Lander Barton remains humble and hungry while taking spring camp by storm and running with the ones
With just two weeks left in Utah’s Spring Camp, the program is continuing to get a better understanding of how the team looks, who the key contributors will be and which of the young guys are beginning to show promise. As one of those young players with a lot of potential and opportunity, freshman linebacker Lander Barton has taken the program by storm and is looking to be a big contributor right from the start.
An early enrollee from the class of 2022, Barton should still technically be in high school but decided to get a head start which has been paying dividends. Already, Barton is taking reps with the one’s and has been turning heads all over the place, including head coach Kyle Whittingham.
“When you consider that he should still be in high school right now, it's pretty amazing what he's doing. But it's no surprise. He's got all the tools. When we recruited him, we felt we knew exactly what we were getting…there's nothing that is surprising us. But it is pretty impressive that he is doing what he is doing at such an early stage,” Whittingham said.
As the highest rated commit in program history, expectations were certainly high, but for Barton, he has simply ignored all that noise and gotten straight to work with his head down.
“Things have been great,” Barton said. “I’m learning a ton in a short period of time but I feel like I am picking it up pretty well. Practices have been awesome and it’s good to get out and play again. It’s been a great time.”
“I don’t pay attention to that stuff [publicity and hype],” Barton continued. “I just do myself, put my head down and hopefully what I am doing is good.”
While it’s evident that Barton is an elite talent with a plethora of potential, the young linebacker is remaining focused on his game and picking up the playbook as quickly as possible. That’s been a major emphasis for him as he transitions from high school to college, in addition to some more specific areas that he hopes to improve on.
“Just learning the defense," Barton said. "I wanted to come here early in the spring just to learn the defense as a whole and get a grasp of it before moving into summer and fall. Right now I’ve been focusing on getting my hands better when striking lineman, and also tackling. I just want to become a great tackler.”
Lander Barton, Utah — Courtesy of Utah Athletics.
As for the linebacker room itself, Barton joins a position group absolutely overflowing with talent. With several veterans like Karene Reid, Andrew Mata’afa, Mohamoud Diabate and Hayden Furey in addition to several new faces like Carson Tabaracci, Justin Medlock and Barton himself, it’s one of the deepest and most competitive rooms on the team. However, according to Barton, the group is incredibly close and he’s learning a lot from some of the top talents.
“Things are great in the room. Everyone has such a good relationship with each other. Its a true brotherhood with one another and we’re all here to help each other out. Especially us new guys, the older guys are there to answer all of our questions, put us in the right spot…I’d say the three oldest guys, Andrew [Mata’afa], Hayden [Furey], Karene [Reid], they’ve all helped me out a lot. I spend a lot of time on the field with Karene, so they’ve all just been a great help to me,” Barton explained.
“Karene just helps me learn the defense as a whole,” Barton continued. “We’ll be out in the middle of practice in live play and he’ll let me know what our certain coverage is…he just helps me out. He’s a very smart player and he’s got a nose for the ball. He’s always there where the ball is. He’s a great aggressive player.”
As previously mentioned, despite being a young freshman, Barton is already taking reps with the ones during practice. While it would certainly be easy for him to allow that to get to his head, Barton remained incredibly humble and is determined to continue earning that spot each and every day.
“It's been an honor. I didn’t expect to come in right away and start taking one reps. I expected to kind of work my way up through it so it's an honor to do it and I’ve got to play good to keep playing in that spot…I feel like coach [Colton] Swan has put a lot on my plate, trying to test me and get me ready in a fast period of time. So putting me in the one spot has forced me to be able to do that,” Barton explained.
With the spring game now just a little more than a week away, fans will get their first look at the talented freshman and what he’s capable of. While there’s no question they’ll be impressed with him, especially his nose for the ball and magnificent length, Barton wants to have a lot of energy and be able to move all over the field in order to lock it down.
“I just want to be able to fly around the field. Especially in that spring game, I want to have a lot of juice, a lot of energy and be able to fly sideline to sideline, just not get tired,” Barton said.
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