What can Utah Utes expect out of RB position this season?

The Utah football team has had three players rush for 1,000 yards in a season under head coach Kyle Whittingham.

Sophomore running back Wayshawn Parker is seeking to becoming the fourth as he prepares for the 2025 campaign.

"I'm ready to go again," Parker told reporters at fall camp.

"I'm ready to catch 1,500 yards or so.

I want to touch that 1,000 [yard mark] for sure." Parker's confident delivery through a mile-wide smile and soft exhale underscored how the Washington State transfer felt about his first practice session with the Utes after missing the entirety of spring ball due to injury.

Despite having some late catching-up to do, Parker has all but solidified his role in Utah's backfield three weeks into fall camp.

Though whether the 5-foot-10 Californian achieves his personal goals this season will also come down to how his coaches utilize the skill position players around him.

"It's more by committee at this point," Whittingham said of the Utes running back group following the team's first fall camp scrimmage.

"But again, it's still early.

We'll see how it continues to develop." Whittingham noted positive production from a pair of freshmen tailbacks in Daniel Bray and Raycine Guillory, as well as the added pressure junior quarterback Devon Dampier can put on opposing defenses with his ability to move the chains on the ground.

Between those two top-60 running back prospects; plus a quarterback who ran for 1,166 yards as a sophomore; Utah's run game should consist of a well-balanced diet featuring different play designs and personnel groupings.

Factor in Parker, a four-star transfer prospect according to 247Sports who rushed for 735 yards on 137 carries in 2024, and it would appear the Utes are poised for a big year on the ground in 2025.

As for which running back Dampier will hand the ball off to the most as the starter? According to Whittingham, it's currently a toss-up between Parker and senior NaQuari Rogers.

"The top two guys will be Wayshawn Parker and NaQuari Rogers not necessarily in that order," Whittingham said.

"They're interchangeable as [RB1]." Rogers followed Dampier and his offensive coordinator Jason Beck from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Salt Lake City after spending the 2024 campaign as the Lobos' backup running back.

The Virginia native recorded 382 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 74 carries, posting 5.2 yards per rush attempt while failing to commit a single turnover across 10 games with New Mexico.

A majority of Rogers' reps in Utah's first fall camp scrimmage came with the team's second unit, though that could change for the Utes' second and final intrasquad scrimmage before their regular season opener on Aug.

30 at UCLA.

"We live up to a high standard," Rogers said of Utah's running backs.

"We just give each other pointers and stuff like that; as far as what we can and can't do, so that's kinda what makes us better." If Whittingham and his coaching staff opt to forgo the "workhorse" model that allowed Zack Moss, Devontae Booker and Joe Williams to rush for 1,000 yards during their respective careers in Utah, then the possibility that Rogers, Dampier or someone else could indirectly prevent Parker from hitting that milestone in 2025 because of their respective talents is legitimate.

Even if the Utes don't necessarily need Parker to fill up the stat sheet, the former three-star prospect out of Grant Union High School (California) aspires to follow in the footsteps of previous Utah running backs including one who shares the same high school alma mater.

"Coming here is a special place," Parker said.

"One of the running backs that came out of my high school, Devontae Booker, made 1,000 yards, and I want to top that for sure.".

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