Late Saturday night, a day after Utah’s victory over USU on Friday, the team received news that two of their players had been shot at a local house party in Salt Lake City.
Sophomore tight end Lo Falemaka and freshman running back Marcel Brooks-Brown were both victims in the shooting and were admitted into surgery early Sunday morning. Soon after the incident, head coach Kyle Whittingham released a statement mentioning that the team’s main concern is with those two players and their recovery process.
Linebacker Kylie Fitts considers himself very close to the teammates who were involved in the shooting, and the ordeal has affected him emotionally.
“I just wish my teammates a speedy recovery. My thoughts and prayers go out to them,” Fitts said. “When I heard, it was a tragedy. It’s something tough, but it’s just a freak accident. I really never expected that to happen in Utah, but we just gotta keep moving forward.”
Remaining optimistic about this incident and any injuries is exactly what the players and coachers are continuing to do against the Bulldogs this weekend. Some of the team has had the opportunity to watch Fresno State’s recent performance, while others are waiting to get their first look during film, but Fitts is all in on this game.
“I’m just focused on Fresno State right now, really,” Fitts said. “I am always ready and practicing hard during the week in case I am called up to play.”
Up until this point, Whittingham has been reluctant to share further details surrounding the injuries that happened in the game against Utah State, especially not releasing much information about Travis Wilson, but he is confident in both Kendal Thompson’s and Wilson’s capabilities as well.
“What you want to do is play to your quarterback’s strengths, and go from there,” Whittingham said. “[Kendal Thompson] and Travis are not dramatically different, they are both very mobile.”
The coaching staff can see that Thompson and Wilson share similarities in their athleticism and ability to lead the team in the quarterback position and trust that either one can get the job done.
“Kendal probably does a little more with his legs than Travis does. Travis probably does a little more pocket stuff, but they are both extremely intelligent, they both fit our system very well,” Whittingham said. “There’s more common ground than differences, so there wouldn’t be a dramatic change if Kendal does start.”
Continuing to look forward, Thompson is ready to compete on Saturday night and thinks this game will present a good opportunity for the offense.
“We’ve been executing, but I think we can do it at a higher level,” Thompson said. “I think this is the week that we need to go out there and get things rolling going into conference play.”
This next game will be an opportunity for Utah to expose more of its talent and work out its scheme before the regular season gets underway.
@laurenrose324