FB: Utah suspends spring practice
It was announced late last week that Utah's spring football practices were over with until further notice.
In a statement released on Friday, March 13, the University announced that spring practices would cease to exist for "an indefinite period of time in the best interests of the health of our student-athletes, coaches and staff, in an attempt to help limit the spread of coronavirus."
While it has yet to be canceled, it appears that the annual Red-White game on Saturday, April 11 will not take place — it would be hard to do so without practicing.
"We understand the seriousness of this worldwide pandemic and support every measure being taken in the interests of public health and safety," said Mark Harlan, Utah's director of athletics. "I also want to acknowledge the extreme disappointment our student-athletes are experiencing as they adjust to the finality of this on so many levels. We will continue to support them in every way while giving them the freedom to make the safest and healthiest decisions for them."
While the decision to cancel did not seem like a difficult one considering the shutdown of nearly every professional and college sport canceling for the time being or the remainder of its respective season, it does come an an inopportune time for the Utes.
There are numerous position battles to be had, most notably is deciding who will be leading the offense behind center and who will he be handing the ball too.
Quarterbacks Jake Bentley, a graduate transfer from South Carolina, and redshirt sophomore Cameron Rising, a transfer from Texas, is the most enticing. This might actually help out Bentley as he's recovering from a foot injury, but Rising has also drawn raves last season on the scout team after sitting out the year due to transfer rules.
The running backs doesn't have a clear front-runner, with numerous players looking to take advantage of the extra practices.
Defensively, Utah is looking to rebuild in the secondary and at the linebacker position. The cancellation means that many of the players are losing out on valuable repetitions to see who will be on the field when Utah kicks off its 2020 season against BYU on September 3.