Three Utah defensive players caught passes in Saturday’s opener vs. UCLA.

Utah players celebrate a touchdown by cornerback Smith Snowden during an NCAA football game against the UCLA on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)

University of Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham chose not to release a depth chart for his football team this week, figuring he’d rather leave UCLA guessing about who the Utes would play most on Saturday.

After the game, the Bruins might be even more befuddled.

All in all, 14 players touched the ball for the Utes on the offensive end in their dominant 43-10 win to open the season in the Rose Bowl Stadium.

That included two Utes touchdowns from primarily defensive players: cornerback Smith Snowden and linebacker Lander Barton. A third defender, safety Jackson Bennee, added another catch among a couple of targets.

Whittingham had indicated Snowden and Barton would play both ends in fall camp, so their appearance on offense wasn’t a total shock to those paying attention.

But the sheer volume of Snowden’s involvement was. The junior received the ball on the game’s very first play out in the flat, pushing forward 12 yards for a first down. A drive later, Snowden would score the Utes’ second touchdown on the ground to kick-start Utah’s offense into a gear they’d never fall out of.

All told, Snowden touched the ball nine times on offense, with six receptions and three carries for a total of 66 yards.

“Smith is at the point as a defender where he’s … mastered his assignments, he’s mastered his techniques, his fundamentals,” Whittingham explained. “Once that happens — he was a special offensive player in high school, and so I thought, ‘You know, what the heck. We’ve got to utilize all our resources.’”

Meanwhile, Barton’s impact came largely on one touchdown, the Utes’ third of the game. Dampier rolled right and hit the 6-foot-5 linebacker running out of the Utes’ big set to get the team out to a 20-point lead they’d never come close to relinquishing. Barton played tight end in high school at Brighton, catching 37 balls for 416 yards in his senior season.

The Utes’ second-leading receiver behind Snowden wasn’t any of their new cadre of transfers who were expected to lead the position, but instead senior tight end Dallen Bentley. Bentley finished with five catches on the night; he had caught just three balls in his collegiate career before Saturday.

It took until the second half for a traditional wide receiver to make a grab in the new-look Utah offense, when New Mexico transfer Ryan Davis caught a pass in the third quarter from Devon Dampier, his teammate last season in Albuquerque. The 6-foot-5 Tobias Merriweather featured just twice on two long balls — one on which he earned a defensive pass interference call, the other that went for 36 yards to set up one of Utah’s late touchdowns.

The Utes have featured two-way players before.

Safety Sione Vaki’s contributions were among the brightest offensive spots of the Utes’ 2023 campaign, when he accumulated 520 yards. In the end, Vaki was drafted as a running back by the Detroit Lions in the fourth round. Do-it-all Eric Weddle found success on both ends of the football from 2003-06 at Utah before becoming a six-time Pro-Bowler in the NFL.

But for those two, it took until later on in the season to play a big role — Vaki had no touches on offense in the Utes’ first game, Weddle just one to open his senior season. It’s been decades since Utah opened a season with anybody playing this much on both ends.

Which leads to an obvious question: Will Snowden remain Utah’s No. 1 receiving weapon, or was this just a case of Utah going with what worked?

“That’s about the dose that he’s been getting the ball in practice. Same with Lander. Jackson Bennee had been a little more involved in practice. He wasn’t as involved tonight as he may be down the road,” Whittingham said.

“Those three guys, we got them all on pitch counts and making sure that we don’t overdo it, and we’re not really sure what that pitch count number is,” Whittingham continued, referring to the number of snaps the players would play throughout games. “Right now, we’re just going to play it by ear as we go through the season.”

That’s Whittingham: always wanting to maintain an air of mystery.

But given how Saturday turned out, it’d be a surprise not to see more — much more — of Utah’s trio of two-way talents.