As far as football media days this summer go, the Pac-12 is falling in line with its FBS brethren.
A league spokesman confirmed to The Salt Lake Tribune late Thursday evening that the Pac-12 will not hold its football media day as planned on July 29 at the Hollywood & Highland Entertainment Center. Instead, the league will hold virtual media days.
Of the 10 FBS conferences, seven have said they will go to a virtual format. Of those seven, the Pac-12 and Big 12 are the only Power Five conferences to announce their plans. The Big 12 said on Wednesday it will bail on in-person media days July 20-21 at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.
The SEC (July 13-16, Atlanta), ACC (July 22-23, Charlotte) and Big Ten (July 22-23, Chicago) are the remaining FBS outliers.
An exact format is still being worked out by the Pac-12, as is a date or dates for the event. On Thursday, the league announced a series of 30-minute, media-only webinars next week involving the league’s 12 football coaches. Each day from Monday through Thursday, three coaches will participate with a different topic slated for each session.
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, along with a pair of first-year coaches, Karl Dorrell of Colorado and Jimmy Lake of Washington, are up on Tuesday morning, when the topic will be replacing key components from last year’s team, especially at quarterback.
Whittingham and the Utes were in the early stages of a quarterback competition between Jake Bentley and Cam Rising when the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the remainder of spring practice in mid-March.
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