SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Two quarterbacks will share snaps in Utah’s offense for a second straight season.
Devon Dampier and Byrd Ficklin have both returned to the Utes, looking to build on successful debut campaigns. But this is not a typical setup of two quarterbacks battling in camp to earn the right to lead the offense. Dampier will start and Ficklin will serve as his backup.
That doesn’t mean both players won’t see plenty of snaps.
First-year offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven plans to feature both Dampier and Ficklin in the offense, much like his predecessor Jason Beck did in 2025 before departing to Michigan.
“Both of them embrace their role,” Utah coach Morgan Scalley said. “Both of them are very competitive and understand their number can be called at any time. It also allows for us to be a little bit creative and do some things with their skill sets that can cause issues with defenses.”
Defenses struggled to corral Dampier and Ficklin last season. Their explosive running helped Utah put together one of the top offenses in the Big 12.
The Utes led the Big 12 in total offense (482.9 yards per game), rushing offense (266.3 ypg) and scoring offense (41.3 points per game) last season while also ranking in the top four nationally in all three categories. Dampier and Ficklin combined to produce 66% of Utah’s total yardage and 39% of the team’s rushing yardage.
Maintaining or exceeding that level of production will be critical for a Utah team facing uncertainty because of inexperienced offensive and defensive lines in Scalley’s first full season at the helm. McGiven is tailoring his playbook — which resembles, conceptually, the schemes that Beck used with the Utes — to showcase the abilities of both players.
"McGiven’s offense is literally amazing. It can help me become a complete quarterback,” Ficklin said. “He just gives you that freedom to be yourself and play ball.”
Becoming a more complete quarterback is a common goal Dampier and Ficklin share heading into the new season.
Dampier played through a sports hernia for much of last season.
Even while not playing at 100%, he still threw for 2,490 yards and 24 touchdowns while adding 835 yards and 10 scores on the ground. He also proved to be an accurate passer, completing 63.5% of his attempts and throwing just five interceptions. His best performance came in the Las Vegas Bowl, where he threw for 310 yards and two touchdowns in a 44-22 victory over Nebraska.
Now back at full strength, Dampier wants to make strides as a passer and believes what he is learning from McGiven’s offense can unlock his full potential.
“He tells me all the time he wants to dedicate this offense to what he feels I do best,” Dampier said. “I’m happy he respects my talents and what I can do, so we can thrive as an offense.”
Ficklin also wants to progress into being more of a true dual-threat playmaker. He struggled through the air during his first career start against Colorado, completing just 45.5% of his passes. That contrasted sharply with his running production as he churned out 151 yards for his first career 100-yard game.
Ficklin followed with a career-best 166 yards and two touchdowns on only six carries against Baylor three weeks later.
“Last year, I was more of a runner,” Ficklin said. “This year, I want to become more of that complete quarterback."
A beneficial competition has emerged between the two quarterbacks. Even though Dampier is the starter, he credits sharing the quarterback room with Ficklin as an effective catalyst for his own progression as a dual-threat quarterback.
“We just keep elevating each other where, eventually when he takes over, he’s gonna be that guy, and he’s also pushing me to be that guy right now,” Dampier said.
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FILE - Utah quarterback Byrd Ficklin scores against Arizona State during the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (AP Photo/Jeffrey D. Allred,File)
FILE - Utah quarterback Devon Dampier (4) looks to throw the ball during an NCAA college football game against Cal Poly Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (AP Photo/Tyler Tate,File)
PARIS (AP) — Firefighters across Europe struggled against multiple fires Friday as a new wave of record-breaking heat baked a swath of the continent, their task further complicated by exceptionally parched landscapes.
The historic temperatures are linked to human-caused climate change, and are hitting countries more designed for long cold seasons and ill-equipped for this sort of heat, with limited air conditioning.
With France experiencing its driest year ever, a new fire raced through woodlands overnight in the Landes region on the southwest coast. The blaze forced more than 500 people to evacuate their homes in the town of Luglon as hundreds of firefighters deployed to the area, the regional administration said Friday.
It’s one of several fires scorching forests around France this week, including in normally cooler and wetter regions in the north and Brittany. A historic fire devoured forests near Bordeaux last month and pushed a quarter of a million people from their homes.
France also has shut down six nuclear reactors in recent days because of extreme heat and drought — and because a mass of jellyfish washed up outside one power plant on the English Channel coast, utility company EDF said. Large numbers of jellyfish are appearing on many French beaches in connection with unusually warm sea temperatures.
In a statement, the company said the shutdowns had minimal impact on France’s electricity production. It said extreme weather poses no safety risks to the reactors themselves.
In the central English town of Stourbridge, where a huge blaze started Thursday, TV footage showed the fires consuming houses, with many left without roofs as flames burned inside the charred walls. About 20 to 30 homes were completely destroyed, Stourbridge lawmaker Cat Eccles told the BBC.
A woman who was evacuated from her home in Stourbridge said police knocked on her door and urged her to leave immediately.
“They thought the fire was changing directions, and they didn’t know which direction it was going in,” Jane Baxter told BBC Radio. “So, it was literally ‘grab what you need and get out.’”
Simon Tuhill, chief fire officer of West Midlands Fire Service, said an investigation will be launched but the fire was believed to have started in the grassland before spreading to homes nearby.
The Met Office, the official weather agency, said 38.1C (100.6 F) was recorded in west London on Thursday, marking the hottest day of the year. While temperatures cooled slightly on Friday, many parts of the country have seen little to no rain for weeks. This July has been the driest in England and Wales since records began in 1836.
Spanish authorities on Thursday night transferred the remains of three 11th Century kings from a monastery in the northeastern Aragón region near an active wildfire.
The remains were taken to a museum about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the 10th-century San Juan de la Peña monastery, which remained unharmed Friday, according to regional authorities.
Paintings, liturgical objects and the clothes of a notable 18th-century Spanish count were among the other items removed from the monastery.
The wildfire was not yet contained midday Friday with some 800 residents evacuated. Temperatures were expected to cool slightly Saturday.
A separate, much larger wildfire in southern Spain has burned more than 300 square kilometers (120 square miles) in the province of Huelva, also forcing evacuations.
All 1,800 residents of the village of Gey in western Germany were evacuated after a wildfire with shifting winds in the nearby Hürtgen forest threatened to reach their homes. Nearly 300 hectares (1.16 square miles) of forest were ablaze on Friday morning, local authorities said.
Unexploded ordnance from World War II in the forest hampered firefighting efforts, German news agency dpa reported.
The fire advanced to within 300 meters (1,000 feet) of Gey, which sits on the edge of the forest near the Belgian border. The cause of the blaze remains unknown.
Germany has set a new record for heat-related deaths so far this year, surpassing the 2018 level for the entire year, the Robert Koch Institute said Thursday. An estimated 12,500 people died from heat-related causes between Jan. 1 and Aug. 2.
In Croatia, one person was killed and 14 people were hospitalized, of whom seven remained in life-threatening condition early Friday, from a fire that raged overnight by the coastal town of Omis and forced more than 1,000 people to evacuate their homes. The person's body was found as police combed through the burned-out area.
The fire erupted late Thursday in an Omis suburb and quickly spread because of strong wind. The regional maritime authorities said 194 people, including children, were plucked from the sea and from various boats as they were trying to flee the fire.
Firefighters put out the blaze by Friday morning as other crews in planes headed further south toward the Peljesac peninsula where another wildfire broke out overnight.
Albania has been battling dozens of wildfires in recent weeks, with 11 active fires reported across the country Friday.
The largest fire is in the Gure-Lure area, where the perimeter near residential homes has been brought under control.
Three people have been prosecuted over that fire, which engulfed Lura National Park. They are suspected of failing to take the necessary measures to protect and safeguard the territory under their responsibility from fire, authorities said.
Meanwhile, in northern Greece, more than 300 vacationers and residents were evacuated by sea Thursday after a wildfire swept through a pine forest and threatened seaside homes, authorities said.
Belgium was expecting to hit its highest temperature of the summer on Friday, climbing to 37 C (98.6 F) in the capital, Brussels.
The mercury was also set to hit 37 C (98.6 F) in the neighboring Netherlands. The country is suffering from severe drought, with water shortages in some areas, but Dutch authorities have held off declaring a water crisis as rain is expected in the coming days.
Hui reported from London. Stefanie Dazio in Berlin; Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Poland; Zana Cimili in Pristina, Kosovo; Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia; Lorne Cook in Brussels; and Suman Naishadham in Madrid contributed to this report.
Smoke from a forest fire rises above the Hürtgenwald, in Düren, Germany, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (Sascha Thelen/dpa via AP)
A view of a beach bar in the aftermath of a wildfire on the Adriatic coast near Omis, southern Croatia, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Josko Ponos)
Thick smoke drifts over the Gey district from a forest fire in Hürtgenwald, Germany, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (Federico Gambarini/dpa via AP)
Residents and tourists evacuated from a wildfire gather inside a sports hall in Omis, southern Croatia early Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Jakov Prkic)
A general view of a wildfire near Omis, southern Croatia early Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Jakov Prkic)
A pharmacy sign displays a temperature of 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in Bordeaux, France, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, as a heatwave affects much of the country. (AP Photo/Caroline Blumberg)
A woman splashes water on her face at a public fountain on a hot day in Bordeaux, France, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, as a heatwave affects much of the country. (AP Photo/Caroline Blumberg)
A safety signage to avoid fires is seen at Baitings reservoir near Sowerby Bridge as water levels drop throught the country, in Sowerby Bridge, England, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
A person holds an umbrella and walks through dry grass at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
