Sione Vaki is a man of few words but apparently many big plays.
That was the case for the Utah football team this past Saturday and, the Utes hope, continuing on into the future.
Their regular season is now halfway over, but the safety’s moonlighting gig as a running back/wildcat quarterback is apparently just getting started.
“You’re gonna continue to see him,” head coach Kyle Whittingham said in the aftermath of Utah’s 34-14 win against Cal.
It was desperate measures that compelled the solid-but-flawed Utes to convert him into a two-way player, but it was his efficacy and explosiveness in his new role that will keep him there.
Whether taking direct snaps from center or handoffs from quarterback du jour Bryson Barnes, Vaki was electric against the Bears, rushing 15 times for 158 yards and two touchdowns — including a game-clinching 72-yarder in the fourth quarter.
He could be forgiven for being a bit vanilla in the postgame interview room, having apparently expended his entire supply of fireworks on the field.
“Man, it was fun,” Vaki said when asked about his outing. “I was just glad that the coaches placed trust me enough to go play.”
Whittingham said the Utes’ increasingly thin ranks in the running back room prompted a re-think about who they could utilize. And how.
Ja’Quinden Jackson has been banged up all season. So has Charlie Vincent. Both Micah Bernard and Chris Curry have suffered season-ending injuries. And Jaylon Glover has struggled to gain much traction as the lead back in the interim.
“That was the main impetus for making the move,” Whittingham said. “… Sione has a great offensive background. He was a really good offensive player in high school — a slot receiver, and also carried the ball a little bit. So it wasn’t a big learning curve there.”
Two weeks ago at Oregon State, he lined up once as a wildcat quarterback and rushed the ball for six yards.
With an ensuing bye week to mull it over, offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig apparently decided to bust out the old Eric Weddle package with Vaki and see what happened. What happened was, even with the Utes once again less than prolific throwing the ball, the offense had some real juice for the first team in weeks, and amassed 317 rushing yards en route to a season-high 445 total.
(James Roh | Special to The Tribune) Utah Utes running back Sione Vaki (28) runs the ball against the California Golden Bears during the first half at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, October 14, 2023.
Naturally, Vaki — who became Utah’s first defensive player to account for a rushing touchdown since Weddle in the 2006 Armed Forces Bowl — will be featured extensively again when the Utes face USC in Los Angeles this coming Saturday.
“Against Oregon State, he had a very small list of plays. Coach Lud did a great job expanding that to essentially about 15 plays this game. That package will continue to expand,” said Whittingham. “Those you guys who have been around, what we did with Eric Weddle several years ago, we’ll do now with Siake. … So it’s not something that we’ve never done before. And he’s the perfect guy for that role going forward.”
Of course, the Utes do run the risk of overutilizing a player they’re also heavily dependent upon defensively.
After all, he has been one of the team’s starting safeties, and played 54 of 60 defensive snaps vs. the Bears, recording four tackles. And with Cole Bishop slated to miss the first half against the Trojans thanks to a dubious targeting penalty, Vaki’s importance on that side of the ball will only grow.
Still, Jackson, who returned to action vs. Cal and carried the ball 22 times for 94 yards, was happy to have some assistance, though he knows it likely was taxing on Vaki.
“It helps a lot, just taking some of the load off,” said Jackson. “But he’s taking on a lot more load because he playing both sides. But it’s a big help.”
Indeed, if he can replicate anything close to his Cal performance, Vaki may well be more important on offense at this point.
He joked about being faster than he thought on that 72-yard run, then subsequently joked about trying to act like he wasn’t exhausted, but ultimately conceding he felt “hecka tired” once he came off the field.
Asked if he wanted to continue being a two-way player, he was typically loquacious.
“I’m just here to help the team. Whatever the coaches need, I’m here for it,” Vaki said.
The coaches acknowledged they need it. How much will be a balancing act.
Whittingham initially invoked Colorado two-way standout Travis Hunter as a potential archetype for Vaki’s role going forward, noting, “You see the guy at Colorado playing 100-plus snaps every week.” Of course, in the next breath, the coach conceded, “Now of course, he did get injured,” referencing the three weeks the wide receiver/cornerback missed as a result of a lacerated liver.
While the coach feels Vaki is capable of playing a lot of snaps at a high level, he also vowed to be cognizant of not running him into the ground.
“He’s a real durable, tough kid. … But we’re conscious of that,” said Whittingham. “We want to make sure that we don’t overdo it. … We don’t want to wear him out.”
The coach added that rather than put a fixed snap count in place every week, the Utes staff will take things on a game-by-game basis, adjusting Vaki’s workload accordingly. And if they feel he’s starting to get exhausted, then they will give him a break.
In the meantime, though, the prospect of rejiggering the playbook to capitalize on his breakaway speed and toughness holds considerable appeal.
“Sione Vaki really added to what we were doing on offense. He provided a spark,” said Whittingham. “… He’s one of the most explosive players on the team.”
Now the goal becomes making the Utes’ offense more explosive by extension.
