Lack of depth may make Utes better prepared to handle Marquise Blair’s injury

The fact that Utah came into the season short-handed at the safety position means that several players are ready to jump in at either spot.

Marquise Blair’s season-ending leg injury makes junior Corrion Ballard the starter at free safety once again with junior Chase Hansen at strong safety. Sophomore Philip Afia will back up both spots.

Ballard came into the preseason projected to start at free safety, but he became the top candidate to fill in for Hansen at strong safety when Hansen missed the start of camp due to injury. Ballard started the first four games at free safety with Hansen healthy enough to start the season opener.

Afia, who has played in every game this season, started at free safety against Stanford with Blair suspended for the first half due to a targeting ejection in the previous game.

“The things with lack of depth is you have to have guys that can play multiple positions,” defensive coordinator/safeties coach Morgan Scalley said. “I think they’ve done a good enough job.

“Obviously we’re not depth-wise where we want to be at the safety position. We’ve got to be able to recruit to that position, but I feel like Corrion Ballard and Philip Afia have done a great job of learning both positions so when their number is called they can go in there and play well.”

Slow huddle

The UCLA game marked offensive coordinator Troy Taylor’s second game working from the press box instead of the sideline. Within the first nine plays, the Utes used two timeouts to avoid delay of game penalties then received an illegal substitution penalty immediately following their second timeout.

Whittingham said the issues weren’t a result of Taylor’s move upstairs.

“We just need to have more urgency,” Whittingham said. “We just started to huddle in the last couple of weeks on occasion, not every time. But we put the huddle in and the mechanics were too slow getting out on the field, too slow in the huddle itself and too slow getting to the line. We have to speed everything up, and that is on us as coaches.”

Optimism about Carrington

Utes receiver Darren Carrington II did not play in the second half of Friday’s game against UCLA after suffering an apparent foot/ankle injury late in the first half. Carrington ranks third in the Pac-12 Conference in receptions per game (6.4) and leads the conference in receiving yards per game (92.2).

Asked during the Pac-12′s weekly teleconference if he expected Carrington to play this weekend, Whittingham said, “Sure. We hope so. That would be ideal.”

Veterans Day

The Utes will honor veterans during Saturday’s Veterans Day game, including former Utes running back Mike Anderson. Anderson, who served four years in the Marines before college, played two seasons for the Utes and earned first-team All-Mountain West Conference honors both seasons. He spent two seasons at Mount San Jacinto Junior College before coming to Utah. The sixth-round draft pick of the Denver Broncos in 2000 went on to earn the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.