Devon Dampier highlights spring game standouts as Utah closes out camp

SALT LAKE CITY — As Utah football closed out its camp with its annual spring game, it was clear that quarterback Devon Dampier could be a special talent to lead the Utes offense this fall.

With the entire starting offensive line held out as "healthy scratches" to avoid injury, it took Devon Dampier three offensive drives to get going; but once he got into a rhythm, the offense did well to showcase its ability this season, even with a watered down offense.

Dampier was elusive in the pocket — including a highlight play in which he broke out of the pocket and hit Landen King on the sideline for a 20-yard pass on the run — and showed an ability to be accurate in his passing.

His best pass of the afternoon game came on a deep sideline pass in stride over the defender to wide receiver Zach Williams, who set up the offense inside the 5-yard line for an eventual score.

Though official stats were not released, Dampier had an efficient day as the standout performer among the quarterbacks. His primary backups — Isaac Wilson and Byrd Ficklin — had individual successes but were a step back from Dampier in overall production.

But some of the struggles that limited the offensive game plan was the multiple drops by receivers, a point that head coach Kyle Whittingham highlighted in a postgame press conference.

"Today's spring game, I thought, was a positive," he said. "Too many drops in the first half. If there's something to fix that's certainly it is. We were too — just not good catching the football, pure, plain and simple. We did start getting better in the second half and got into a little more of a rhythm offensively, but those are drive killers; you can't have that many drops and expect to be effective on offense, so we're aware of that and we'll get that corrected."

Most importantly to Whittingham, though, was his coaching staff got a good look at its quarterbacks — even with some starters held out — and the team came out of spring healthy.

Among the standouts of the day was freshman wide receiver Mana Carvalho, who jumpstarted the offense with a 55-yard breakaway run on a screen pass. The freshman broke a couple tackles before being tackled just short of the end zone.

Carvalho caught several passes and showcased a promising future as a receiver.

Also getting a lot of attention on the offense was converted quarterback Nate Johnson, who was utilized all over the field, and tight end Hunter Andrews. The two will be utilized in various functions this fall.

Starters held out to avoid injury included:

• Dallen Bentley, TE
• Spencer Fano, OT
• Jaren Kump, OL
• Caleb Lomu, OT
• Wayshawn Parker, RB
• Lander Barton, LB
• Levani Damuni, LB
• Rabbit Evans, S
• Logan Fano, DE
• Jonah Lea'ea, DE
• Tao Johnson, S
• Nate Ritchie, S
• Smith Snowden, DB

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