The University of Utah football team had a special guest on their first road trip of the season.
Elder Ronald A. Rasband, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was on hand in Ames, Iowa, to watch Utah defeat Iowa State, 31-17, to open Big 12 play on Sept. 26.
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Rasband attended the University of Utah but left college before finishing his degree to work for Jon Huntsman Sr.’s company in a marketing role. This year, Utah gave Rasband an honorary degree during the school’s commencement ceremony.
Utah coach Morgan Scalley, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called Rasband a “humble servant” and said that the team was happy to have him at the game.
“Fantastic. All our guys, I educated them on who he was — obviously our LDS players know who he is. Just to have his presence and it was fun just catching up with him,” Scalley said Monday at his weekly press conference. “He’s an Olympus High grad, he’s a University of Utah guy. Just a humble servant and our guys loved it. How it came about, you’d have to ask (University of Utah president Taylor) Randall on that one. We were just happy to have him on the trip.”
After their only bye week of the season, the 4-0 Utes are rested and ready to take on the remainder of their Big 12 schedule, starting this week against Kansas.
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The Utes got a break after their conference-opening 31-17 win at Iowa State, giving the team a chance to regroup ahead of the next eight games.
Utah has avoided major injuries thus far, with Scalley saying Monday that the Utes are “fairly healthy” coming out of the bye week. While any week without a game is helpful for a team to heal up from the bumps and bruises of four straight weeks of football, last week’s bye week was more about cleaning up some mistakes from the Iowa State win and getting a head start on preparations for the Kansas game.
The Utes are hosting what is believed to be the first-ever “white-out” game at Rice-Eccles Stadium Saturday, when Utah takes on Kansas at 8:15 p.m. MDT.
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“This is going to be a big one this week. We expect Rice-Eccles to be packed in a white-out, so we’re excited for that,” Scalley said. “I’m sure a lot of stuff’s going to be revealed in terms of merchandise and gear and all that stuff, what we’re going to provide for our fans. But it should be a pretty awesome environment for a Kansas team that is physical.”
While there wasn’t a game last Saturday, that doesn’t mean it was all rest and relaxation for the Utes. Scalley made sure that Utah had physical practices to prevent the team from getting rusty during the bye week.
“First of all, you can’t just not practice, and practices have to be physical, they have to be fast,” Scalley said. “Certain guys that you taper off on maybe some of the workload based on where they are physically. At the same time, we got work to do.
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“We got stuff to improve upon and those things were targeted throughout the week.”
The team didn’t need to be motivated to practice hard during the bye week, Scalley said, which reflects well on the team’s culture.
“This is an opportunity for us to keep on going, keep on improving. If you need someone to motivate you to get you there, you’re in the wrong business. So our guys understand what’s at stake and understand that all 12 guaranteed games matter,” Scalley said.
“If you look across college football, it’s hard to win football games and you got to show up every game prepared, every game hungry and never take an opponent lightly. So credit our leadership for really coming out. No lackluster practices in my opinion. I thought they attacked it and we’re ready to get going again today.”
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The bye week also allowed Utah’s assistant coaches to hit the recruiting trail this weekend. Early signing day, which has become the main signing day for Power Four teams, arrives in just under two months on Dec. 2.
Utah currently has 20 commits in its 2027 class, which currently ranks No. 6 in the Big 12 and No. 50 in the nation, per On3. It is headlined by a pair of Beehive State players, Davis athlete Jaxton Itaaehau and Timpview offensive lineman Ian Aloisio.
“Very important. It’s the lifeblood of your program. We have jobs as coaches because of players. It’s not the other way around,” Scalley said. “So finding guys that fit your culture, getting out on the road and showing your brand, your logo, but finding guys that fit your culture, that’s such a huge part of what we do here is bringing in the right guys. All of our coaches were out on the road this weekend and also watching football.”
