Ute Insiders

October 21, 2026

During Utah’s fall camp, offensive line coach Jordan Gross had his group read “Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall In Love With the Process of Becoming Great,” a book by Joshua Medcalf that emphasizes how the daily process is the foundation for success.

For Utah’s offensive line, following that guidance has produced good results, even if the daily process can be hard and unglamorous for a position group that is already “unglamorous” to begin with.

The best offensive lines — and football teams, for that matter — are the ones that embrace the daily process of getting better. Gross — a first-year college coach who came to Utah after coaching his high school alma mater in Fruitland, Idaho — has seen the benefits of the “chop wood, carry water” mantra this season.

“During camp, we read the book ‘Chop Wood Carry Water’ and did a little study on it every week. Every week I remind them, every week when we get back in there, ‘Guys, we got to chop wood and carry water.’ It’s just the same process again and again, and it’s harder to do than people can realize,” Gross said.

The Utes replaced all five starters, including two NFL first-round tackles, from last year’s excellent line and had to replace one of the best offensive line coaches in the country in Jim Harding.

Gross came in and has guided the Utes’ offensive line to a respectable position in the conference. Two weeks ago, the group won the Big 12’s weekly offensive line award.

Utah’s offensive line has exceeded expectations thus far, turning the group from one of the biggest question marks ahead of the season to a strength at times.

Left tackle Zereoue Williams has been the anchor of Utah’s offensive line and has garnered NFL draft buzz. After some experimentation with the line, partly due to injuries, the Utes settled on a starting five of Williams, freshman Kelvin Obot, Alex Harrison, Keith Olson and Cedric Jefferson.

All but Obot are upperclassmen with a decent amount of experience playing college football, though the full-time starting experience is new to everyone except Jefferson, the Montana State transfer.

“Every week we’re learning lessons because there’s Zereoue Williams, this was his sixth start, right? Al Harrison started one game before this season as well. So they’re learning things individually,” Gross said.

In his first season as a collegiate offensive line coach, each week brings new lessons for Gross as well.

“I’m learning a ton every single week, how to get better with my Monday preparation, with my Tuesday, all the way through the week,” Gross said.

Against Colorado, the entire team got a bit of a wake-up call, including the offensive line. While Colorado’s defensive front is one of the best Utah has seen to this point in the season and the Buffaloes loaded the box often, it was one of the least impressive performances we’ve seen from the offensive line this season.

The Utes were unable to get the ground game going consistently and quarterback Devon Dampier was pressured 14 times and sacked three times.

In the fourth quarter, though, the line played better and gave Dampier some time for a couple of key deep shots that helped win the Utes the game.

“I think just that was our most pressure-filled game. The second half, obviously the momentum shifted and Colorado played outstanding and we knew they were going to be really good. We were preparing for them to be really good. They were really good,” Gross said.

“So it was a nice growth moment for us to weather that storm and refocus after some tough drives and do what we needed to do to get in the end zone towards the end of the game.”

Gross and the offensive line know that the test against Colorado was just the beginning and that they need to raise their level of play as Utah starts the back half of the schedule that features three games against AP Top 25 teams.

“The challenge in our O-line room with first-time starters is, all right, now we’re halfway through and you’re beat up and it’s a lot of pressure and the games are big. Well, they’re just going to get bigger,” Gross said.

“The second half of our schedule is loaded with quality opponents and there’s a lot of excitement that comes with that. I use the phrase careful what you ask for. You want to be a starter at a high performing team in college football? Well, it’s a big job and the guys are excited to have that opportunity.”

After Colorado’s defensive game plan was successful, expect opposing coaches to keep dialing up the pressure, including Houston this week.

“That was an impressive game plan by Colorado last week. We’ve increasingly gotten more pressure looks and I think a lot of answers for defenses at times is to pressure us, which you’re seeing every week that we’re facing that,” Gross said.

“We’ve gotten better every week, haven’t been perfect, but it’s a work in progress. I think how I react to successes and failures really helps lead our group on the mindset that they carry. So I try not to overreact in either manner, just we got to be steady. We got to get better. We got to learn from whatever has been put in front of us and then not let it happen the next time.”

Hurting matters for the offensive line in the win over Colorado was an injury to starting offensive guard Kelvin Obot early in the game. Senior Solatoa Moea’i filled in for the freshman, but had an up-and-down game, allowing a sack and receiving a Pro Football Focus grade of 52.4.

Though there were some bad moments — especially on interior stunts, which hurt the Utes — coach Morgan Scalley was pleased with how the offensive line responded.

“I was very pleased with the offensive line, Kelvin goes down, Toa comes up. I though he did a nice job. Roger Alderman comes in, I thought he did a nice job. There were some really good things on the offensive line that I saw and definitely things have to be cleaned up, but a lot of promise in the film that I saw,” Scalley said.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Wednesday that Obot will be out for Saturday’s game. Moea’i will likely fill in for the freshman, and though he didn’t have his best game against Colorado, the senior has 43 career games and 11 starts under his belt. Utah shouldn’t see a big drop-off with Moea’i as the starter.

“When something happens like happened last Saturday and you lose a starter, then you just put the next guy in and they’ve performed really well. Those guys know that when they’re called upon, let’s roll and there’s a high confidence factor for me that they can do a nice job,” Gross said.

In the most important game of the season thus far, Gross’s group needs to play one of its best games, even if it’s not at full strength.

Utah’s offensive line coach is confident that it will.

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