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This spring, it’s been like Grand Central Station at the University of Utah.
Most notably, we’ve seen Utah basketball coach Larry Krystkowiak replaced by Craig Smith, formerly of Utah State.
Since then, the Runnin’ Utes have seen a bunch of coaches and players come and go, including a sort of musical chairs scenario with USU.
Most recently, former Utah guard Rylan Jones announced that he’s transferring to Utah State. That was after Aggie guards Marco Anthony and Rollie Worster followed Smith to the U.
Meanwhile, guard Pelle Larsson transferred from Utah to Pac-12 South rival Arizona. Other key departures include Timmy Allen (Texas), Alfonso Plummer (Illinois) and Ian Martinez (Maryland).
The Utes have signed two transfers this spring — David Jenkins Jr. from UNLV and Gabe Madsen from Cincinnati. This week, Bostyn Holt, a wing who most recently played at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas, committed to Utah.
Turning to football, Utah landed a commitment from running back Tavion Thomas of Independence Community College. Thomas will bolster the Utes’ backfield, which also includes Oklahoma transfer TJ Pledger and Louisiana State transfer Chris Curry. Thomas originally signed with Cincinnati and played at Independence in 2020.
With all the comings and goings, Ute fans will need to become acquainted with all the new names and faces arriving on campus.
Numbers game
4: Runnin’ Ute players that have transferred to other Power 5 programs.
43: Games started by Rylan Jones at Utah the past two seasons.
499: Rushing yards gained by Tavion Thomas as a freshman in 2018 at Cincinnati.
From the archives
Extra points
- Rylan Jones transferring to Utah State (Deseret News)
- Utah gets commitment from transfer RB (Deseret News)
- Pelle Larsson transferring to Arizona (Deseret News)
- Tale of 2 Ute receivers (Deseret News)
- What drives this Ute softball player (Deseret News)
Fanalyst
Comments from Deseret News readers
Glad he didn’t go over to a PAC school. Transfer out, but don’t be competing directly with your former school. Rylan is a great player and a nice pick up for USU.
— wwookie
Not totally sure this is the year. (Charlie) Brewer looked great in spring but the spring game shows fans exactly what the HC wants fans to see. How’s the OL going to hold up? They are older and experienced but haven’t been the strength of the team and that’s a huge factor in the passing game which has some questions on receivers. RBs will be deadly and a lot of them. The interesting thing is that the question marks are mainly older guys. The OL and Brewer will start graduating out, and while the OL needs to reload both (Peter) Costelli and (Ja’Quinden) Jackson are really exciting QBs to play behind Brewer. The WRs have some questions and a ton of very young speed. The RBs who transferred in are younger transfers and the defense has some absolutely amazing talent that looks like it will set Utah up for another big defensive draft year coming up in a few years. I’m thinking that it might not be this year, but that’s a powerful team coming up in the next few. And from reports of this year should be a great team also — I just never bank on the excitement of a spring scrimmage because you really don’t know until it’s live ball.
— Josh from london
Up next
May 13 | 6 p.m. | Softball | vs. Oregon State | @Salt Lake City
May 14 | 6 p.m. | Baseball | vs. Oregon | @Ogden
May 14 | 4 p.m. | Softball | vs. Oregon State | @Salt Lake City
May 15 | 12 p.m. | Softball | vs. Oregon State | @Salt Lake City
May 15 | 4 p.m. | Baseball | vs. Oregon | @Ogden
May 16 | 11 p.m. | Baseball | vs. Oregon | @Ogden
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/3w1ygys
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