"It's about time," he joked.

The sophomore from Tooele endured two position switches and shoulder surgery nearly eight months ago before wresting the starting job from fellow sophomore Malakai Mokofisi, in the days before Mokofisi was suspended from the team for undisclosed disciplinary reasons.

But now, he's hoping to get more comfortable with every start he makes - beginning with the game at North Carolina on Saturday.

"I'm finally starting to come along," Brady said. "I'm glad about that. Still trying to work hard and learn the little things, you know? You still can always get better at something."

Brady came to the Utes as a receiver following his standout prep career, but moved to running back because of depth concerns.

He then moved to defense in the spring following his first season as a redshirt, and played some in a backup role last season before surgery to repair a torn labrum kept him out of spring drills and set him back.

"If he had not hurt his shoulder . . . you probably would have seen him as the starting stud linebacker long before now," coach Kyle Whittingham said. "He's just a guy who's a naturally athletic kid - he had 30-something interceptions in high school - and he's a playmaker."

Though he's still working to get all of his strength back in his shoulder, the 6-foot-1, 230-pound Brady made six tackles in his first start against Air Force last week.

"I was a little nervous at first, being the first time I've played when it counted," he said. "Well, I guess it matters all the time - but with the ones. I settled down there after a little bit, and it was just like practice. . . . I'll be more prepared" at North Carolina "than I was

last time."

The double-century

The Utes are looking for the 200th road victory in their road game history.

They are 199-222-13 in true road games, and 13-14-2 in games at neutral sites. At home, the Utes are 349-168-16 since they began playing football in 1892.

Stat review

The Utes do not lead the Mountain West Conference in any statistical category after their first four games, nor do they rank last in the league in any.

Probably the most encouraging stat is pass efficiency, in which quarterback Brian Johnson has the Utes second in the league and 24th nationally with a 148.8 mark - just barely behind New Mexico.

The most disturbing number, on the other hand, might be third-down conversions. The Utes rank eighth in the league and 77th nationally by converting just 35.4 percent - and they have faced more third downs than any other team in the league except TCU. The Utes have faced 65 third downs, the Horned Frogs have had 66.

Stats can lie, too

The box score says North Carolina held N.C. State to 13 rushing yards in a 31-24 victory last week, but that paints a slightly misleading picture.

The Tar Heels made six sacks in the game, seriously affecting the rushing totals. Take out the minus-73 yards attributed to quarterback Jay Davis, and the Wolfpack rushing attack managed 86 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries. Not great, of course, but not as bad as the bottom line might suggest.

No second thoughts

Whittingham still believes he did the right thing by playing conservatively on offense in the 38-35 victory over Air Force last week, even though the strategy seemed to help the Falcons nearly come back from a 17-point deficit.

"I wouldn't do it any differently," Whittingham said.

Whittingham noted that the Utes threw eight times in the fourth quarter of a game in which they threw 29 times, and that they possessed the ball for nearly 10 minutes in the fourth quarter.

"We did what we thought was best for that situation," he said. "When you're playing an option team, typically they're not a quick-strike team. It's going to take some time for them to move downfield. Unfortunately for us, they did it very efficiently and were able to put two drives together back-to-back, which made the game far more interesting than it should have been. But anytime you control the ball for 10 of 15 minutes in the fourth quarter with a 17-point lead, you ought to come out all right. So I think we took the right approach."

mcl@sltrib.com