The Position Group That Used to Be Automatic
For most of the last decade, linebacker was the position at Utah you never had to think about. Devin Lloyd left and Karene Reid showed up. Reid left and Lander Barton was already there. The pipeline ran on autopilot, and every August the conversation moved somewhere else because the second level was handled.
That is not the case in 2026.
Lander Barton is gone to the NFL after a career that produced 207 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, eight sacks, five interceptions and two pick sixes across 46 games. Levani Damuni is gone too, and his final season was quietly one of the more useful role player years on the roster. Put their 2025 production side by side and you get 100 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks walking out of the building at the same time.
This is the second straight article in this series about a Utah defensive room that got hollowed out. The difference is that the defensive line answered with volume, five or six bodies rotating to replace what left. The linebackers answered with one guy and a checkbook.
Utah Paid Johnathan Hall to Finish What He Started
On January 8, Johnathan Hall announced he was coming back for his senior season, and the reporting that followed said his new deal made him one of the highest paid linebackers in college football. His post was six words that tell you everything about why Morgan Scalley wanted him back: "Houston kid who took a chance on Utah. Finishing what I started."
Hall earned it. He led the team with 67 tackles in 2025, added six tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, an interception and four pass breakups, and picked up All Big 12 honorable mention. He played all 13 games. He is also a converted safety, which is the part that matters most for what Colton Swan wants to do on defense. Hall moved to linebacker before the 2024 season and kept the coverage instincts, which is why he shows up in blitz packages, in space against running backs, and matched on tight ends without the defense having to substitute.
That versatility is the whole plan. Utah is projected to line Hall up at rover, the hybrid spot that lets a defensive coordinator play nickel personnel without losing anything against the run. When your best linebacker can cover, you can leave your base defense on the field against spread teams. When he cannot, you are subbing constantly and telling the offense what you are in.
Here is the honest concern. Hall has never been the guy. He was the productive complement next to Barton, a four year starter and NFL draft pick who commanded the attention. Being the leading tackler on a defense with Barton on it is a different job than being the signal caller, the veteran voice and the every down answer with nobody else in the room who has started a full season. Great players make that jump every year. Plenty of good ones do not.
Utah's 2026 win total sits at 8.5, and a big chunk of whether that number holds runs through whether this room holds up. Worth a look if you are building a Big 12 board over at Underdog.
Trey Reynolds Is the Starter Nobody Is Talking About
The projected MAC linebacker next to Hall is Trey Reynolds, and he is the most underdiscussed returning starter on this defense. Reynolds put up 28 tackles, 1.5 sacks and two interceptions in four starts last season. Two picks in four starts is not noise. That is a linebacker who reads route concepts and gets his hands on the football, and doing it in limited snaps usually means the rate holds up when the snaps expand.
Reynolds profiles as the downhill thumper of the pair, the one who fills the run fit and lets Hall play free. If Utah is going to be the top four pass defense we predicted in the cornerback piece, it starts with a second level that does not get exposed in the middle of the field. Reynolds has already shown he can take the ball away there.
Cyrus Polu Is the Swing Factor
We put Cyrus Polu on the Breakout Watch list back on August 9 for a reason. He played 96 snaps as a freshman, which is barely a sample, and he generated more spring buzz than anyone else on the defense. He is physical, he is instinctive, and coaches have been talking about him since March.
The reason Polu matters more than a normal third linebacker is what he unlocks. If he is genuinely ready, Utah can play three linebackers and stay big against the Big 12 run games without giving up coverage. If he is not, this defense is two injuries from a very uncomfortable Saturday. There is no scenario where Polu is irrelevant to how good this defense is.
Behind him it gets thin and interesting at the same time. Tayson Reid brings the same physical run fit profile the staff loves. Elijah Elliss adds athletic depth and a familiar last name around this program. Brock Fonoimoana arrived as a high profile transfer addition. Freshmen LaGary Mitchell and Preston Pitts are development pieces. The projected depth also pulls in cross trained bodies like Kana'i Lopes, Mateaki Helu and Davis Andrews, which is either smart positional flexibility or a sign the room is short, depending on how the next two weeks go.
The Bold Prediction
Hall leads the team in tackles again and makes first team All Big 12, going from good player to the name opposing offensive coordinators game plan around. Polu passes Reynolds on the snap count chart by the Arkansas game on September 12 and finishes as Utah's most improved defender. And the room that looked like the biggest question mark on this defense in August is a non issue by November, because the one thing Utah has never failed to do is find the next linebacker.
That last part is a lot of faith. It is also a decade of evidence.
Next up in the series: safeties.
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