SALT LAKE CITY — Mondays are the beginning of game preps for the upcoming opponent for Utah football, except a shooting over the weekend of two Utah football players has overshadowed the team's ability to jump right into work.

Head coach Kyle Whittingham approached Monday's press conference expecting to talk about the Fresno State game, but was instead inundated with questions about his recovering players, Lo Falemaka and Marcel Brooks-Brown.

Both players were shot at an overnight party near campus Saturday after three men attempted to enter the party despite requests by party attendees for them to leave. Both were taken to an area hospital in serious condition.

"Some other guys outside of campus were being knuckleheads and found the need to use weapons, and that is always a sad situation," linebacker Gionni Paul said. "My understanding was it was more like an athlete event where some guys that weren't supposed to be there got escorted out and then got upset because they were escorted out."

The news spread quickly throughout the team and players quickly assembled at the hospital to see how their fellow teammates were doing. Paul said the whole team was there waiting to hear word of their condition.

"It was very heartbreaking to me and we rushed up there and gave our condolences to our teammates and gave them much love," Paul said. "When you hear somebody got shot, the next day might be their funeral. When I heard it I thought the worst, so when I found out the guys were OK I really felt good in my heart."

"We're very, very fortunate and blessed that they're OK. It could have been a lot worse," Whittingham said. "It's something you hate to see ever. But we've got to move forward and we will."

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Two University of Utah football players were recovering from gunshot wounds to the torso Sunday after they were shot by an unwanted party guest at a gathering near the university campus shortly before midnight Saturday.

Brooks-Brown has since been released from the hospital and may rejoin the team soon, Whittingham said, but Falemaka is expected to be in the hospital for a week or more and is not expected to return to the team this season.

"I would say Marcel is probably going to be able to rejoin us sooner than Lo," Whittingham said. "Lo may be done for the rest of the year, but that remains to be seen."

Whittingham said the team will talk about the situation for the first time today at a team meeting where the coaching staff will once again stress the importance of being safe and being involved with safe groups of people in their interactions.

"We have certain guidelines we follow and certain things that are expected. Just use your common sense and don't put yourself in bad situations," Whittingham said. "I don't think there's anything out of the ordinary that we tell our guys. It's just a matter of making good decisions — not to say these guys made bad decisions because the circumstances are what they are. Sometimes you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

As one of the leaders on the team, Paul said he's offered similar advice to some of the younger players on the team.

"I just give a lot of advice to be in the right situation at the right time. Bullets, they don't have anybody's name on it, anybody can get hurt any given day," he said. "You should always be careful. A lot of things happen at night; nothing good goes on at 1 a.m. Then again, you can't take away the college experience and the college fun — the mingling, the social life."

Although Falemaka and Brooks-Brown were not starters, Paul said they're still part of the Utah "brotherhood" and that they have just as much of an impact on the team's success as the starters.

"Lo and Marcel were big contributors on special teams. And just like coach Whittingham said they weren't really big-name guys, but to us we've got 120 guys on the team that all contribute to our wins," he said. "When a couple players go down, it's kind of a burden on us, but we're going to go out there and play this game for them."

Contributing: Sandra Yi

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