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

There's still a lot of football to be played, but it's hard to argue the Utes' Week 7 contest against the Sun Devils will have significant implications for both squads' at-large aspirations.