Ute Insiders

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Utah’s wide receiver production is up big-time compared to this time last year.

Through three games last season, just four wide receivers (excluding tight ends and two-way players) caught passes for a total of 273 yards. This season, quarterbacks Devon Dampier and Byrd Ficklin have distributed the ball to six different wide receivers — Braden Pegan, Larry Simmons, Creed Whittemore, Ricky Johnson, Mana Carvalho and Kyri Shoels — for a total of 551 yards.

Noah Bennee’s fantastic game against Arkansas boosted him to the second-most-productive pass-catcher spot behind Pegan, but he’s the only tight end among the top eight players with the most receiving yards for the Utes. That’s a departure from previous years, when great tight ends like Brant Kuithe and Dalton Kincaid dominated targets from quarterbacks.

This year, the strength of Utah’s pass-catching group might actually be the wide receivers.

Pegan leads the group and has lived up to his preseason WR1 billing. The Utah State transfer has proven to be a dynamic receiver at every level of the field, including on deep passes, where he’s hauled in four receptions for 126 yards and two touchdowns on passes that traveled 20 or more yards through the air.

In all, Pegan has 235 yards and three touchdowns on 15 receptions and is pacing for 940 yards on the season. He’s become a favorite target of Dampier and one that the senior quarterback can trust.

“BP’s one of those guys, we’ve been together for a long time now, just the amount of reps we’ve got in,” Dampier said. “He’s one of those guys where, if I see he has a one-on-one opportunity, I’m taking him over anybody.”

While the 6-foot-3 Pegan has established himself at the top of the receiver hierarchy, that doesn’t mean he’s necessarily guaranteed targets each game, though McGiven and Dampier do want to try to put the ball in the hands of Utah’s best playmakers.

Pegan had productive games against Idaho and Utah State, but against Arkansas, it was Noah Bennee and running back Wayshawn Parker getting their turn. The unselfishness has been one of the team’s strengths and has allowed the offense to be highly productive, albeit against weaker competition to open the season.

“Our guys have a great attitude right now, great mentality,” Utah coach Morgan Scalley said. “You may get yours one week, you may not get as much the next week, but it doesn’t matter who scores, it matters that we score and guys are bought into that right now.”

Aside from Pegan, there’s been several other receivers that are off to good starts to the season, including Simmons, Whittemore and Johnson.

Johnson came with former Mississippi State receivers coach Chad Bumphis, who reunited with Scalley at Utah this year after coaching the 2021 and 2022 receivers in Salt Lake City. Prior to the 2026 season with Utah, Johnson hadn’t done anything of note in his first two campaigns in Starkville, totaling just five career receptions for 26 yards.

The buzz kept building for Johnson in spring and fall camp, and by the time the season rolled around, he was primed for a role in the offense.

He had his breakout game against Utah State, catching four passes for 43 yards to bring his season total to 85 yards on the season.

“His attention to detail,” Bumphis said of what has allowed Johnson to take the jump in his game. “Ricky’s really smart. He understands the position from inside and out and just does a great job of going throughout the week and understanding what we’re trying to do.”

“Really smart player. Obviously they all can make plays, but above the shoulders, he’s next level.”

Whittemore has also shown flashes, hauling in five catches for 87 yards, and Simmons has picked right back up from where he left off last year with five catches for 95 yards.

Unlike last year, when Ryan Davis was the clear lead receiver with a big drop-off in production after him, Dampier has a multitude of receiving options in 2026.

“Man, very efficient. A lot of guys. I think if you go down the game stats, who catches the ball, I think all of them get targets, all of them get catches just because the defense has to respect every single person out there,” Dampier said. “They’re so versatile. They all have their own special things that they do, but overall, just hard workers and ready to get open.”

Dampier and his receivers spent a lot of time in the summer working together in player-led practices, with Dampier flying his receivers down to Arizona and putting them up in an Airbnb for a week so they could continue building their chemistry on and off the field. That extra work has been paying dividends to start the season.

“They did a great job and they spent a lot of time together in the offseason,” Bumphis said. “And again, once you’re on the same page with what we do on offense, the field gets bigger and it seems like it just slows down a lot for you. So that’s a credit to those guys. They did a great job this offseason.”

As Utah enters Big 12 play Saturday at Iowa State, it has at least four dependable options at wide receiver, and any one of them could be the hot hand on any given Saturday. The group still has a lot to prove, but the early returns are promising.

“Really good. For myself, for the room, for the quarterbacks, it just makes it easy. It keeps everybody on their toes. The hot hand will play, so just trying to figure out how to get these guys in places to be successful,” Bumphis said.

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Jackson and Noah Bennee’s football journeys landed them at Utah and next door to each other. The brothers are making plays on the field, are close friends off it, and are both new dads.

From former Ute walk-ons to starters to dads, the Bennee brothers are living the dream together.

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