Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Devon Dampier remains Utah's starting QB despite injuries, but Byrd Ficklin shines.
- Ficklin, a freshman, impressed with 166 rushing yards and two touchdowns at Baylor.
- Coach Whittingham faces QB decisions amid transfer portal and NIL challenges for 2026.
SALT LAKE CITY — The quarterback situation at the University of Utah has arrived at an interesting moment.
Devon Dampier is head coach Kyle Whittingham's starter. The junior will remain as such as long as he is physically able to play.
Dampier, though, is playing hurt, hampered for most of the last two months by ankle and other injuries, a fact Whittingham did not shy away from late Saturday night after a 55-28 win at Baylor, and again Monday morning during his weekly press conference.
Dampier appeared limited at times Saturday in Waco, throwing just 6-of-13 for 80 yards and two touchdown passes, while rushing eight times for 23 yards. Per Pro Football Focus, of those eight rushing attempts, only six were by design — the second-fewest designed runs Dampier has seen in a game this season.
Whatever limitations Dampier is experiencing with Utah (8-2, 5-2 Big 12), mathematically alive for the Big 12 championship game, while hanging onto its College Football Playoff hopes by a thread, they are being put under a microscope by Byrd Ficklin.
With Dampier not 100%, Ficklin's role increased at Baylor. The true freshman ran six times for 166 yards and touchdown runs of 67 and 74, respectively. Per PFF, he was on the field for 20 snaps, which is the third-most he has seen in a game this season.
Not only is Dampier not 100%, but Whittingham on Monday was willing to admit, or at least heavily indicate, that the University of New Mexico transfer may not be healthy enough to start this weekend against Kansas State (2 p.m. MST, ESPN2).
"Day-by-day is the way we're taking it, and that's the best answer I can give you," Whittingham said Monday, two days after admitting there are practice weeks where Dampier doesn't see any reps at all.
"If I knew any more than that, I would share most of that with you, but it's just a situation where, Devon, there's a lot of physicality in his game with all the running he does, scrambling out of the pocket in addition to the QB runs, so it takes a physical toll on him."
Ficklin would start in Dampier's place. With that scenario would come a potential program inflection point.
Ficklin, an unheralded three-star recruit from Muskogee High (Oklahoma), saw a handful of late mop-up opportunities in September and October, but those moments at least offered a glimpse.
Like Dampier, Ficklin is a dual-threat QB, but he's a little faster with a livelier, albeit less-accurate arm so far. With Dampier injured and unavailable on Oct. 25, Ficklin started, rushing 20 times for 151 yards and a touchdown, but he threw just 10-of-22 for 140 yards and another two scores.
Ficklin had looked dynamic, confident, and capable before Oct. 25, but that night offered confirmation of what is possible with extensive reps under offensive coordinator Jason Beck.
Per PFF, Ficklin has attempted all of 35 passes this season on 42 dropbacks, so it's still a too-small sample size to say anything declarative, but he has certainly looked the part.
With that, you at least have to wonder, if Dampier can't start Saturday, has he started his last game at Utah? Beyond that, is Ficklin the starter in 2026?
"He's maturing and becoming more seasoned every single week," Whittingham said. "He has not had a game where he was inserted where the stage was too big. He has responded every single time he's been in the game.
"The moment is not too big for Byrd, and he's going to be a really good one."
No matter how the rest of this season shakes out, the No. 1 offseason storyline is already primed to be Dampier and Ficklin.
Whittingham was asked Monday if he can see a scenario in which both players are on the 2026 roster.
He was not exactly resigned to the notion of losing one, or even both of them this winter, but he is also not naive to the realities of the NCAA transfer portal and, more prominently, programs with bigger NIL war chests.
Dampier is believed to be owed a sum in the low-seven figures in 2026 on a two-year contract he agreed to upon arrival. Details of the contract are unknown, but the question begs, could he command more on the open market as a senior with 30-plus starts under his belt, including at least nine this season at the Power Four level?
Whatever Ficklin is getting in NIL this season, he is due an exponential raise. How much of a raise remains to be seen; but deep down, Whittingham has to know that it's a number that will make it difficult to run things back next fall.
"With what Byrd's done this year, and what Devon's done for that matter, we're going to have to really step up to hang on to those guys," Whittingham said. "That's really an administrative thing, that's not in my court. That's about what kind of resources we can come up with to keep the roster together.
"My guess is, if you took a study of Power Four football rosters, the $25 million roster, $20 million roster, the average win-loss record would just follow suit, exactly with the resources available. Everybody's trying to step up in that regard."
