All eyes — millions of sleepy ones — were on the quarterbacks at the Rose Bowl late Saturday night.
It’s always like that — some number of them, anyway — in every game, in every venue, but that normality was boosted to greater heights, to expanded dimensions in the season opener for both Utah and UCLA under the lights at college football’s most historic building, set as it is on the familiar floor of the Arroyo Seco.
Somehow that made the whole of what happened seem even more significant, namely a 43-10 Utah victory. It was the sort of showing that properly accelerates a team up through the rankings and into the national consciousness. You could almost hear coaches around the Big 12 uttering a collective, “Uhhh-ohhh.”
Uhhh-ohhh, indeed. The Utes appear to be a team full of good players with bad intentions.
Foremost among them, Devon Dampier.
The quarterback opened his career with the Utes and the other guy, Nico Iamaleava, did the same with the Bruins. Each was a ballyhooed transfer — one from New Mexico, the other from Tennessee, each being counted on at football’s most important position to breathe air and life into traditionally proud programs that needed offensive oxygen after gasping and gagging in 2024. Neither of these teams was satisfied with stagnant attacks, with a scoring deficit that led to 5-7 records, and even worse marks in their respective conference standings.
So, here they were lifting curtains, lifting lids, lifting teams, and attempting to lift spirits.
Utah defensive end Logan Fano (0) sacks UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava (9) during an NCAA football game on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
As was expected, or at least hoped for, the QB commonalities stretched beyond just the aforementioned circumstances straight through to talent.
But it was the relatively diminutive Dampier who stood tallest on this occasion, by a considerable margin, deftly managing an energized Utah attack that was oh-so hungry for efficiency and proficiency. The Utes got both, scoring touchdowns on their first three possessions, effectively and consistently converting on third downs, while the Bruins too often seized up like a bad engine, scattering belts, bolts and screws all over the road.
In addition to his passing, which we’ll get to in a minute, Dampier fulfilled expectations by threatening the line of scrimmage with his feet, using his agility and speed to get “free” yards on the ground. Kyle Whittingham had suggested in the run-up to the game that Dampier would run often, and that when he did, half of those runs would be scripted, half would be instinctual. And that’s pretty much the way it happened.
Again and again, Dampier found open space in UCLA’s defense, a group that knew full well what the Ute quarterback was up to, but still couldn’t stop it, not enough. He scampered — a term reserved almost exclusively for columns about football — for 87 yards, adding to Utah’s run game total count of 286. He motored for one TD, a score near the end of the third quarter that upped Utah’s lead to 30-10. It appeared, at times, as though Dampier was being utilized too much, absorbing too many hits. But …
But the quarterback had no complaints and neither should anybody else.
Other Utes did help pick up yardage, including Wayshawn Parker (62 yards), NaQuari Rogers (61 yards) and, among others, two-way athlete Smith Snowden (15 yards).
As for Dampier’s ability to drop back and fire either from the pocket or on the move, he completed 21 of 26 passes for 206 yards and 2 touchdowns, including one to another two-way athlete, Lander Barton, who used to be just a linebacker. Now, he’s also a tight end.
Ladies and gentlemen, here’s the key declarative statement: Utah has found what it so severely lacked last season — a quarterback and a system that suits him. A quarterback who can use his skilled duality to throw when defenses crowd the box and to run when road is graded. And here, road was graded.
By way of the Utes’ impressive offensive front, led as it is by tackles Spencer Fano and Caleb Lomu, each of whom will be playing soon enough in the NFL, and filled out nicely by other vets in the middle of the line, Dampier was pleased to stay home or to roam around, waiting for his targets to shake loose.
As long as Dampier remains in one piece, this is going to be a gas for Utah football. With the defense being what it almost always is — stingy and stout, it now has a worthy complement in an offense that is equally formidable. Evidence of that came via the aforementioned second-half scoring drive that consisted of 20 plays and chewed more than nine minutes off the clock, a move that jacked the Utes lead back to 20 points and tore the heart out of the Bruins.
As for Iamaleava, who Whittingham said is a lot like Dampier, only bigger — the coach called him a “specimen” — the UCLA newcomer couldn’t quite give the Bruins what Dampier gave the Utes. Defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley had figured his D, having faced Dampier through spring and fall practices, would be better prepared to contain an athlete like Iamaleava.
Utah quarterback Devon Dampier, left, runs the ball as UCLA defensive lineman A.J. Fuimaono gives chase during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
It did.
One of the exciting, refreshing — and maybe sometimes frustrating — aspects for coaches and everyone else, including players, when experiencing a season opener is dealing with the unknowns. Practice is practice, live action is a whole other thing. With so much in the college game analyzed and planned for and charted out, it really is one of the few authentic mysteries left — discovering what will happen in a first game, especially when it’s not played against a clearly inferior opponent, rather against a team with gifted athletes.
Whittingham wasn’t exactly sure what he had in Dampier, or in his new offense, but he strongly suspected all sorts of promise there for when live action started, when the pads popped with real intent. That promise was absolutely made real on Saturday night. For all of Dampier’s abilities and characteristics, one yet unmentioned is perhaps the single trait Whittingham likes the best — his leadership. The new guy runs it, throws it, leads it and talks it, too, in a manner his teammates not only seem to like, but also feed off of.
As Dampier left the storied Rose Bowl field deep into the night, his work done at least for this week, he didn’t just walk away, he confidently strode.
Yeah, with a dangerous, self-assured, influential leader like that, this just might be a bounce-back season to remember for the Utah Utes.