Know Your Foe: Utah's rushing attack against the Gators' defense

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?

Part 3: Utah bringing a revamped passing attack to Gainesville

What does Utah’s running attak look like?

Q: The Utes had two backs with more than 100 carries in 2021, and a freshman nearly made it three. How deep is the running back room?

Josh Newman: The running backs room is always deep at Utah, this season is no different. Tavion Thomas rushed for 1,108 and a school single-season record 21 touchdowns last season, doing that in essentially 10 games. Micah Bernard is a proven commodity as fourth-year sophomore, not to mention Utah’s best pass-catching option out of the backfield. There is a lot excitement around the program for Jaylon Glover to debut as a true freshman. The room is deep enough where capable veteran Chris Curry, an LSU transfer, and redshirt freshman Ricky Parks, a former four-star recruit, are buried on the depth chart. 

Our take

One of our biggest question marks for the Gators heading into the 2022 season is: Can they stop the run? Last season Florida finished 10th in the SEC allowing 163.92 yards per game. That was nearly 100 yards more than Georgia and nearly 78 more yards a game than Alabama allowed.

The Gators have a ton of pass rushers but they’re thin on the interior defensive line. Is Florida stout enough to plug up the middle and stop Utah from running between the tackles? It won’t take long to find out what kind of defense the Gators will have this season.