July 20, 2009
LAS VEGAS
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UTES ATTEND ANNUAL MWC FOOTBALL MEDIA PREVIEW
Representing Utah at the Mountain West Conference Football Preview in Las Vegas, July 21-22, will be Head Coach
Kyle Whittingham, senior offensive tackle
Zane Beadles and senior linebacker
Stevenson Sylvester.
Utah's only first-team all-conference returner, senior left tackle
Zane Beadles (6-4, 305) is preparing for his fourth year as a starter. An All-America candidate, Beadles started at left guard as a redshirt freshman in 2006, before taking over at left tackle in 2007. The Sandy, Utah (Hillcrest HS) native, who has been compared to former Ute All-American and current all-pro NFL tackle
Jordan Gross, is on the preseason watch list for the Rotary Lombardi award.
A second-team all-MWC linebacker a year ago, senior
Stevenson Sylvester (6-2, 230) will gun for All-America honors this season. Sylvester, honored as the Most Valuable Linebacker on Utah's record-setting 2008 team, emerged on the national radar in the Sugar Bowl, when he rocked Alabama with seven tackles, three sacks and a fumble recovery. The rover linebacker had 73 total tackles a year ago, which ranked second on the team.
U-TRIVIA
Stevenson Sylvester, a native of Las Vegas (Valley HS), arrived in the host city for the MWC Football Media Preview a few days early to celebrate his July 18 birthday with family and friends ... Senior cornerback
R.J. Stanford holds the honor of fastest Ute. Stanford, who has 4.3-second 40 speed, also recorded the best numbers for vertical jump (37.5"), broad jump (11.5") and triple jump (34'10") during the spring testing period. He won the agility test, as well ... Projected starting stud linebacker
Kepa Gaison came to Utah as a walk-on punter ... Two Ute starters will play new positions this fall: Junior
Nai Fotu, the starting stud linebacker a year ago, is now the co-starter at left end with sophomore
Derrick Shelby -- last year's starting nose tackle.
DID YOU KNOW?
Utah owns the longest current win streak (14 games) and bowl win streak (eight games) in the nation ... Since the BCS began in 1998, Utah has more wins against BCS schools (17) than any other non-automatic qualifying BCS school. Among Utah's victims during that time: Alabama (2009), Michigan (2008), USC (2001), UCLA (2007), Georgia Tech (2005), Texas A&M (2004), Oregon (2003), Cal (2003) and Oregon State (2008) ... The Utes are 11-3 against BCS schools since 2004 ... Utah is the only school since the inception of the BCS in 1998 to record two undefeated seasons (12-0 in 2004, 13-0 in 2008) ... A Utah coach has been named the National Coach of the Year twice in the last five years: Urban Meyer in 2004 and
Kyle Whittingham in 2008.
