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SALT LAKE CITY — In preparation for the University of Utah's first game of the season against Southern Utah, Ryan Miller joined KSL to answer some questions addressing the state of SUU football and expectations for Thursday night's big matchup with the Utes. Miller covers the Thunderbirds for The Spectrum & Daily News in St. George.
What's the attitude around the program since the hiring of Demario Warren to replace Ed Lamb as head coach?
RM: They had some guys that applied for the job that were bigger names that people would've actually recognized outside of Southern Utah, but more than anything he's kept what Ed Lamb built, and that's why they hired him.
As a coach, he's kind of a mild-mannered guy. If he's given a rah-rah speech, I haven't seen it, but he's a guy that you're drawn to because you respect him so much, and that's why players want to play for him. He's a guy you want to play for.
Who are some playmakers for SUU that Ute fans should know about?
RM: Someone people will be surprised by is Mike Sharp — he's good. He's like a bigger version of Britain Covey, a guy who played quarterback all through high school, and really excelled at quarterback, and then found his home as a receiver. SUU tried him on the defensive end, at quarterback, and then he kind of found a home at receiver last year. He can burn people, he can jump over people, he's a good playmaker.
Ty Rutledge is just a good route-runner. He and quarterback McCoy Hill have a lot of chemistry. Any time Hill is in trouble he can just throw it over to Rutledge and it works out.
They've got a couple of young kids too, Desean Holmes and Isaiah Diego-Williams, two freshmen that can just flat-out fly. Diego-Williams was recruited by Oregon to run track and play football on the side, while Desean Holmes was a four-star recruit who had offers to grayshirt from Michigan and Washington, but he wanted to play immediately and found SUU.
What should Ute fans expect to see from BYU transfer and current SUU quarterback McCoy Hill?
RM: It's a mystery to everyone at this point. He hasn't played a game since high school, which was 2010. He's big and can take a hit and delivers a blow. He's tough to bring down. His arm looks good; he's got a nice deep ball. But it's been awhile since he's played, and you can only take so much from practice.
Defensively, what does SUU do well?
RM: SUU is pretty simple when it comes to defense. They allow their players to make plays, and that was 100 percent the case last year. Their best player now is Mike Needham, a linebacker. They use him all over the field, rushing the passer, dropping back like a safety, and as a traditional linebacker. The defense has almost been built around him.
Josh Thornton is a corner who has NFL scouts coming to see him play. The emergence of Josh Thornton was the result of teams avoiding former corner and fifth-round NFL draft pick LeShaun Sims all of last season, and they couldn't really throw on Thornton either.
They probably won't be as good in the secondary, but I think their front seven will actually be better than it was last year, even with (James) Cowser (current Oakland Raider) leaving.
What are expectations in Cedar City about Thursday night's game and the upcoming season?
RM: They expect to compete, to be honest. It's hard for me to buy it, but it was also hard for me to buy it when they were going up against Utah State last year, and they very much competed and probably should've won that game. They have belief.
They have some horses on that team who can compete with Utah. Most of their defensive line could be in the mix if it wasn't for how good Utah's defensive line is. They do have a lot of talent, a lot of guys who were overlooked last year because of Cowser, Sims and Miles Killebrew (fourth-round pick of the Detroit Lions).
When it comes to this season, they expect to defend their title. The Big Sky is going to be really deep, and it's going to be really hard to do, but I look around and don't see any reason why they won't be in the conversation come November. It's an exciting time because Southern Utah really hasn't been relevant, and this is their chance to turn that corner and become a major player in the Big Sky Conference. Stephen Lindsey is a student at the University of Utah currently working as an intern with KSL.com in Salt Lake City. Contact him at th3sl3@gmail.com or interact via his Twitter handle, @th3sl3
