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The University of Utah Athletics
Ganther Leads Ute Offense In Srimmage Wednesday
8/17/2005 12:00 AM | Football
Aug. 17, 2005
SALT LAKE CITY -
After the offense struggled in the first scrimmage of preseason camp last week, head football coach Kyle Whittingham predicted it would perform much better the next time out. His prognosis proved right on the money as four Ute quarterbacks took turns moving the team down the field with respectable success, Wednesday afternoon at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
"This was a much cleaner scrimmage," said Whittingham, referring mostly to the offensive improvement. "The offense did a much better job picking up the blitz and the receivers dropped fewer balls. The defense tackled very well again and it appears though we really have some good tacklers--especially the `ones,'" lauded Whittingham.
The first-string offense looked better from the outset when starting quarterback Brian Johnson hitting senior receiver Travis LaTendresse with a 12-yard completion on the first play against the No. 2 defense. Although the defense would hold on third down, Johnson completed a 30-yard pass to Fano Tagovailoa on the next drive, which stalled on the 5-yard-line when Brian Hernandez dropped a pass in the end zone on third down. Both contending kickers got a chance at a 42-yard field goal attempt. Dan Beardall clanked one off the uprights, but Louie Sakoda split them a moment later.
The first string defense shut things down on its first couple of series, thanks to safety Eric Weddle's sack and a tackle for loss. Defensive tackle Steve Fifita also contributed a sack on third and four. The Ute cornerbacks combined for three pass breakups.
When the starting offense returned to the field, senior running back Quinton Ganther literally carried the No. 1 offense to its first touchdown of the day. Ganther put together consecutive runs of 56, 4 and 14 yards, with the final one going for six points. He finished the afternoon with 88 yards on seven rushes.
The other score came when the No. 3 offense and defense lined up against another. Danny Southwick's 31-yard pass to Jordan Johnson set the stage for an impressive 18-yard touchdown scamper by freshman Sean Smith. Another new freshman runner with an impressive outing was Darrell Mack, who finished second to Ganther with 42 yards on five rushes. Southwick completed 2-3 passes for 45 yards.
New quarterback Brett Ratliff, who started camp late while waiting for his junior college transcripts to arrive, showed that he is really beginning to grasp the offense. Ratliff put up the most impressive numbers of the quarterbacks, completing 4 of 6 passes of 47 yards. In red zone drills, he threw touchdown passes to Hernandez and Ameen Shaheen.
Johnson was 3 of 6 passing for 45 yards and also rushed three times for 21 yards. Freshman Kevin Dunn was 1 of 3 passing for 2 yards.
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