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At 6-foot-3, 270, Jason Fanaika is the biggest starting linebacker in the Pac-12, and the only guy who really comes close is Arizona co-starter Derrick Turituri, at 265.

The extra pounds may slow the Utah junior, but not enough to stop him from recording 10 tackles in Corvallis after making a hasty switch from defensive end.

"Jason Fanaika played a lot of good snaps at linebacker for us against Oregon State," said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham after Wednesday's practice. "... That really surprised me how smooth that transition was."

Fanaika previously played stud linebacker as a freshman and sophomore at Utah State, before transferring and spending the last season with the scout team. But at Utah, until recently, he's been sharing snaps with Hunter Dimick at defensive end — or starting opposite Dimick when senior captain Nate Orchard was called into stud linebacker spot.

Given that Orchard has 10.5 sacks through six games — and given perhaps that he's looked less spry than usual on the sidelines, favoring one leg — coaches opted to experiment with Fanaika in three-linebacker sets against the Beavers.

"It was really fun for me. I had a lot of fun flying around with [Gionni Paul] and Jared [Norris]," said Fanaika, who has three sacks, 22 tackles and a fumble recovery on the season. "They helped me out a bunch. Having two amazing talents like those two, it makes me coming in and helping out the team a lot easier."

Whittingham also said Wednesday that senior linebacker Jacoby Hale is much improved from last week to this week and will play more frequently against USC. And for the first time in weeks the head coach acknowledged the injury to junior linebacker Jason Whittingham, not going into detail but saying that when he returns, "we'll be right back where we were last spring, in good shape."

In the meantime, Fanaika said, he's making the most of a new opportunity to see the field.

"I'm staying there, so hopefully I'm doing a good job."

Tevin tentative • Whittingham said Tuesday that senior free safety Tevin Carter was "questionable, at best" to play against the Trojans. Wednesday, he said Carter is "50-50."

"Game-time decision maybe, if he suits up. He may not even dress. It's all on the call of the trainers and what they tell us."

There remains no word on what is ailing Carter.

If Carter is unable to play, Whittingham acknowledged Wednesday that one possibility is to move senior Eric Rowe back to free safety, where he played the first three season for the Utes.

He's taken reps at safety throughout spring and fall, just in case.

True freshman Andre Godfrey has so far received the bulk of the playing time in Carter's stead.

Should Rowe move to safety, the natural assumption is that senior Davion Orphey would move into the starting lineup at cornerback alongside Justin Thomas and Dominique Hatfield.

That's just one option, Whittingham said, adding though that Orphey may have played his best game this season against Oregon State.

Quarterbacks sharp • Juniors Travis Wilson and Kendal Thompson both excelled at Wednesday's practice, Whittingham said.

"We've got confidence in both of them. They've just got to be able to relax a little bit and just play."

To the concerns that either has to worry about "looking over their shoulder," Whittingham said he believes that's not the case. Thompson and Wilson each got a full half against Oregon State, he said.

"We've made a definite effort to make sure that's not the mindset we're creating."

Redshirts • Offensive tackle Jackson Barton, cornerback Casey Hughes, quarterback Donovan Isom, defensive end/tight end Wallace Gonzalez, defensive tackle Alani Havili-Katoa, wideout Raelon Singleton (out with a shoulder injury) and defensive end Kylee Fitts (transfer rule) are the Utes who are expected to redshirt this season (barring disaster).

Gonzalez played against Idaho State and Fresno State, and so a redshirt for him would technically have to be a hardship waiver.

Most are no great surprise, but Barton was once thought to be in the running for playing time at tackle.

The highly coveted Brighton product is on the record as saying he was perfectly fine taking a redshirt and giving himself another year to mentally and physically prepare.

Whitt weighs in • Utah's head coach saw "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day," last week.

His review: "That was pretty good. I enjoyed it. It was entertaining."

The other option on team movie night was "Dracula Untold," and "I'm not a Dracula guy," he said.

He was also asked for his World Series prediction:

"Giants, of course. Five. Giants in five. They'll win again tonight."

Nobody's perfect.

— Matthew Piper

Twitter: @matthew_piper