What Utah's Kyle Whittingham said during last week of spring football

Utah’s spring game scheduled for April 19

Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham. | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham met with the media just days before spring drills conclude with the annual 22 Forever Game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium

“We continue to take steps forward and continue to have a long way to go,” the 22-year veteran coach said. 

The spring game format will be fairly standard, but the defense will have the opportunity to score points for big plays like sacks and turnovers.

Here are the highlights from Whittingham’s media session.

On the progress overall this spring

“We continue to take steps forward and continue to have a long way to go. You’re never satisfied. You’re always trying to get better, but I think through 12 practices, we haven’t had a bad practice. Some are better than others, but we’ve made some progress every single day out here. We’ve got three to go. We’ve got to make them count.”

On the development of QBs Devon Dampier, Byrd Ficklin and Isaac Wilson

“The three guys that are getting all the reps, Devon, Isaac and Byrd, we’ve seen progress out of all three of them. That needs to happen. With all the reps they’re getting, you expect some improvement to take place and it has.”

On which groups have stood out

“The wide receivers are starting to take big steps, Zach Williams in particular.”

“Safeties are playing really good football. Rabbit Evans is making plays all over the place. Nate Ritchie is doing a great job, Tao Johnson is doing a great job. I would say those guys are really a catalyst for the defense.”

On possible activity in the transfer portal

“Time will tell. You never know. The early indications are that it shouldn’t be too crazy, but until it actually happens, you never know.”

On what groups the Utes might address in the portal

“Probably need another receiver; O-line we’re solid; maybe another running back; QB, unless we have movement we should be OK. We’ll take a look at QBs; you always do in the portal every time it opens. Tight ends, we should be OK; D tackles possibly, a little thin there; and a corner. That’s probably the shopping list. But again it just depends on availability and who we may lose that we don’t anticipate losing, so that could alter that.”