SALT LAKE CITY — The first day of football spring practice for the University of Utah started much like the last 20 years for Kyle Whittingham, but there were a few differences, he admitted.
One of the biggest differences was the general vibe of the team.
Whittingham said there is "a lot of juice and energy on this football team right now." Some would chalk that up to it being the first day of spring practice, but Whittingham said the team's energy has been "a big difference from (the) last couple years."
"That was evident all throughout the winter conditioning that this team really has a lot of positive energy, and that's a good thing," Whittingham said. "I think the infusion of a bunch of new players — not that the old players were bad — but just guys that are new to the program and the new coaching staff that's got a lot of energy, and so I think that is very apparent."
It's a team that features several new faces — at least half the roster — and a retooled offensive staff that includes a new offensive coordinator, running back coach, wide receive coach and other offensive personnel.
Newly hired running back coach Mark Atuaia's "freestyle Fridays" that are published on social media are just one such example of the new energy that has been infused into the program.
All of that has been a positive coming into spring camp. But the upbeat vibes are only as good as they can carry a Utah team to an improved product on the field.
And that leads to the other biggest difference coming into spring camp: A new-look offense following a dismal performance the last couple seasons.
Last season's lackluster offensive production was enough for Whittingham to take part in a reset of the offensive personnel and roster. As such, the aforementioned coaches were brought in, as well as an entirely new quarterback and running back room, while adding an influx of talent at tight end and wide receiver.
And at least from a first-day perspective, Utah's offense had a good showing.
"I thought for the first day, offense did a nice job relative to how much they have in," Whittingham said. "Still mistakes made that need to be corrected — there always will be — but when you look at where we are Day 1 with a new offense, I think we handled it pretty well."
But it was just Day 1, and there's 14 more spring practices, summer conditioning and a grueling fall camp standing in the way of knowing whether the full reset was effective. And even then, much of that won't be understood until while into the season.
In short, Utah is still in the infancy stage of knowing anything about itself on the offensive side of the ball.
Though Utah made several big changes, the coaching staff built in a few helps to jumpstart the offense, including bringing over quarterback Devon Dampier from New Mexico with offensive coordinator Jason Beck and running back Wayshawn Parker with Atuaia from Washington State.
With Dampier following Beck, Whittingham said it's "huge."
"To have Devin, who's completely versed in this offense and knows the intricacies of it, the ins and outs of it, is a big plus," he said, while adding that "Isaac Wilson's really done a nice job picking things up, as well; he was looking good today, as well."
That bodes well for arguably the biggest piece of the puzzle for the offense.
But there's still plenty of questions. Depth will always be a top concern, but Whittingham feels there's more needed to be known, specifically, from the wide receiver position.
"That's probably the one position on offense that needs the most sorting out," he said.
He feels most confident in a returning and veteran offensive line — led by right tackle Spencer Fano — while seeing Dampier and Parker leading their respective rooms. And then at tight end, Dallen Bentley leads the interior tight ends, while Landon King stands out as an "H-back type of role."
"But we'll see where it goes," Whittingham said. "I mean, obviously, you want to play to the quarterback strength, which is what we'll do, and we know exactly what those are based on his production last year in this very offense."
It's a wait and see offense, but there's some early reasons to be optimistic.
