UCLA Football Preview: Utah Offense Will Have a New Mexico Feel to It
In addition to adding New Mexico offensive coordinator Jason Beck, the Utes will feature three former Lobos as starters including quarterback Devon Dampier.
I’m going to start off our look at the Utah Utes’ offense by finally declaring the Cam Rising Era at Utah to be officially and finally over. The quarterback from Newbury Park High School was in college football for an unbelievable seven years.
After redshirting his first season at the University of Texas, Rising transferred to Utah where he sat out a year as a transfer student. He played in just one game in 2020 when he started against Southern Cal. The Utes only played five games that season. Given that he was battling Jake Bentley for the starting job, one start wasn’t too bad.
In 2021 and 2022, he played in all but two of 26 games for Utah and he started 24 of them. He used a medical redshirt in 2023 but returned to start three games last season before he was lost to a season-ending hand injury. It turns out that that the hand injury would force him to medically retire from football this May, ending what may be one of the longest collegiate careers in NCAA history.
That doesn’t mean he won’t be in the building on Saturday. I fully expect that he will be at the Rose Bowl since he is now serving as the offensive coordinator back at Newbury Park HS in Thousand Oaks.
Quarterback
His retirement, though, means the starting quarterback job for the Utes was open for the first time in a long time. Enter Devon Dampier.
Dampier transferred to Utah from New Mexico after his former offensive coordinator joined the Utes. His knowledge of Jason Beck’s offense will give Utah a big improvement over Isaac Wilson, who became the Utes’ starter when Rising went down last season. Wilson is still on the team and will be Dampier’s backup.
With the Lobos last year, Dampier threw for 2,768 yards and 12 touchdowns while also running for 1,166 yards and 19 touchdowns. That made him a true dual-threat as the Lobos’ leading rusher. It could pose an issue for any defense and certainly for a defense like UCLA’s with a bunch of new faces up front.
The key will be to contain Dampier as much as possible so he doesn’t start taking off for big yards after the receivers have run the secondary deep down field.
Running Game
In addition to Dampier, the Utes’ backfield will sport two transfer running backs. According to the Deseret News, Washington State transfer Wayshawn Parker was considered the favorite until another New Mexico transfer, senior NaQuari Rogers, gave the Utes a real 1-2 punch in the backfield. Parker had 137 carries for 735 yards and four touchdowns with the Cougs last season while Rogers carried 74 times for 382 yards and three touchdowns with the Lobos. Freshmen Daniel Bray and Raycine Guillory are likely candidates to see time in the backfield rotation as well.
Passing Game
Junior Tobias Merriweather joins the Utes after starting his career at Notre Dame in 2022 before transferring to UC Berkley last season. Another junior transfer joining the Utes is Southern Miss transfer Larry Simmons. Simmons caught 27 passes last year for 427 yards and touchdown last year. Like Merriweather, he, too, is on his third school, after starting his collegiate career at Ole Miss in 2022.
Redshirt senior Ryan Davis and redshirt sophomore Creed Whittemore should split time at the slot. Davis may earn this year’s Cam Rising Award because this is his seventh season of college football. He began at UAB in 2019 and transferred to New Mexico in 2023 before following OC Jason Beck to Salt Lake City. Whittemore joins the Utes after spending the past two seasons at Mississippi State.
Senior tight end Dallen Bentley is the only starting passcatcher to have played at Utah last season after joining the Utes in 2023 from Snow College. In two seasons with Utah, he’s caught just three passes for 20 yards. Beck’s offense saw New Mexico tight ends catch about 10% of Dampier’s passes last season, so expect Bentley to be a factor in the Ute offense on Saturday.
Offensive Line
Utah returns all five starters on the offensive line. The center, Jaren Kemp, and both guards, Michael Mokofisi and Tanoa Togiai, are all redshirt seniors while right tackle Spencer Fano is a junior and left tackle Caleb Lomu is a redshirt sophomore.
Don’t let the fact that the tackles are underclassmen fool you. Both Lomu and Fano are being projected by numerous publications as potential first-round draft picks next April.
How good is the Utah line?
Well, Kyle Whittingham has said, “I can say with confidence, we should be the best offensive line since I’ve been at the University of Utah, which has been forever.” Given that he’s been with the program forever, that says a lot.
Analysis
Jason Beck, Dampier and the other transfers bring multiple dimensions to the Ute offense. Dampier led New Mexico in passing and rushing last season and his ability to use his feet could pose all sorts of problems for the Bruin defense on Saturday.
The real question is: Will the Bruin defense which is now two seasons removed from D’Anton Lynn be able stop Dampier and the Utes? If they can, the Bruins may be able to take this game. If not, it may be a long night in the Rose Bowl.
Go Bruins!!!
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o-line is key in this game, advantage Utes. That said if we can't beat this buncha transfers and first time starters it's going to be a long and ugly season...