What can Utah Utes expect from CB position this season?

Utah held its opponents to just a 52.4% completion rate, the second-lowest mark in the country, and ranked top 20 in the nation in opposing quarterback rating (112, No. 9) and yards per attempt (6.3, No. 19). The Utes also checked in with the third-best third down defense and were top-30 in scoring (20.7 points allowed per game, No. 25) and yards allowed per game (330, No. 29) last season; despite finishing middle of the pack in the Big 12 in sacks (24, seventh best in the league).

Kyle Whittingham and his coaching staff brought in dynamic skill position players and dual threat quarterback Devon Dampier to (hopefully) take the load off their defense in 2025, but after losing a few key pieces to their secondary via the transfer portal, the Utes had to replace their outgoing talent with new faces, hoping to recreate last season's magic while retaining some important players.

"I just am excited because there are legitimate kids that can really factor into a game right now, that's what I'm excited about," said Utah cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah at the start of fall camp. "I hadn't had so many viable candidates in a long time."

Utah's cornerback room

Returners

• Smith Snowden (5-foot-10 junior)
• Elijah "Scooby" Davis (6-foot-tall redshirt junior)
• Isaiah Brown (5-foot-9 sophomore)
• LaTristan Thompson (5-foot-10 redshirt freshman)

Newcomers

• Don Sanders (6-foot-4 redshirt junior; Texas A&M transfer)
• Blake Cotton (6-foot-2 senior; UC Davis transfer)
• Rock Caldwell (6-foot-3 redshirt junior; JUCO transfer)
• Jaylen Moson (5-foot-11 freshman; Furman transfer)
• Jason Stokes Jr. (6-foot-1 freshman; three-star recruit)
• JC Hart (6-foot-2 redshirt sophomore; Auburn transfer)
• Cole Standage (6-foot-3 freshman)

Who will lead the unit?

Snowden and Davis will likely take the reins as second-year starters in 2025.

Snowden is coming off a 2024 campaign in which he recorded 48 total tackles, including four for loss, and defended 10 passes (two interceptions, eight pass breakups) while lined up in the nickel. He also forced a fumble and led the team with 9.0 third-down stops.

Davis enters his junior season after tallying 29 total tackles and two interceptions across nine starts in 2024, emerging as quite the complementary piece to Zemaiah Vaughn along the boundary.

"From Smith and Scooby, I would want more — more plays, more consistency, better man coverage, better zone drops," Shah said. "And then as they become better, pull everybody in that room alone, stay after practice every single day, which is what we do probably more than any other group."

Who's going to step up?

Three weeks of fall camp provided Scalley and Shah plenty of opportunities to determine who would be the starter opposite Davis on the boundary, with plenty of names to choose from between the abundance of newcomers and the group of returners to the Utes' cornerback room.

Cotton, Saunders and Caldwell joined Utah ahead of spring practice, and before Hart and Moson made their respective decisions to come to Salt Lake City in the lead-up to fall camp. Thompson and Stokes Jr. were two returners who Shah noted could make an impact in 2025.

Scalley echoed a similar sentiment toward the end of fall camp, saying that the Utes could rotate in a few cornerbacks onto the field depending on their personnel. However, it did appear to him that Cotton had done enough physically and mentally to deserve a spot in the starting lineup opposite Davis.

"I would just say mastery of the scheme and physicality," Scalley said of Cotton's separation from the rest of Utah's incoming cornerbacks. "He's got the speed to play corner, but to be able to add the physical element, the ability to blitz and leverage the football [are] big factors in it."

As for the rest of Utah's cornerback depth, Shah noted Hart's SEC experience from his days at Auburn, where he played 15 games and recorded five tackles, as well as the physical tools the 6-foot-2 defensive back possesses.

"[Hart] can really run, has shown some physicality," Shah said. "When I watch the special teams film from Auburn and some of the limited amount of reps he received, I think he becomes just somebody else that maybe after three to four weeks, I’m like, ‘Wow, I uncovered another jewel.'"

Moson, who committed to Utah shortly after Hart, recorded 21 total tackles and one interception in five appearances with Furman last season. According to Shah, the 5-foot-11 sophomore could see time in the nickel this season.

"We are trying to help him digest the inside nickel position, which is a lot, I think that he is shown to be smart," Shah said of Moson. "When I kind of watch those guys do some of their own work in kind of simulating coverages and defending receivers, he seems to put himself in good positions."

Saunders spent last season with Texas A&M following two productive seasons at Cal Poly. The 6-foot-4 San Diego native was credited with 15 pass break-ups and five interceptions across his 18 appearances with the Mustangs.

Caldwell transferred to Utah after snagging six interceptions at Garden City Community College (Kansas) last season. The former four-star recruit also spent time at Louisville and Ohio.

How will Utes utilize corner depth?

It appears the Utes have their main boundary corners in Davis and Cotton — with Snowden in the nickel — but Scalley has a handful of versatile defensive backs to factor into the rotation as well, including the multifaceted Rabbit Evans, whom Scalley says could see some time in the nickel in addition to playing safety.

"You're going to probably see quite a bit of rotation [at cornerback], because we feel comfortable with the progress that's been made there," Scalley said. "Add to that the progress of Jackson Benny, the ability that Rabbit Evans has to play the nickel; we have some versatility in the safety room. So we're very excited about the secondary."

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