The Final Week of Utah Football Camp began on Monday Morning at the Eccles Practice Facility with some much anticipated roster news. BYU Transfer Francis Bernard is finally on the roster and in Camp Kyle with the team. The Herriman native completed the necessary summer course work to make himself eligible for the 2018 season. Bernard now enters the five day acclimation period that will get him up to conditioning and speed before putting the pads on later this week.
Bernard’s journey to Utah has been a long one. He was a running back coming out of Herriman High School and into BYU, before being moved to linebacker in 2016 by Kalani Sitake and his defensive staff. Bernard fought the move initially and considered transferring from BYU before the 2016 season, but stayed and thrived on the defensive side of the ball. Bernard totaled 80 tackles, 5 1/2 tackles for loss, three interceptions and two sacks in his lone season at linebacker in Provo.
Bernard had his issues with the honor code while at BYU, which led to his subsequent departure from the program. He has been rumored to be heading to Utah since last fall and today it became a reality. Bernard upgrades a good position group for the Utes, though it will likely take him a little while to get up to speed. Bernard comes to Utah with two years to play. Best case scenario he steps in and makes an immediate impact and the worst case scenario he comes along slowly works his way into the rotation. Either way, Utah has upgraded it’s linebacker spot.
Following Day 12 on Monday Morning, Defensive Coordinator Morgan Scalley discussed Bernard joining Utah and his Linebackers…
Saturday’s Scrimmage
By all accounts, Utah’s first scrimmage of Fall Camp on Saturday was well played on both sides of the ball. Kyle Whittingham said the 70 play scrimmage was relatively mistake free. Offensive Coordinator Troy Taylor discussed the scrimmage on Monday morning following Day 12 of Camp Kyle, highlighting his backup QB race, WR’s and Offensive line…
Whittingham on Day 12
Head Coach Kyle Whittingham finally got to talk directly about Frances Bernard on Monday morning. In addition, he spoke about Saturday’s Scrimmage and his backup Quarterback spot. Listen in right here to Kyle Whittingham from Monday Morning.
Wide Receiver Wisdom from Guy Holliday
For 12 Days we’ve been told that the Wide Receiver position is the deepest and most competitive at Utah this fall. Today I caught up with WR Coach Guy Holliday to get his take on his group. He told me that Demari Simpkins has been his best and most consistent wide receiver this fall so far. He also said that he’s never seen anything like Britain Covey coming off a mission, “That dude is a different breed of Cat”. Calls him close to 90% of what he was. Here’s my full interview with Guy Holliday…
Here are Holliday’s Top 4 as of today..
1. Simpkins
2. Mariner
3. Covey
4. Thompson
