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On Monday, head coach Kyle Whittingham said that Utah didn't take deep shots against Arizona State because, in part, offensive coordinator Dave Christensen didn't feel the wide receivers were getting enough separation.
Tuesday, wideout Kenneth Scott said he doesn't need separation: Just throw it up, and he'll get it.
"I love being a deep threat," Scott said. "That's what, I think, I haven't been able to do this season at all. I think I've probably only been deep twice."
To be clear: Scott wasn't directly bashing Christensen. It's not the first time a wide receiver has been asked his preference and responded that he'd like more of the ball. But Utah fans might be surprised to learn that the 6-foot-3 junior yearns for a return to the somewhat maligned passing offenses of 2011 and 2012, when he was a freshman and sophomore.
"There were numerous times [then-quarterback] Jon Hays would be like, 'KScott, I'm coming to you, no matter what,'" Scott said. "I'm running downfield, I'm like, 'OK, there's two people on me, who cares?' And he still throws it up. I'm like, 'I love this.' And I believe that's the mentality that quarterbacks should take. There's going to be times where you've got to take a risk."
Scott has 26 receptions for 258 yards this season, with much of that damage done near the sidelines, by the sticks, as Christensen has tried to spread the field horizontally.
Whittingham said Tuesday that the personnel — which took a hit with a season-ending knee injury to honorable mention All-Pac-12 burner Dres Anderson — has dictated the plan of attack: "If you have guys that are deep threats, you're going to throw deep more often," he said. "If you don't have that, then you're gonna go to the high-percentage quick game, and that kind of thing."
That approach worked earlier in the season, when Utah was moving at a high tempo, but the offense has slowed down, and because Utah hasn't thrown the ball to the middle of the field frequently, Scott said, opposing cornerbacks are trying to take the sideline away.
That makes things difficult, he said.
This week, Utah installed more across-the-middle routes, he said, "so hopefully that will just open up everything on the outside."
And if all else fails, he said, go deep.
"I'm not going to let a defender intercept a pass, so the worst is going to be an incompletion, or a big play."
Either/or, or both? • Whittingham reiterated Tuesday that the quarterback situation is an "open competition" between junior Travis Wilson and Kendal Thompson.
(For the record: "Open" or not, redshirt freshmen Conner Manning and Brandon Cox are not part of this competition right now.)
Both quarterbacks have played in the same game six times this season, so naturally it was put to Whittingham whether they might do so again.
"That's a possibility," he said. "As I've said previously, that's not ideal, But we'll see what happens, we'll see how the flow of the game goes."
Thompson said Tuesday that he feels that whoever emerges as the starter, Utah's passing game — the quarterbacks, receivers and offensive line — is close to starting to work, even if they've only passed for 578 yards in their last five games and just 57 against Arizona State last Saturday.
"Offensive football is 11 guys working together," he said. "It takes all 11 guys to make things click. I think it's kind of been one of those deals, and we've kind of had some bad fortunes here and there — obviously the injury to Dres is big, but the next guy's got to step up, and we've got faith in our receivers. This next game, we feel like we'll be able to do some good things."
O-line update • Utah offensive line coach Jim Harding was made available for the first time since a moratorium on regularly speaking to assistant coaches, and he gave the scouting report on redshirt freshman Salesi "Leka" Uhatafe, who moved to the top of the depth chart and replaced senior captain Junior Salt.
"Leka is a very athletic player," Harding said. "He bends really well — he's a natural knee-bender. He rolls his hips on contact in the run game. In the pass game, even if he does not necessarily take the best pass set — in terms of, whether it's his feet or his hands — he's athletic enough to recover, and so his margin for error's a little bit greater. He's a smart player. He'd been battling some injuries. He started in the UCLA game, and that last drive, he actually got injured and toughed it out the rest of that game, and then really hasn't been 100 percent since then."
Harding acknowledged that the tough part of promoting Uhatafe to starting right guard, and shifting sophomore Isaac Asiata to left guard, is that somebody loses his job.
Whittingham has praised Salt for taking the move in stride, and on Tuesday, Salt complimented Uhatafe for his play and his toughness.
"Whatever challenges come, you've just got to rise to the occasion," Salt said. "... You've just got to move on, move forward, do your best and contribute to the team."
Twitter: @matthew_piper