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Utah's secondary will be without one of its most experienced players and captains this Wednesday in the Foster Farms Bowl.
Senior Dominique Hatfield has joined Utah for the bowl trip in San Francisco and is participating in practice, but he won't play in the game at Levi's Stadium, coach Kyle Whittingham confirmed after a week of speculation.
"Just didn't live up to the standards and expectations we have," he said on Monday afternoon.
Hatfield's status has been in doubt since the senior cornerback sent out a tweet saying there was a 99 percent chance he wouldn't play in the bowl. He has since deleted the tweet.
Whittingham said last week that his status was "to be determined," but elaborated this week that Hatfield, who played in nine games this year with 30 tackles and an interception, wouldn't be playing. But given that he's a captain on defense and has started for the better part of the past three years, Whittingham said the offense — on which he didn't elaborate, only to say it wasn't related to academic or legal issues — wasn't enough to bar him from his final road trip.
"He's put in a body of work, and he's a senior," Whittingham said. "What he did would've merited a one-game suspension in the regular season, but not remove him from the team."
The outspoken and often animated cornerback has had a topsy-turvy career at Utah since joining the program as a wide receiver from his hometown of Los Angeles. He switched to defense as a sophomore and quickly emerged as a starter. In the 2015 offseason, he ran into legal trouble: He was charged in separate incidents with aggravated robbery (which was dropped) and assault (he entered a guilty plea in abeyance). He was elected as one of five team captains this summer, but missed the first three games with injury.
Fellow senior corner Brian Allen said he was unfamiliar with the particulars of Hatfield's situation, but that he was relieved the cornerbacks are all together this week.
"Even though I'm older than him, I look up to him because he's been playing the position longer than me," he said. "He teaches me to this day. I'm happy he's here and I get to enjoy this last experience with him."
Serving on Christmas
There's definitely some homesickness to fight through the holidays, senior defensive end Hunter Dimick said, but the Utes got over it quickly — they had work to do on Christmas Day.
The Foster Farms Bowl holds several partnerships with local charities, armed with the promise of donating a meal to the hungry for every ticket sold to the game. Much of that work took place on Christmas with the help of the Utah and Indiana football teams, who volunteered at GLIDE Memorial Church and St. Anthony's respectively to help serve 10,000 pounds of chicken donated by Foster Farms, the bowl game sponsor.
Dimick called it "eye-opening" and said it helped the team get through the blues of being away from their families. Brian Allen said it was one of the most fun parts of the week.
"Just being able to give back to the less fortunate — it was a great experience for everyone," Allen said. "We interacted with a lot of the people, see the smiles on their faces. We got to carve turkeys. It was a great experience."
Utah also took part in picking bowl gifts from a gift suite on Christmas Eve, as well as visiting Alcatraz Island early Monday morning. Utah hosted its first practice in California at the City College of San Francisco on Monday afternoon.
Bolles a proud father
Ever since Garett Bolles tweeted that his son, Kingston Bolles, was just over 6 pounds, people have asked him: Why is your kid so small?
It's hard for to believe that the 6-foot-5 tackle's firstborn son could be smaller than average, but Bolles and his wife, Natalie Bolles, induced labor three weeks earlier than they originally planned. Their son was born Wednesday afternoon, and Bolles said both his son and his wife are resting comfortably at home.
"It was a little bit hard leaving them, but both of them give me motivation and push me forward," he said with a smile after Monday's practice.
There's been some speculation that fatherhood could push Bolles, 24, into the NFL. After only one season at Utah, various reports have cited him as a potential NFL draft pick. Bolles submitted paperwork to the NFL Draft Advisory Board and received feedback, but didn't say what the feedback was. Prospects get one of three grades: first round, second round, or a recommendation to return to school.
Bolles admitted that having a child will play a big role in his decision.
"I think it's a big factor, but I'm grateful to put this uniform on and I do have another year," he said. "I haven't really thought much about it. There's a lot of other stuff that goes into it. Right now, I'm just thinking about my newborn baby, and trying to be a good father and a good husband."
Twitter: @kylegoon