More than two weeks remain before the University of Utah football team opens its season against North Dakota, but coach Kyle Whittingham identified senior Boobie Hobbs as the starter at nickelback if a game were to be played this week.
Hobbs, a resident of New Orleans, has appeared in 37 games in three seasons with his one start coming last season against Arizona. He has largely made his mark as a punt returner, where he’s tied for the eighth-most punt returns in program history.
Cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah, who recruited Hobbs, has raved about the mental growth and maturity of Hobbs, who came into the program after an outstanding prep career in Louisiana. However, Shah also pointed out that the physical development of Hobbs has been a huge part of his progress.
“He needed to gain weight. He needed to get stronger in order to play in this conference as an inside nickel,” Shah said. “He needed to be faster, all of those things started to develop. Boobie has gotten stronger in every aspect, in every measurable lift that we do. He’s gotten faster. Boobie has for the first time put down a 4.38 in the 40 [yard dash]. He hadn’t run anything close to that. He’s been a 4.47, 4.49 kid, but he worked diligently on his speed. And Boobie’s technique has become better.”
This season, the Utes must replace three cornerbacks who started at times last season in Reggie Porter, Brian Allen and Dominique Hatfield.
Howard earns a scholarship
Whittingham awarded redshirt senior running back Jordan Howard a scholarship this week. The athletic department posted a video on Twitter on Monday night of Whittingham announcing to the team that Howard will be put on scholarship. In the video, Howard’s teammates erupted in cheers and surrounded him.
Earlier during camp, the Utes posted a similar video when offensive lineman and former walk-on Paul Toala got placed on scholarship.
A resident of Redlands, Calif., Howard transferred to Utah from Riverside City College prior to the 2015 season. He sat out 2015 as a redshirt, and he played in four games in 2016 before suffering a season-ending injury in the sixth game of the season. He’s registered five carries for 32 yards in his collegiate career, but has become somewhat of an emotional leader on the team.
“All he does is work hard, never complains, never asks for anything,” Whittingham said. “He’s one of the team leaders, and he earned it. There’s time you get guys who earn scholarships and that are worthy of them, but you don’t have any room in the scholarship count. We happened to have room, so we were able to get them awarded.”
Odds and ends
While the Utes haven’t moved any closer to naming a starting quarterback, Whittingham left the door open for graduate transfer Cooper Bateman to see time at another position when he said, “He’s a really good athlete. He’s a mid-4.5 40 guy, so he can run. We’ll see what happens here. There may be a possibility of him showing up somewhere else to help us.” … The kicking competition has been narrowed down to two options at this point in camp. Freshman Chaden Johnson, a Bingham High graduate, and senior Matt Gay, a former Utah Valley University soccer player, have made themselves the leading candidates. … Projected starting center Lo Falemaka and strong safety Chase Hansen remain out with injuries, and there’s still no announced timetable for their return.
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