Know Your Foe: Utah bringing a revamped passing attack to Gainesville

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — There is a new era beginning for the Florida Gators‘ football program. The Billy Napier era will officially begin on September 3, as the Gators host the No. 7 Utah Utes.

Utah finished the 2021 campaign as the Pac-12 Champions. Kyle Whittingham’s team finished the regular season with a 9-3 record. They beat Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship game and fell just three points short of beating Ohio State in the Rose Bowl to finish 10-4.

Whittingham has a small connection to UF. He took over the head coaching job at Utah in 2005, replacing Urban Meyer. Meyer, of course, left Utah to accept the head coaching job at Florida and went on to win two National Championships in Gainesville.

The Gators don’t have a coach entering his 18th season at the helm, like Whittingham at Utah. Billy Napier was hired 276 days before the game will kick off. There are much easier ways to begin your tenure, something Napier jokingly acknowledged at SEC Media Days.

“I really believe that having a formidable opponent in the opener is healthy for your team. As much as you want to think our team is not going to be affected by who they play or where they play, I do think we got a little bit of that human nature in it and I think our staff and team has so much respect for coach Wittingham and that Utah program and the consistency with which they perform,” Napier said at SEC Media Days. “They certainly had a heck of a team last year. They got a good group coming back and we’re excited about the thing that comes with it and I think it’s healthy for our team to have that out there that we have a top-10 team and the Pac-12 Champion coming into the Swamp so I think it’s healthy for our team.”

With that in mind, Gators Online reached out to Josh Newman of The Salt Lake Tribune. Newman has covered the Utes since 2019 and knows the team inside and out. He graciously answered our questions so that Gator fans can better know their opponent on September 3.

Part 1: Utah’s age and experience

Part 2: Who is Utah’s quarterback, Camerson Rising?

What does Utah have at receiver

Q: If the plan is to get the passing game more involved, who are the receivers that Utah will look to in order to make that a reality?

Josh Newman: Outside of Britain Covey, the receiver corps has not been a major strength in recent years. Utah believes they have two capable deep threats on the outside, Devaughn Vele and Solomon Enis. Vele is the perceived WR1, but he has never had to play that role. In my opinion, there should be at least a little healthy skepticism in regard to how productive Vele can be. Enis is sort of in that same boat. He is a Veteran guy. He’s shown flashes but has not yet played a significant role. After those two, you’re looking at Money Parks in the slot (1 career catch, a TD last season at USC), followed by Makai Cope, Tao Johnson, and JUCO transfer Tiquan Gilmore potentially playing roles. 

Our take

Kyle Whittingham wants to make the deep ball more part of the offense for the Utes. Utah runs a lot of multiple sets out of 12 personnel (two tight ends) and empty. While the Utes have taken shots, most of its passing attack has been underneath routes, sticks, and slants. Rising was really efficient in throwing those routes. Don’t expect Whittingham and Utah to just throw the ball deep just because. Florida should have a really good pass rush. Utah’s best bet to eliminate that or slow that would be to stick with their quick passing game. It’s also helped Rising, who excelled in avoiding negative plays (sacks and interceptions) by getting the ball out quickly.