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Johnathan Hall is an important piece at a position of strength for the Utah defense going into the 2025 season.

The Utes’ linebacking group, with its talent and returning experience, is expected to be the driving force of success for Morgan Scalley’s defense this season, and Hall — the presumed LB3 alongside seniors Lander Barton and Levani Damuni — will play a major role in it.

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For the first time since he arrived in Utah ahead of the 2023 season, Hall has had a full offseason as a linebacker. The junior started off his college career at safety, but was moved to linebacker going into 2024.

With that full offseason to continue to hone his skills at the new position, both the player and his position coach are understandably optimistic about what Hall can accomplish in 2025.

“I’m really comfortable. Really comfortable,” Hall said Thursday, about working next to Barton and Damuni in the middle of what is annually a tough Utah defense.

Utah linebackers coach Colton Swan, too, has high expectations for Hall in 2025.

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“I think I’m going to be pleasantly surprised with how much development and growth he’s had,” Swan said July 30, the day fall camp opened. “You know, we flipped him right to linebacker before the start of the season last year, and so, not fair to him to have any experience doing it, but he did a great job.

“Now going through a spring and leading into this fall, he’s a phenomenal player as it is, but now he’s had a year under his belt. I’m expecting some great things.”

Hall’s first experience playing linebacker in college was a success. During the 2024 season, Hall had 38 tackles, nine tackles for loss, one sack and four passes defended, along with an interception.

His nine tackles for loss tied for the team lead.

“I think I’ve grown a lot, truly a lot. Coach Swan is a big part of that. And I just, I give him 100% of everything I have.”

Utah linebacker Johnathan Hall

Hall credited his fellow starters, Barton and Damuni, for the help they’ve given him in finding that level of comfort, one year after logging his most significant reps as a Ute. That included starting three games.

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“(Barton and Damuni) helped me a lot, both of the guys, they helped me a lot,” Hall said.

For Hall, Barton and Damuni (the latter of whom missed last season due to injury), there will be a lot of expectations to deliver in the 2025 season — and that’s fine for a group that has more than 40 combined collegiate starts among them.

“I think we complement one another really well. I think Lander, he’s more of the talkative leader. I think I’m more of a playmaker, but I’m the leader, as in … I can get guys together, like, ‘Hey, let’s go,’ things of that nature,” Hall said.

“And then Levani, he’s a vet, man. He’s been here for, I don’t know how long he’s played in college. He’s definitely a great addition to our linebacking corps.”

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Hall also gives a lot of credit to Swan for the growth he’s seen at linebacker.

“I think I’ve grown a lot, truly a lot. Coach Swan is a big part of that,” he said. “And I just, I give him 100% of everything I have.”

With Utah’s season opener at UCLA on Aug. 30 just three weeks away, Hall is liking what he’s seeing from the defense as a whole.

“I think the defense is progressing really well. I love the tempo,” he said following Utah’s second day in full pads during fall camp on Thursday. “I love the passion we’re playing with right now.”

He also has positive things to say about the offense he lines up against every day in practice as it goes through a transition to a spread offense under first-year coordinator Jason Beck.

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“I love playing against it. It’s something I’ve never played against before, really unique, and I hope we can carry this on to the season,” Hall said.

“Just the style — the style is nothing that I’m used to: spread offense, a lot of motions, a lot of pulls, counters, things of that nature, so I’ve been getting used to it, but I really enjoy playing against it.”

One interesting wrinkle to that new-look offense is that Barton is getting reps at tight end — something head coach Kyle Whittingham first talked about at Big 12 media days in July and has garnered a fair amount of attention since then.

During his high school career at nearby Brighton High, Barton had 72 career receptions for 816 yards and 17 touchdowns. It’s an exciting element that Utah hopes to utilize in revitalizing its offense.

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Hall hopes for success on that side of the ball for his linebacker mate, but he’s also jokingly ready for the competition when the two line up against each other in practice.

“We always joke about it … but he can’t catch no pass on me,” Hall said.

After finishing an 11-year run as the bumbling but lovable Phil Dunphy on “Modern Family,” Ty Burrell created a new beginning of sorts and moved to Utah.

The actor and his wife, Holly — a Utah native who went to Kaysville’s Davis High School, per Deseret News — made the move with their two daughters back in 2020.

Five years later, Burrell is adamant that starting this new chapter in Salt Lake City has been a good move for his family.

“It’s just been spectacular,” he recently told People. “We moved here right after (’Modern Family’) ended, and I don’t have any regrets. It’s been lovely and a great place to raise the kids.”

Ty Burrell’s history with Utah

Burrell’s history with Utah actually dates back to 1999, when he took part in a production at Pioneer Theatre Company so he could be closer to Holly, who was his then-girlfriend, the actor wrote in a 2014 essay for HuffPost.

The couple, who met in the late 1990s when they were both studying at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., have had a home in Utah since 2008.

Over the years, Burrell has made his mark on Utah.

The actor co-owns the Beer Bar restaurant and Bar X on 200 South in downtown Salt Lake City; The Eating Establishment in Park City; and The Cotton Bottom in Holladay, per Deseret News.

And at the start of the pandemic, the Burrells wrote a check for $100,000 that helped establish the online fund Tip Your Server, which raised money for out-of-work servers in the local restaurant industry, as the Deseret News reported.

It was always their plan to move back to Utah when “Modern Family” ended, Burrell previously told the Deseret News.

What else Ty Burrell said about living in Utah

Although Burrell has been connected to Utah over the years, living in the Beehive State full-time was still a bit of an adjustment, he recently told People.

Growing up, he said, his family didn’t take part in a lot of outdoor adventures, so being surrounded by mountains and an abundance of hiking trails was somewhat jarring.

“At first, when we moved here, it almost felt like cosplay, like we were pretending to be people who were outdoorsy,” Burrell said. “And now we really truly love it.”

Since living in Utah, Burrell has been spotted at a few Utah Jazz games — on one occasion flashing the U in support of the Utah Utes.

He and fellow actor Katherine Heigl — who has also praised Utah as being a great place to raise a family — also recently provided narration for a pair of videos that were part of the final bid presentation to the International Olympic Committee for the 2034 Olympic Games, per Deseret News.

Heigl, who lives in Oakley, Summit County, has said that leaving Hollywood for more of a slow-paced, small-town life was the “right choice” for her family, as the Deseret News previously reported.

“I didn’t know how to raise them in L.A.,” she previously told E! News. “So I felt like I could do it here.”

In 1992, MTV premiered a new television program called “The Real World.” In it, producers cast a handful of young adults who didn’t know one another to live in an outrageous mansion together for a few months and drink themselves nearly to death.

For children of the 1990s, these hot young people — hardly older than us — were a televised testament that maybe we too could be trusted to navigate the complexities of adulthood.

The show’s format and early seasons were particularly eye-opening for Utah Latter-day Saint teenagers, what with the partying and scandalous coed living. The unadulterated hedonism intrigued us while also allowing us to dip our toes into disrepute without ourselves becoming disreputable. “The Real World” was disconnected from our real world, filmed off in some distant land involving distant people with distant lives we could hardly understand. It was exciting in the way a lot of fiction is exciting. Aspirational, even if unrelatable.

Then Julie Stoffer showed up.

I was 15 when Julie, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a Brigham Young University student, was cast for Season 9 of “The Real World.” There was a soft MTV ban in my home due to the network’s proclivity, in my parents’ view, to promote general hooliganism. But even they had to confess their own curiosity about a sister in Zion crossing the gritty airwaves of teen impropriety.

It’s hard to explain how scintillating it was to discover a fellow Utah saint on MTV at that time. There had been a small slew of Beehive State celebrities through the years — usually of the Osmond variety — but we had rarely seen our faith and culture examined under such a worldly microscope.

And it wasn’t like this Julie person was a former church member. We’d seen those. We claimed them even while they disavowed us. But there was a limit to how connected we could actually feel to those who tried to hide the connection themselves.

All that talk about BYU

Julie was an active Latter-day Saint, proudly claiming our lovely Deseret. She was a current student of the Lord’s University. BYU wasn’t her alma mater. It was her Alma. I don’t know whether that joke makes sense. I haven’t been to church since Mitt Romney was a presidential candidate.

The point is, my peers and I devoured Julie’s season, salivating over every reference to our faith and state.

“Did you hear them talk about BYU in the last episode?” I remember my friend Tim asking. “They talked about her going to BYU.”

We were embarrassed when Latter-day Saints on television were embarrassing. And we watched with a plea in our hearts that they represent us well. But even when they didn’t, we couldn’t look away.

Evidently deciding that “no press is bad press,” the episode in which Julie’s family visited and judged her fellow cast members over their partying habits and sexual orientation was like having fry sauce pumped into our veins. “Our parents would disown us,” I remember one of Julie’s brothers telling the gay roommate after wondering aloud what would happen if one of his siblings was gay.

One episode featured Julie talking with the BYU Honor Code Office about whether her broadcast turpitude merited expulsion. “She’s just doing missionary work,” my friend Nick argued. “Even Jesus hung out with the prostitutes and marijuana addicts.”

The season ended, but the drama did not. Articles about Julie’s ongoing consternations with BYU drummed up dialogue in our community. There were continued discussions about whether she did our faith a favor as she was suspended from school for living with men on television.

Our very own ‘Survivor’

Julie’s name had barely left our lips when suddenly, in 2002, Neleh Dennis was cast on “Survivor.” Premiering at the turn of the century, “Survivor” was structured around a social strategy game in which contestants were required to compete in challenges, forage for food, and “out-survive” other players.

Utah news outlets covered Neleh’s assent in the contest like it was a presidential race. The coverage was exclusively positive. Neleh was cute. She was folksy. She was charming.

She was ours.

Every time Neleh uttered “oh my heck” it felt like our names were being individually read aloud on prime-time TV.

The neighborhood parents were less horrified by Neleh’s coed living than they had been with Julie’s. Maybe Julie had paved the way for Neleh, or maybe it’s not really living in sin if there’s no roof. Whatever the reason, Neleh was treated differently. She wasn’t a controversy; she was a revered ambassador.

It was reported that Neleh had selected a copy of the Book of Mormon as a personal item to bring with her to the island. One of my Sunday school teachers cut out an article about this and read it to us, citing it as an example of missionary work coming in all shapes and sizes.

“Neleh could have brought Teen Vogue,” Sister Swenson said. “But she didn’t. She brought scriptures. Maybe that’s why the Lord is helping her do so well on ‘Survivor.’” We amen’ed that. We amen’ed the hell out of that.

Neleh truly was successful, outlasting nearly all the other contestants that season until she made it to the finals against another player named Vecepia. My entire extended family gathered at my Aunt Tami’s house to watch Jeff Probst’s live reading of the last votes. “Please win,” I whispered to myself throughout the broadcast. “Please, please win.”

We screamed in excitement whenever Jeff revealed a card with Neleh’s name on it. We booed Vecepia. We didn’t have any particular issue with the latter. But her success felt like a challenge to our way of life.

Another Deseret defeat

Neleh took second that season. She lost by a vote or two. I cried when it happened. I had recently come off two Utah Jazz finals losses to the Chicago Bulls. My heart could barely handle another Deseret defeat.

After Julie and Neleh, Utah’s dabbling in reality television became more and more common, to the point that we eventually stopped noticing it so much. Producers pushed the this-might-be-a-sister-wife angle less in introducing characters, aware that the novelty had worn off enough that the general public wouldn’t be intrigued to tune in just because a Utah Latter-day Saint was being paraded across the television like an exotic zoo animal.

It’s funny to me now that we cared so much — as if my life or anyone’s perception of Utah could ever change in any meaningful way just because David Archuleta nailed “Bridge Over Troubled Water” in the season finale of “American Idol” (another reality show runner-up from the Beehive State).

It doesn’t really matter, of course. It didn’t then, and it doesn’t now. I know that. I probably kind of knew it then, too.

Still, even today, when a new set of characters is introduced in the first episode of my favorite reality programs and I find out one of them lives just a few miles from my house, I can’t help but think from somewhere not very deep down, “Please don’t be crazy. Please don’t be racist. Please don’t say ‘oh my heck.’”

“Please, please win.”

Note to readers • Eli McCann is an attorney, writer and podcaster in Salt Lake City, where he lives with his husband, new child and their two naughty (yet worshipped) dogs. You can find Eli on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @EliMcCann or at his personal website, www.itjustgetsstranger.com, where he tries to keep the swearing to a minimum so as not to upset his mother. This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.

When the Utah State Aggies take the field at Maverik Stadium on August 30, many of them will be experiencing Utah State football for the first time.

A select group of Aggies will not be experiencing it for first time ever, exactly, but no longer will they be the opposition. Included in that group are six transfers — Bobby Arnold, Noah Avinger, Hyrum Hatch, Javen Jacobs, D’Angelo Mayes and Bryson Taylor — from New Mexico, players who followed Bronco Mendenhall and his staff to Utah State this past winter.

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It isn’t abnormal for players to follow their coaches, particularly in the current NIL and transfer portal era of college football. A year ago multiple former New Mexico State players followed then-USU defensive coordinator Nate Dreiling to Utah State, and when Blake Anderson took over the job in 2020, a good chunk of former Arkansas State players followed him westward.

Even before that, when Gary Andersen took the head coaching job for a second time, leaving behind a role at the University of Utah, a chunk of Utes made the trip up 1-15 and through Sardine Canyon on a permanent basis.

Mendenhall has a unique reputation among college football coaches, though. He is demanding, has extremely high expectations and his NIL system requires players to earn everything they get, so for half a dozen players to follow him — more when you consider the former New Mexico commits who switched to Utah State ahead of the early signing period last winter — is notable.

Why follow Mendenhall to Utah State? What is it about him that appealed so much?

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For Avinger, who had previously transferred from San Diego State to New Mexico, the allure was simple.

“You’re not going to get a better leader, just on and off the field, like just a man in general (than Mendenhall),” Avinger said. “The way he kind of gives us tips on life and gives us tips on the football field and the culture that he has like within his coaching staff and that he instills in us on the team, you’re not going to find this in college football.

“I would say there’s no better leader out there, and that’s why I truly came over here and followed him.”

It is fairly safe to say that all of the New Mexico transfers to Utah State view Mendenhall in a similar light, along with his coaching staff, most of whom were also with him at New Mexico last season.

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Jacobs, Mendenhall explained last month, is at the top of the pecking order on the team because of his buy-in.

“Our developmental system is tiered by colors, much like the martial arts,” Mendenhall explained. “And Javen is qualified for level black, which is the highest level. Most players that reach that level go on to the NFL (because of) their work ethic, their commitment, their skill set, but also their leadership.”

For Mendenhall, the benefits of adding players who’ve previously played for him are tangible, particularly this season when he is trying to turn around a mediocre USU program in a hurry by adding 70 new players to the roster.

For one, the Aggies had glaring holes at the positions now filled by Lobo transfers — at running back with Jacobs and in the secondary with Arnold, Avinger, Mayes and Taylor. Those holes have now been filled by players who Mendenhall and his staff know and know well.

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Beyond that though, having players who’ve previously played for him, who know how things work and what things are supposed to look like in a Mendenhall-led program gives other players something to aspire to, a roadmap to work with. In theory, that helps encourage faster, more effective progress for the program as a whole.

“Let’s say they’re the highest performers currently, and our team is watching them,” Mendenhall said. “(They’ll think) ‘Oh, that’s what that’s supposed to look like.’ It’s just day after day after day, there’s momentum generated because they — the players — can see what it looks like. ‘It looks like that guy.’”

Being able to see what it looks like when players buy in to his approach helps everything move faster, which is vital since Utah State replaced two thirds of its roster.

“There’s a credibility that’s generated through the models that they see,” Mendenhall said. “That is really important for speed, because in today’s world with that many roster changes, the expectation is still to have success.

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“It (player models) accelerates the speed, but if anything else it creates alignment and a motive to where they’re not wondering if it’s going to work. They’re all seeing that this works, not only in the individual and who they’re becoming, but quite frankly usually the number of wins at an institution.”

The post 1 move Utah Mammoth should’ve made in 2025 NHL offseason appeared first on ClutchPoints.

The Utah Mammoth had an active offseason. Firstly, they have a name now, dumping Utah Hockey Club in favor of the new moniker. And then, they made a trade for former Sabres forward JJ Peterka and signed him to an extension. But the Mammoth should have done more to improve their offense through a trade for either Bryan Rust or Rickard Rakell from the Pittsburgh Penguins.

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The Mammoth did more than just the Peterka trade this offseason. They had already extended Sean Durzi, Olli Matta, and Karel Vajelmka at the trade deadline. In the summer, they signed Nate Schmidt and Vitek Vanecek from the Florida Panthers to bring veteran experience to the locker room. They were also interested in Brad Marchand, but he remained with the Panthers.

The Mammoth have a lot of left-handed forwards, including Peterka. While balance is not the most important thing for forward units, they should be looking to add a right-handed winger. Both Rust and Rakell are right-handed and have the veteran experience that Utah is looking for.

The Penguins are headed for a deep rebuild as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin’s careers wind down. They should be traded before the trade deadline so Pittsburgh gets more ping pong balls in the Gavin McKenna sweepstakes. The Mammoth would also be sending over picks and prospects to help the Penguins rebuild their roster.

The Mammoth have 20 total picks between the 2026 and 2027 drafts. That alone makes them a great candidate to make a trade. In the Peterka deal, they sent defenseman Michael Kesselring and forward Josh Doan to the Sabres. That means they still have the picks and prospects to deal. But if the Penguins want NHL-ready players, Utah may not be the right trade partner.

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The Mammoth have a young, dynamic forward unit

When they left Arizona, the Coyotes were finally building for the future. Dylan Guenther, Logan Cooley, and Clayton Keller all made their debuts with the Coyotes. Keller was given an extension to stay in Arizona, but the team didn’t stay there and moved before last season.

The Mammoth have made big trades in both of their offseasons so far. They picked up Mikhail Sergachev from the Tampa Bay Lightning to bolster their blue line before ever playing a game. John Marino also came in during the offseason, but Sergachev was the headliner. When they were retooling the blue line, they made two deals. But when the forward unit was under construction, it was just one deal.

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The Mammoth could have traded for either Rust or Rakell and still been under the salary cap ceiling of $92.5 million. They would not have been missing much from their draft pick surplus, and added more scoring. That is exactly what they need to compete in a deep Western Conference.

Rakell is under contract for three more seasons at $5 million per year. He scored a career-high 35 goals and chased it with a career-high 35 assists for last year’s dreadful Penguins team. After a run with the Anaheim Ducks, he was traded to the Penguins at the 2022 trade deadline. His 10-team no-trade list could make the deal complicated.

Rust is due $5.125 million for three seasons, but has no trade protection. He was a key piece to two Stanley Cup championships in Pittsburgh and also had a career-high in goals, assists, and points in 2024-25. The Penguins should have been looking to trade both of these players this offseason, as their 2025-26 seasons are unlikely to be as good.

The Mammoth should have made another big trade to improve their forward unit. If they are going to compete, they will need to spend to the cap ceiling.

Three schools – Boise State, Colorado State and Utah State – that are leaving the Mountain West Conference for the Pac-12 are suing the Mountain West, saying the league improperly withheld tens of millions of dollars owed to them after they announced their departure plans.

The amended complaint, filed in the District Court of Denver, Colorado, and obtained by USA TODAY Sports, also asserts that the Mountain West misled them about adding Grand Canyon University as a league member.

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Grand Canyon University is set to join the Mountain West on July 1, 2026, the same day the three plaintiffs’ schools are to join the Pac-12.

The lawsuit also added conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez as a defendant, and alleges that Nevarez has “taken extraordinary, retaliatory and unauthorized actions in violation of Plaintiffs’ membership rights and Colorado law,” and “intentionally and fraudulently” caused millions of dollars in harm while “impacting the rights and opportunities of Plaintiffs’ student-athletes for their last year in the Conference” and depriving them of their membership rights.

“For the past several months, Colorado State University, Boise State University and Utah State University worked in good faith to try to resolve this matter. Unfortunately during that same period, actions taken by the Mountain West and Commissioner Nevarez have raised serious concerns regarding their fairness and transparency.

“As set forth in the Second Amended Complaint that was filed today, the Mountain West and Commissioner Nevarez repeatedly misrepresented their intentions regarding the admission of Grand Canyon University for the 2025/26 season and purposefully delayed any formal vote on the issue until after the departing schools delivered their Notices of Resignation from the Conference,” the three schools said in a joint statement.

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The three schools announced last September they will leave the Mountain West to join the Pac-12 on June 30, 2026, at the end of the current Mountain West media rights agreement.

Among the millions of dollars that are allegedly owed are College Football Playoff funds that Boise State earned as a playoff participant last season, as well as money due from the NCAA, including grant-in-aid and other money to support academic programs, and money tied to the well-being of the school’s student athletes.

Also at issue is the Mountain West’s exit fees for leaving for another league. Boise State, Colorado State and Utah State say the exit fee of at least $19 million per school is “unlawful, excessive and punitive.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Boise State, Colorado State Utah State sue Mountain West