Five-star freshman offensive lineman Kelvin Obot had worked his way into the starting lineup and was playing at a pretty high level at right guard for Utah — especially in pass blocking.
Obot played 244 snaps over the first seven games of the season, earning a starting nod as the Utes opened conference play at Iowa State.
The five-star from Fruitland, Idaho, has the unique chance to be coached by his high school head coach, Jordan Gross, who is now in charge of Utah’s offensive line.
“Kelvin’s just had phenomenal progress since the day he got here,” Gross said. “Obviously I’ve known him for a long time and I’m actually surprised with how well he’s done. I knew he’d do really well, but I thought it might take a little bit longer. It’s just a tough step from high school to being a starter at this level.
“He’s a sponge for knowledge. He loves watching film. He loves asking the veteran guys any information he can get. He hunts me down constantly to watch extra tape and study more.”
Obot remained the starter for the next two games, but suffered an injury early in the Utes’ win against Colorado, with senior Solatoa Moea’i filling in at left guard. Obot was ruled out for Saturday’s game against Houston, and the assumption was that Moea’i would start at left guard against Houston, but Moea’i did not play. Instead it was Roger Alderman at left guard, who played a good game.
Alderman could see at least a few more starts this season.
On Monday, Utah coach Morgan Scalley gave an update on the status of Obot.
“No timetable. He’s not out for the season, but we’re still getting a second opinion on things and just to give him options as to what he wants to do,” Scalley said. “There is a possibility that he could be done for the season depending on what that opinion comes back as. But for right now, there’s still a possibility he plays.
If Obot is out for an extended period of time, does Utah go with the starting lineup of Zereoue Willams, Roger Alderman, Alex Harrison, Keith Olson and Cedric Jefferson?
The right side of Utah’s line — especially Jefferson — struggled a bit during the first half, but after some adjustments, turned in a better second-half performance.
“Just better communication. Better communication from the offensive line, the tight ends,” Scalley said of the adjustments that led to success. “There were a couple times in the first half where we flipped protections where we shouldn’t have, and that’s going to cause free hitters to come. Much better communication in the second half.
“That’s another group, man, right there that watch that film and watch them finish, watch them push our running backs forward, our wide receivers forward, run down the field. I love that crew. The O-block is doing a really nice job.”
Utah’s offensive line, likely sans Obot, will have another challenge on their hands against Cincinnati’s defensive front. The Bearcats are allowing 145 rushing yards per game (No. 76 in the country), but Cincinnati will likely follow the leads of Colorado and Houston in selling out to stop running back Wayshawn Parker.
Against Houston, Parker had 47 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries, only eclipsing 10 yards on one rush — an 18-yard rush in the fourth quarter.
The focus on stopping Parker meant that quarterback Devon Dampier had lanes to run, so Utah went that route to great success as Dampier racked up 150 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
“A lot of it was they wanted to crash down. They were like, ‘OK, Wayshawn’s not going to beat us,’” Scalley said. “What you have to do is maybe some different things in terms of disguising how you’re going to run the ball, some more gap scheme stuff that’s not necessarily a QB pull or an option read.
“But they were basically saying, we want him to pull it. We want him to pitch it. Devon was doing a really good job of making that work.”
