Utah has its new quarterback.

New Mexico quarterback Devon Dampier is following his offense coordinator, Jason Beck, to Salt Lake City.

Dampier, a sophomore, was the catalyst for the Lobos’ high-powered offense, which generated 484.2 yards per game (fourth-best in the country) and scored 33.5 points per game (No. 27 in the country).

In his first season as a full-time starter, Dampier was one of the most productive quarterbacks in college football, totaling 3,934 yards of offense in 2024 — 2,768 passing and 1,166 rushing.

Against Power Four (and former Power Five) competition this season — Arizona, Auburn and Washington State — Dampier threw for a combined 725 yards with five touchdowns and four interceptions. He added 354 yards and five touchdowns on the ground.

New Mexico’s offense was the reason why the Lobos finished the year with a 5-6 record, their best mark since 2016, despite a defense that allowed 38 points and 492.1 yards per game, and Beck and Dampier will try and replicate that production at Utah.

Beck’s spread offense makes heavy use of the run-pass option and is at its best with a quarterback that can run, and Dampier fits the bill. He executed Beck’s offense at a very high level this season and was durable despite running the ball 155 times — playing in every single game this season.

Under Beck, Utah will look to run first, with the quarterback run being a huge factor. In 2024, New Mexico had the fifth-best rushing offense in the nation (253.6 yards per game), with Dampier leading the way with 1,166 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns. Running back Eli Sanders wasn’t far behind with 1,063 rushing yards and nine scores.

Dampier is a true dual-threat quarterback and is at his best when he’s running the ball. He possesses top-end speed, can make defenders miss (he forced 51 missed tackles this season, according to Pro Football Focus), and is explosive when the ball is in his hands. While there were a lot of designed quarterback runs called by Beck for Dampier, he’s also adept at both reading the defense and knowing when to run the ball on the RPO and at scrambling when there’s no receivers open.

“We don’t win without him,” New Mexico coach Bronco Mendenhall — now at Utah State — said about Dampier after a 38-35 win over No. 19 Washington State.

“And when your quarterback could run the ball like that, that tough and that physical, with the deception also of having Eli Sanders and NaQuari (Rogers) running the ball, as well. Gosh, well, that’s what winning and really good football teams do, right? They run when they need to, and you stop the run when you have to.”

Utah has never had a 1,000-yard rusher at the quarterback position. While other quarterbacks at Utah have shown the ability to run the ball in the past, Dampier does it at a level that hasn’t been seen at the university since Alex Smith ran Urban Meyer’s spread offense in 2004.

Dampier is a fantastic runner, but that’s only half of the equation that makes up a dual-threat quarterback. This season, Dampier was one of the least accurate passers in the FBS, completing just 57.9% of his passes, and had a 1:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio (12 touchdowns, 12 interceptions).

To continue the success he enjoyed in the Mountain West Conference at the Power Four level, Dampier must improve his accuracy this offseason. With a starting season under his belt and another offseason working with Beck, he should progress in that aspect ahead of a crucial 2025 season for Utah.

Dampier’s 2,768 passing yards ranked No. 34 among FBS quarterbacks this season and he showed that he can make plays through the air. With his scrambling ability, he has the ability to buy time for himself and was the least-sacked quarterback in all of college football. He had two 300-plus-yard passing games and nearly another against Auburn, where he racked up 291 passing yards.

As Utah begins to install a new offense for the first time since 2019, when offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig was hired for his second stint at the university, having a quarterback that is already well-versed in Beck’s system is extraordinarily important and will make the transition easier for the offense.

Dampier should have a clear path to start right away at Utah after every quarterback that played this season, except Cam Rising, entered the transfer portal this offseason. Rising has not made an official decision, but a report from 247Sports national reporter Matt Zenitz says that the current expectation is that the 25-year-old quarterback will not be on Utah’s roster next season.

Since the regular season ended, Isaac Wilson and Brandon Rose both announced their intentions to enter the transfer portal, and Luke Bottari is out of eligibility. If Rising does indeed decide to move on, the only quarterbacks — aside from Dampier — on Utah’s roster are incoming three-star freshmen Wyatt Becker and Jamarian Ficklin.

The Utes will likely try to get another quarterback from the transfer portal to shore up the position ahead of the 2025 season.

Though it was true for a number of years, nobody can accuse the Minnesota Wild of playing “boring” hockey any longer. They’ve shown that time and time again this year, and their visit to Utah on Tuesday was no different. That’s probably why ESPN chose it as one of their nationally broadcast games.

It was a back-and-forth game, as one team would take the lead and the other would score a couple quick ones to leapfrog ahead. It all culminated in a tied game after regulation and went all the way to a shootout, where Matt Boldy was the eventual hero, scoring the lone shootout goal of the game to launch the Wild into first place in the NHL.

Utah gained a single point, putting it above .500 once again.

I’ll give my opinion on shootouts later in the article, but for now let’s just say the chairs at the Delta Center didn’t get much use during the shootout.

Utah Hockey for dummies

There has been a lot of conversation in hockey circles recently about video review. Some people feel it’s overused, and others feel the league doesn’t do a good enough job at making their determinations.

But nobody could argue the Utah Hockey Club’s overturned goal in the second period Tuesday.

If you’re new to hockey, now’s a good time to learn about the place video review has in the game. The on-ice officials do their best to catch things that would prevent goals from counting — offside and goaltender interference, for example.

But, being human, they make mistakes. When the team getting scored on recognizes something that should have nullified the goal, they can use a coach’s challenge to contest it.

If there is substantial evidence that the goal should have been disallowed, the call is overturned. If it’s too close to call, the call on the ice stands.

That’s not dissimilar to coaches’ challenges in other sports, but hockey has one distinction: If the challenge is unsuccessful, the challenging team is assessed a two-minute penalty for delay of game.

A failed challenge can drastically change the course of a game.

A coach’s challenge played into Utah’s win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday, when a Flyers goal was disallowed for goaltender interference. On Tuesday, it had the opposite effect: Utah lost a goal due to a challenge for offside.

Utah Hockey for casual fans

Much to the dismay of my fellow beat reporters, Utah HC participated for the first time Tuesday in the most exciting thing that can possibly happen in an NHL game: a shootout.

The shootout, which comes if the score is still tied after a five-minute overtime period, is a brilliant display of talent, giving the best goal scorers from each team the chance to shoot solo on the goalie.

They get creative and try all sorts of moves, the only bounds being that the puck must remain in forward motion and you can’t score on rebounds.

Shootouts have produced some of the craftiest goals in hockey history. I, for one, fell in love with players such as Pavel Datsyuk and Patrick Kane through watching their shootout compilations.

Of course, it’s not the greatest display of team play, but in my opinion, neither is 3-on-3 overtime. The only way to get a proper winner is to do it playoff style: 5-on-5 until someone scores.

That’s just not realistic for an 82-game season though, so overtimes and shootouts suffice.

Utah head coach André Tourigny is among those who dislike the event.

“Did you ever meet a coach who liked to to finish on a skill session?” he asked. “I never met that coach. If you met one, introduce him to me.”

Utah Hockey for nerds

I’ve written extensively about how being included or excluded from the 4 Nations Face-Off has boosted players’ performances. That was the case again on Tuesday.

Kevin Stenlund scored in his third consecutive game, Clayton Keller potted two power play goals in the same game for the first time in his career and Juuso Välimäki, who hadn’t scored until Sunday, got his second goal in the last two games.

I asked Keller after the game if those rosters are something that’s affecting those particular players.

“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “That’s a team that everyone wants to be a part of and when you’re not selected, you look yourself in the mirror and you go to work the next day with a little extra jump.”

For the players who didn’t get the nod, one motivating factor is the possibility of being selected as an injury replacement, if necessary. Teams can add players for injury reasons until just before the tournament starts.

In Keller’s case, it also doesn’t hurt that he scored twice against Team USA general manager Bill Guerin’s team Tuesday.

What’s next?

It was just a one-game home stand for Utah HC. They now embark on another two-game road trip.

First up are the Colorado Avalanche. The two teams have played each other once already this season: a 5-1 Avalanche win at the Delta Center. You know Utah will want to get their revenge against the divisional rivals.

The Avalanche have made some roster moves since that game. Most notably, they’ve revamped their goaltending tandem — the part of their game that had struggled the most. They now have Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood between the pipes in hopes that they’ll see a bit more consistency.

Blackwood hasn’t played a game for his new team yet, but Wedgewood has been excellent. Over a three-game span, he has two wins, a .951 save percentage and a 1.44 goals-against average.

In the Avalanche’s 6-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, star forwards Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen each scored five points. Handling those two will be priority number one for Utah on Thursday.

The game starts at 7 p.m. MDT and will be available on Utah HC+ and Utah 16.

SALT LAKE CITY — The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether to rein in a major environmental law in a case involving 88-miles of a proposed railway being developed in eastern Utah.

On Tuesday, the nation’s top court heard arguments in the case brought by the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition in Utah against Eagle County, Colo., and a coalition of environmental groups who challenged the Uinta Basin Railway project.

“This is a very important moment for us for those of us that care about breathing clean air and drinking clean water,” said Deeda Seed of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs in the legal challenge against the railroad project.

The railway would be built in Utah southest of Roosevelt and stretching toward Soldier Summit. It’s designed to connect the Uintah Basin’s oil fields to Gulf Coast states for processing. When completed, the railway is expected to lead to an expansion of eastern Utah’s fossil fuel and energy development economy.

But Eagle County, Colo., and a coalition of environmental groups challenged the project and its impacts, taking the case to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sided with them and ruled that not enough consideration was given by federal agencies to the impacts of communities and the environment down the line. The Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, which represents the Utah counties that want the rail line built, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court who agreed to hear the case.

“What we’re saying is that you need to look at all of the environmental harm and that frankly the harm to the Colorado River corridor needs to be included,” Seed told FOX 13 News in an interview on Tuesday following the arguments. “And the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with us.”

The case appears to be a vehicle for a challenge to the National Environmental Protection Act and how far it can go. Paul Clement, the attorney for the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, urged the Court to set limits.

“It is designed to inform government decision making, not paralyze it,” he told the Court.

The justices peppered him with questions centered around where to draw the line. Justice Sonia Sotomayor bluntly told him: “You want absolute rules that make no sense.”

“With respect, I guess you’ll decide whether they make sense,” Clement replied.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted various federal agencies involved and “so many different environmental checks are in place on land, air, water, pollution.”

“What is NEPA adding to the substantive statutes, and how should that affect how we think about NEPA in terms of what the judicial role is with respect to enforcing NEPA?” he asked.

“As it’s currently applied in the D.C. Circuit and the Ninth Circuit, NEPA is adding a juicy litigation target for project opponents,” Clement answered.

Obviously, attorneys for Eagle County and the environmental groups disagreed.

“The impacts at issue here are reasonably foreseeable consequences of this $2 billion railway project whose entire rationale is to transport crude oil,” said their attorney, William Jay, who urged the Court to consider the broader impacts beyond an 88-mile rail line project, including oil spills and wildfires.

Utah’s Republican political leaders and the Ute Tribe are supporting the Uinta Basin Railway. The tribe has accused “Colorado elites” of threatening its economy and safety with the legal challenge.

Governor Spencer Cox “fully supports the construction of the Uinta Basin Railway, a critical infrastructure project that will help restore America’s energy independence while delivering significant economic benefits to rural Utah. Requiring agencies to engage in speculative analysis of distant downstream impacts, as the D.C. Circuit Court has done, sets a dangerous precedent that jeopardizes energy-related projects nationwide,” his office said in a statement to FOX 13 News on Tuesday.

Utah has pushed for expansion of energy development statewide, including more oil and gas production.

“We’ll always fight for energy independence and stand up for rural jobs. We hope the Court makes the right decision,” House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said in a statement to FOX 13 News.

Seed said she was worried about the impact of the Court’s decision on NEPA as well as the incoming Trump administration’s push for deregulation on projects that carry environmental sensitivities.

“We’re worried because the National Environmental Policy Act is a bedrock environmental law that protects the public interest against a rampaging industry that wants to build whatever it wants wherever it wants without consequence,” she said.

The justices are expected to issue a ruling in the case next year.

This article is published through the Colorado River Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative supported by the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air at Utah State University. See all of our stories about how Utahns are impacted by the Colorado River at greatsaltlakenews.org/coloradoriver