After all, he's an expert.

Although he's still getting accustomed to his new role as a starter and doesn't receive quite the attention fellow safety Eric Weddle attracts, the junior and former walk-on from Olympus High has long since made a name for himself with some of the most game-sealing plays in recent team history -- even if they're somehow not all so easy to remember, as the Utes prepare to play at North Carolina on Saturday.

"I think it's just coach preparing us to know what's going to come at us and putting us in the right place at the right time," Evans said. "If you're in the right place, it's easy to make a play once you're there."

Must be.

He was still a freshman at the time, but Evans was the guy who recovered the fumbled punt in the fourth quarter against Brigham Young two years ago, allowing the Utes to hold on for a 3-0 victory that sent them to the Liberty Bowl.

He also was the guy who clinched the 27-24 victory over Arizona earlier this season with an interception in the final seconds -- after already helping turn back the Wildcats by forcing a fourth-down fumble at the goal line in his only start last season.

Most recently, Evans allowed the Utes to hang on for a crucial 38-35 victory against Air Force last week by making a fourth-quarter interception at the 2-yard line and recovering an onside kick with 1:08 remaining -- all while making a career-high 12 tackles to earn defensive player of the week honors in the Mountain West Conference.

Not a bad resume for a guy with only five career starts.

"We can't say enough about him," Whittingham said. "He's a gamer, he's got that knack on game day. And you know what it is? It's a product of his practice habits. He works so hard in practice. There's nobody who works any harder than Casey Evans in practice."

Stands to reason.

Evans did not have a scholarship when he joined the Utes after his prep career, and had to work his way into the coaching staff's consciousness.

That didn't take long, though, and Evans said Whittingham's willingness to allot him even just a handful of plays per game last season after only one year of special teams duty really helped him develop. The payoff came when Evans earned the starting spot alongside Weddle during training camp -- and he now ranks second on the team with 32 tackles.

"I added just that little bit of game experience and it just helped me," Evans said. "Coach Whit gave me the confidence. You know, you always talk about guys who (play poorly) in the games or guys who step up and play, and I felt like I just stepped up and played in the games."

Now, the push is on to get the rest of the defense to follow suit.

The Utes must do a better job of finishing off opponents if they have them down, Whittingham said, and the coach has made that a point of emphasis in practice this week.

"We just have to be aware that when we see that fourth quarter, we need to step it up a notch," Evans said. "Step it up more than we already have been trying to, because I don't think it has been a lack of effort. I just think we need to step it up more. . . . That's definitely one of our things as a defense -- 'red-line' effort. Every play, doesn't matter when it is, finish the game."

And those big plays?

Any stand out, in particular?

"The Air Force one is definitely big," Evans said. "It's fresh in my mind. . . . But the BYU game my freshman year, because that was the first big play I ever made as a Ute and playing in that rivalry game that I'd grown up with, that was pretty big for me."

Pretty big for the Utes, too.

mcl@sltrib.com