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About midway through Saturday's Utah football practice, a pass bounced off a receiver's hands. Guy Holliday bent over, hands on his knees, looking like he might be sick.
Utah's newest receivers coach doesn't take mistakes from his group well. And as much as he feels mistakes, he lets his players feel it, too.
Through three spring sessions, Holliday has been one of the most vocal coaches on the field. And there's a lot to work on after the receivers were arguably the most underperforming group in 2015. That's why he's here: to shake out one of the units in an underwhelming passing attack and whip them into shape.
"Coach Holliday is a very demanding coach," said his boss, Kyle Whittingham. "They seem to be responding very well to him."
They have to.
The intensity Holliday brings is a step higher than last season. Senior receiver Cory Butler-Byrd, who alternated between offense and defense last year, said Holliday reminds him of cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah — he'll holler at you for two hours during practice, then pat you on the back when it's over.
"He's a great coach," Butler-Byrd said. "He allows the kids to play how they play, but he'll still teach. And he's fair, and that's all you can really ask."
But the receivers have to do their part: compete. And if he sees his players not bringing effort on a play, he'll be reminding them loudly that they need to.
"The thing I want in my players is to be the best group on the field, to lead by example by being the hardest working group in practice," Holliday said in an interview last month with The Tribune. "We want to show people that we have pride, and that comes through work ethic. I don't want anybody to ever think they can outwork us."
Holliday learned that himself as a player, carving out an athletic career at West Baltimore's Dunbar High School. Before his football team practiced, they pulled needles and broken bottles out of the field so it was safe to land on the grass.
These days, Holliday says he still thinks of himself on an underdog team at Utah, and the name brands he's trying to beat are USC, UCLA and Oregon. Whether it's on the field or the recruiting trail, he hasn't lost that chip on his shoulder.
"We want to build a powerhouse in Salt Lake City," he said. "We want people to fall in love with the state of Utah and with our program."
But first — those receivers.
Adding to the challenge of trying to turn around the 11th-place passing offense in the Pac-12 is losing most of the top playmakers from that offense. Britain Covey is on a church mission. Kenneth Scott and Bubba Poole graduated. The top returning receiver is Tyrone Smith, who had 18 catches for 193 yards last year.
The Utes' passing offense showed miserably in the last game of the season against BYU, getting only 71 yards with five catches from receivers in the Las Vegas Bowl victory. In the same game, the Holliday-coached Cougar receiving corps accounted for 14 catches and 215 yards, including catches of 45, 30 and 20 yards — long plays sorely lacking for the Utes last year.
Whittingham announced on Dec. 23 that receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield would not return for the 2016 season. When Bronco Mendenhall left BYU, Holliday said stepping across the rivalry border made sense for him: He felt like a good fit on the staff, and he had moved to South Jordan.
Not that switching sides was easy. Some relationships, he admitted, fell away when he was hired by the Utes in January.
"It's funny, you find out who your real friends are," he said. "You find out who likes you just for the colors you wear. I'll always root for those guys at BYU that I coached unless they're playing us, and a lot of the guys I worked with. I know who my true friends are now, and I don't really have time for anyone else."
He won't have much other time available trying to get Utah's receiving corps to produce. There's some help coming this summer, but Holliday said he's not willing to wait for new players to start getting more catches out of his group.
In his opinion, the talent level is high enough. Every receiver has to be willing to work harder. Many are seeing that competitive edge.
"Since Day 1, we've been going at the DBs like they're UCLA or Stanford or somebody," Butler-Byrd said. "Our competition level has been through the roof."
Utah's hope is that the number of catches will start to spike as well.
Twitter: @kylegoon —
Guy Holliday file
• Previous WR coaching stints at BYU, UTEP, Cornell, Mississippi State
• Played tight end at Cheyney University (Pa.)
• Grew up in Baltimore, played high school football at Dunbar
• Coached players who made NFL such as Greg Jennings, Justin Jenkins