The University of Utah’s already young, inexperienced secondary got even younger and more inexperienced late Monday afternoon.
Redshirt junior cornerback Bronson Boyd has entered his name in the NCAA Transfer Portal, The Salt Lake Tribune has confirmed. 247sports was first to report Boyd’s portal entry.
Boyd’s decision to transfer comes on the same day Utah released its first in-season depth chart. On it, Boyd is listed as a backup at one cornerback spot behind much-hyped four-star freshman Clark Phillips III. As expected, with Phillips at one cornerback spot, sophomore JT Broughton is penciled at the other cornerback spot, with sophomore Malone Mataele set to start at nickel.
Utah’s secondary may be thin going into Saturday’s season opener vs. Arizona, but there is no question that it is awfully young after all five members of last season’s secondary wound up on active NFL rosters or practice squads.
Of the 10 players listed on the two-deep between both cornerback spots, the nickel and both safety spots, five are true freshmen, while Boyd was the only one of the 10 to have registered a defensive start.
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham was consistent throughout fall camp that figuring out the secondary was among his chief priorities. As camp wore on, and the quarterback situation straightened itself out, Whittingham was vocal that the secondary had morphed into his biggest personnel concern.
Defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley, who also acts as the defensive backs coach, is slated to speak with reporters via Zoom on Wednesday morning.
Pac-12 releases game-week testing protocols
With football season across the Pac-12 ready to begin on Saturday, the league late Monday afternoon released details of its game-week testing protocols.
Key elements of the testing protocols include:
• Daily point-of-care testing on each day of full practice, higher-risk of transmission activity, travel, and games.
• Minimum once weekly PCR test (in addition to daily point-of-care testing). For football game weeks, the weekly PCR test will take place within 36 hours of game time for home team student-athletes and within 36 hours of travel departure for visiting team student-athletes.
• Any positive daily point-of-care antigen test must be followed by a PCR test within 24 hours.
• A third-party testing administrator will administer game day point-of-care antigen tests (and PCR tests as applicable) for each team and on-field officials.
• Game-day air ambulance service will be available in case any individual tests positive while traveling for competition.
• All testing protocols continue to be subject to state, local, and campus public health requirements.
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November 03, 2020 at 06:34AM
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