Young Utah Cornerbacks Have Championship Aspirations
Aug 11, 2021, 4:06 PM
(Photos courtesy of Utah Athletics)
(Photos courtesy of Utah Athletics)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – High expectations have been building around the Utah football program heading into the 2021 season with championship aspirations.
Kyle Whittingham has compared the 2021 team to the 2019 squad that lost to Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship that lost their chance at a College Football Playoff berth.
During fall camp, KSL Sports caught up with some key players in the secondary, including cornerbacks Clark Phillips III and JaTravis Broughton. Phillips said that the 2021 Utes have high expectations this seasons.
“We want to win it all,” Phillips stated. “For myself, I have some goals that I have written down. As far as a secondary, we want to take the ball. We want to be relentless, we want to be smart, we want to be nasty and we want to be ballhawks. We really want to take the ball this year and that is the emphasis.”
@kslsportscom They want it all. Ute fans, you’ll love this one from Clark Phillips. #goutes #collegefootball #utah #utahutes #sports #football #TeamofTomorrow
Broughton was on the 2019 team, seeing action on defense in four games. He believes this team can win a championship.
“They always talk about the Rose Bowl but I know that we can make it to the playoff,” Broughton said. “Just our offseason work, we took that more seriously than last year and I see how dedicated we are and come to work everyday.”
As far as the comparison to the 2019 team, Broughton feels there are a lot of similarities.
“We took the offseason more serious because the big top dogs stayed, that’s when they really got to work,” Broughton mentioned. “We was able to learn from them. This offseason, we just really took the little things to do them right. And I can see it showing up on the field.”
Utah will open the 2021 season on Thursday, September 2 against Weber State at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Kickoff is at 5:30 p.m. MT on the Pac-12 Network.
Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.
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