Why the Runnin’ Utes are leaving the door open for a Utah football player

The prized recruit watched from the sideline as the University of Utah football team practiced one day during fall camp in 2019.

He stood 6-8, a top-100 prospect from a local high school, and he and his father had just met with the team’s head coach.

There was just one problem, as Utes tight end coach Freddie Whittingham was concerned.

Caleb Lohner was playing the wrong sport.

“Hey, man, that’s a tight end right there, ” Whittingham told Lohner and his father Matt as they watched practice. “You should be playing tight end.”

At the time, the remark was a casual quip. Whittingham had known Lohner’s father, Matt, since the 1970s when Whittingham lived alongside the Lohner family in the Oak Hills neighborhood in Provo.

And Lohner’s focus was on basketball; he hadn’t even played football in high school.

Still, Whittingham’s comment stuck at the back of Lohner’s mind.

Through two seasons at BYU and a transfer to Baylor, Lohner constantly pondered the “what if” of playing football. The curiosity grew so much that he phoned Whittingham last offseason before he ultimately decided to play another basketball season with the Bears.

Lohner finally joined the Utes this offseason to pursue his new dream, despite not playing a single down since eighth grade. Whittingham welcomed him with open arms and Lohner has since landed the backup tight end job on the roster with only a few weeks of practice and one game under his belt.

“I kind of weighed the odds, and I think if I didn’t choose playing football, I would have always looked back and said, ‘What if?’” Lohner told The Salt Lake Tribune. “But, overall I’ve been loving every second of it.”

Now, as No. 11 Utah (1-0) looks to face Baylor (1-0) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Salt Lake City, Lohner will face his former program on the field instead of the hardwood.

“We hope he gets four touchdowns against Baylor, but the Bears win the game,” Baylor basketball coach Scott Drew told The Salt Lake Tribune.

Those closest to Lohner believe his switch from the hardwood to the gridiron isn’t that far-fetched. Drew, who led the Bears to the 2020 national championship, thinks his skills will translate.

“So many people told him he’d be an unbelievable football player just because of his athleticism, toughness, and height,” Lohner’s former basketball coach said. “I think that intrigue, at the end of the day, was something that really excited him.”

Drew believes Lohner’s versatility makes him capable of just about anything.

During his time in Waco, Texas, Lohner took on a multitude of tasks outside of basketball. One time he bought an old van off eBay and fixed it up using YouTube tutorials.

“He’s one of those guys that’s like MacGyver,” Drew said, referencing the crafty ’80s television character. “Sometimes he does these things, and I’m like, ‘How do you know how to do that?’ It’s crazy how he keeps busy nonstop, but it’s always productive.”

While certainly an unorthodox move, Lohner isn’t the first basketball player to try out football. Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez played both basketball and football at Cal before joining the NFL. Former All-Pro tight ends Antonio Gates and Jimmy Graham enjoyed illustrious basketball careers before committing to football.

Graham, like Lohner, played four years of DI basketball before earning a place on a college football team.

Lohner’s made the leap. Now, it’s about finding a way to succeed.

“I would not bet against him,” Drew said.

How Lohner can find success in football

John Madsen sat inside the athletic offices of Snow College in Ephraim, hoping to convince Jon Judkins, the Badgers men’s basketball coach, to let him walk onto the team in 2001.

“John, I don’t know if you can play or if you can’t play,” Madsen remembers Judkins telling him. “I’m just going to be really honest with you here, there’s no room on the roster, so if you want to play college basketball — I’m not doubting that you can — but you gotta do it somewhere else because my roster is full.”

Madsen was quickly consumed by disappointment because he put all his faith in the small community college. He played basketball throughout his tenure at Hunter High School and earned an academic scholarship, hoping to walk onto the basketball team with ease.

Instead, the 6-foot-5 forward had to weigh his options elsewhere. That’s when football became a choice, despite not playing a single down of high school football.

“I put all my eggs into this Snow College basket,” Madsen told The Tribune. “It was either take a semester off and then register and try to go walk on somewhere else or my immediate thought — from who knows where — was, ‘Maybe I should try out for the football team.’”

Within a few days, Madsen sent his basketball highlight package to the head coach of the football team before landing on the roster. Unlike Lohner, Madsen started off as a wide receiver, transferred to Utah and ultimately landed in the NFL as a tight end.

Despite a few differences, Madsen and Lohner share similar paths. They both ended up with the Utes to pursue their dreams of football. And, now — like Madsen once did — Lohner is blending his basketball intangibles with the physicality of football.

That’s how Madsen did it under former Utes head coach Urban Meyer and ended up at the next level.

“Football is a sport that is not as technical as basketball and baseball,” Madsen said. “In my opinion, you can not go without playing three or four years of basketball, and then just think you’re going to play at a high level, dribbling, shooting. All of that stuff is very technical.

“In the very beginning, if you can run faster than people and jump higher than people and catch the ball very, very well, you can learn to run routes, right? So the real thing that is going to determine whether you have a long playing career or not is if you can handle the physicality.”

Lohner has adopted that mentality since joining the Utes this fall. In between media sessions this August, the redshirt senior tight end was one of the last players to leave the field, catching footballs from a jugs machine and working on his blocking mechanics.

Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig says that Lohner was force fed the ball during fall camp and expects to see his role develop throughout the season. It’s been a rollercoaster for 6-foot-8 transfer because he’s absorbed new bits of information from the playbook and technique every single day since joining the Utes.

“He was drinking water through a fire hose there for a bit,” Ludwig said. “It’s gone down to a little bit of a trickle. So he’s doing a good job assimilating all that information, but his growth and development is a big part of our focus.”

Freddie Whittingham has coached talented tight ends like Dalton Kincaid, who is now in his second season with the Buffalo Bills, and senior tight end Brant Kuithe. He’s also been impressed with what he’s seen from Lohner in practice.

“I would say for a guy with that type of background that didn’t play high school football, has not played college football to this point,” Whittingham said. “His growth curve is much, much above where I would expect it to be at this point.”

With one game under his belt, Lohner finished with one catch — a 20-yard touchdown — vs. Southern Utah. But, with his size and athleticism, he was targeted multiple times and he showcased his ability to make an impact.

That’s something he hopes to carry forward for the rest of the season.

“He needs to spend as much time as possible perfecting the technicality of that position,” Madsen said. “The athleticism is going to be enough for him to get a shot right now. It depends on how fast he can build up those technical skills that’s going to take him to the next level.”

‘Welcome him with open arms’

When Utah head coach Craig Smith hired David Evans as an assistant this offseason, he prompted a family reunion.

Evans is first cousins with Lohner’s mother and was his coach at Wasatch Academy for a season. During that year, Lohner lived with Evans, his wife, five kids and other members of the team in a house in Mount Pleasant.

Fast forward several years later, Evans and Lohner are back at the same university, but with different programs. Evans is beginning his journey as a college assistant with the Runnin’ Utes.

With Lohner chasing his football dreams, the pair have called multiple times during the weeks since they both arrived in Salt Lake City.

And, despite football being Lohner’s sole focus, Evans and Smith have left the door open for him to join the Utes during the 2024-25 season. Smith could certainly use the help, especially after an offseason of roster and coaching turnover.

Having the connection with Evans serves as a potential recruiting pitch.

Sophomore guard and Baylor transfer Miro Little is also close friends with Lohner due to their time on the Bears. Redshirt senior guard Hunter Erickson was Lohner’s roommate at BYU, so the pieces are there for him to have a seamless transition onto the team.

He is also on Utah’s online roster for both men’s basketball and football.

“Everything that Lohner does is what Coach Smith loves,” Evans said. “He loves his grit, passion, and playing with toughness. Mental toughness is what kind of describes Lohner.

“He would change a lot of things. We’re going to prepare as if he may not come, but if he does come, we’re going to welcome him with open arms.”

That might be difficult, however. The Utes football and basketball seasons overlap, and — if Lohner would want to make a run at the NFL — he’d likely want to spend the spring preparing for team workouts and a bid at the NFL combine.

Football is also an extremely taxing, physical sport that requires a lot of recovery. Playing both during the fall would be difficult, but Lohner could potentially join Smith and the Utes in the spring.

“He can do anything,” Drew said of Lohner playing both basketball and football. “But, if you’re specializing in a sport, it’s so hard to do. If Utah has the kind of year that I know Lohner wants them to have, he’s not doing anything basketball related until after football is over, and that’s more than half your basketball season.”

For now, Lohner is intently focused on football. He’ll see how the season unfolds with the Utes and will make a decision whenever he’s ready to.

“I wouldn’t say it’s at the back of the mind because at the end of the day, if I do everything I possibly can, I can look myself in the mirror and say, ‘You know what you gave it everything you had,’” Lohner said.

No one knows how Lohner’s football career will play out or if he’ll join the Runnin’ Utes in the heat of Big 12 play.

Only time will tell.

“What’s meant to be will be,” Lohner said. “Not too far ahead. Not too far behind. I’m taking everything one step at a time.”

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