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Football: Utes are rolling with punches, optimistic about offense

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With the first half of spring practices officially in the books, the Utah football team coaching staff expects to continue adjusting the depth chart, especially on offense.

Unfortunately, some of those adjustments are coming in wake of a major injury to reserve running back Troy McCormick, who has suffered major ACL damage and is expected to miss the entire season in the fall.

“It’s unfortunate for Troy,” said head coach Kyle Whittingham. “He was doing so much for the offense, and I think we saw a glimpse of what he can do and what his capabilities truly are in the bowl game. It’ll be a long, hard road for him to come back, but he’ll make it.”

McCormick, a redshirt sophomore from Katy, Texas, was slated as the backup to first team All-Pac-12 running back Devontae Booker early this spring. Last year, the speedy McCormick appeared in all 13 games, gathering 178 yards on 30 carries with a touchdown. In the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl against Colorado State, he racked up a season-high 86 yards on just five touches.

The injury will temporarily complicate the Utes’ offensive aspirations. With the departure of speedsters Dres Anderson and Kaelin Clay, senior Bubba Poole was inserted into the slot position as a receiving option.

Poole, who started the 2014-15 season as the starting running back prior to the emergence of Booker, was seeing the majority of his spring reps at wideout. The transition, according to Whittingham, has been “seamless.”

Whittingham further stated, “He’s got the athleticism, he’s got the hands, its just a matter of him getting comfortable at the position.”

On how McCormick’s injury will affect Poole’s development at the slot, Whittingham said, “Unfortunately with … McCormick going down, [Poole] doesn’t get to play slot as much as he would, at least in the spring. We need to use him at running back, at least a certain portion of the time.”

However, at the conclusion of practice, with Booker looking on from the sidelines to keep him rested and healthy for fall, Poole remained in the slot while redshirt freshman Tani Laha’uli finished the day in the backfield with the first team.

“We got to develop some other guys, Tani Laha’uli played pretty good,” said Dennis Erickson, offensive coordinator and running backs coach.

Erickson also spoke of another player who the Utes won’t expect in practice until fall.

“We have a junior college player coming in, Joe Williams, out of New York, who is a really good player,” he said.

Despite the injury to McCormick and the possibility of losing reps at his new position, Poole, who was the Utes’ leading rusher for the 2013 season, remained enthusiastic about Utah’s offensive hopes.

“We have a lot of versatile players out there and along with Booker in the backfield, that’s deadly,” Poole said. “Just look around, there’s a lot of playmakers out there. A lot of players on the field to help the offense out a lot.”

Now entering the fifth year since joining the Pac-12, Whittingham is pleased with the development of his program.

“I think we’ve taken a step forward with our depth and talent of the roster, from players one through 85,” Whittingham said. “It’s still a work in progress … but I think last year we made a lot of headway.”

Having done today’s practice with pads and tackling, the Utes will go without pads and tackling for their next spring practice before their first scrimmage Saturday morning.

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@austinfacer

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