‘Trying to make a name for myself’: Lander Barton making the big plays for Utah
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The Barton name holds tremendous weight at the University of Utah.
Ute linebacker Lander Barton’s dad, Paul, played football and baseball at Utah, and his mom, Mikki Kane-Barton, played basketball and volleyball and is in the Crimson Club Hall of Fame for both sports.
Lander’s brother Cody Barton plays linebacker for the Washington Commanders, while his other brother Jackson is an offensive lineman for the Arizona Cardinals. His sister, Dani, is Utah volleyball’s all-time leader in career kills.
“He’s a generational kid here in Utah. His whole family played here. He’s got a lot to prove for himself and he’s got a lot to prove building his own legacy, so the expectations are very high for Lander.” — Utah linebackers coach Colton Swan
“He’s a generational kid here in Utah. His whole family played here. He’s got a lot to prove for himself and he’s got a lot to prove building his own legacy, so the expectations are very high for Lander,” linebackers coach Colton Swan said.
But while the family legacy is in the back of Barton’s mind, he is just trying to carve out his own path.
“I mean, it’s there in the back of the mind, but I try to not think about it because that’s some pressure to think about, knowing my two older brothers,” Barton said. “So I just kind of do me, just like anyone else here, just trying to make a name for myself, but yeah, it’s there in the back of the mind a little bit.”
Growing up in a football family, Barton has had all kinds of wisdom passed down to him through the years from Cody and Jackson. Even though Jackson’s an offensive lineman, he can share tidbits about pass rushing, like what things work best against offensive linemen in college football and the NFL.
And the advice from Cody, who just totaled 10 tackles and a fumble recovery against the Denver Broncos on Sunday, is gold.
From different ways to take on blocks, to things he picked up during his four years at Utah and five seasons in the NFL, Cody is always willing to lend advice.
“He always has things for me that he sees that I could fix and work on in the next week, so I mean, it’s been awesome having them in my family,” Lander said.
Barton’s freshman year in 2022 was good enough to earn him the Pac-12 Defensive Freshman of the Year Award. He had just three starts, but played in all 14 games, racking up 46 tackles, eight tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks, along with a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
He got better as the season progressed, culminating in three tackles for loss and a sack in Utah’s Rose Bowl loss to Penn State in January.
After putting on about 12 pounds this offseason, he was the talk of Utah’s fall camp.
“Lander’s done a really good job. He’s improved all phases of his training from a speed level to strength level,” Swan said, adding that Barton also spends a lot of time in the film room.
Most players talk about a bump from freshman year to sophomore year, and it makes sense. With a year of experience in the program and playing at college speed, plus coaching from the staff, most players see improvement year to year.
Barton said that he feels like a completely different player now compared to last season.
“The speed of the game and the reads kind of started to slow down for me, which is a big help being out there because there’s a lot of reads that you got to make at linebacker, so being able to slow that down, it’s been good,” Barton said.
In the past two games against Baylor and Weber State, Barton has been able to show off his progress.
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He felt in the past that he’s been a step away or a second short of making the big play, but this season, he’s made two so far.
Against Baylor in a tie game with two minutes left, he pressured quarterback Sawyer Robertson, hitting him as he threw the ball.
The ball went right to safety Cole Bishop, who anticipated the route and picked it off, setting Utah up deep in Baylor territory, where the Utes scored the game-winning touchdown.
“We ran a new pressure ... everyone was doing their jobs. I just saw a hole open up and just shot it. ... Cole made a great play. He came off his man, was reading the quarterback, so props to him just making a play,” Barton said.
Bishop credited Barton for getting to the quarterback and hitting him as he threw, making the ball come to him.
Last Saturday against Weber State, Barton extended Utah’s pick-six streak to a record-tying 20 seasons.
In the third quarter, Barton read a Weber State route perfectly, stepped in front of it, picked the ball off and took his first career interception 23 yards to pay dirt, putting Utah up 31-7 in the third quarter.
“We were running a simple man pressure right there, but we knew Weber State is a big RPO team. ... I’m just the edge player and we knew to that single side X (receiver), they’re going to throw a slant, a glance route or a stick,” Barton said.
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“So I’m just trying to read that quarterback, see what he’s doing. If he’s going to keep it and run, crash on it. If he’s going to sit there and try to throw, kind of just sit in that window and I mean he just threw it and I just made a play.”
Those game-changing kind of plays are exactly what Barton wanted to see from himself as he entered his sophomore year.
Barton made the pick-six look easy, and Utah coach Kyle Whittingham noted on his coaches show on ESPN 700 that what the “great athletes do, is they make those tough plays look easy.”
Whittingham said on the coaches show that Barton’s mom is the family’s No. 1 athlete, but he believes that Lander is No. 2.
In fact, Whittingham believes in Barton’s athleticism so much, that there may be some two-way potential at some point down the road.
“He showed off some of his speed and I’m convinced if he made a wholesale commitment to tight end, he would be the best tight end in the Pac-12,” Whittingham said on the coaches show.
“I’m convinced of that, but we’re thrilled to have him at linebacker and maybe down the road there may be some two-way action for him, but right now he is doing a great job at linebacker.”
Even after a good freshman season, it was no guarantee that Barton was going to be a starter in a packed linebacker room. Utah often has two linebackers on the field, with three starting-caliber linebackers in Barton, Karene Reid and Stanford transfer Levani Damuni.
“We got a great relationship ... I mean, everyone’s close in there. We’re all friends. We all hang out. We go eat together, so it’s been fun being on the field with those guys every day and it makes it easy,” Barton said.
Utes on the air
No. 11 Utah (3-0)
vs. No. 22 UCLA (3-0)
Saturday, 1:30 p.m. MDT
Rice-Eccles Stadium
TV: Fox
Radio: ESPN 700/92.1 FM
“If you like the guys you work with, it makes work easy, it makes it fun, so it’s been awesome.”
With his performance in fall camp, Barton earned the starting spot, and has started in all three of Utah’s games so far.
Through three contests, he has 13 tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss, a pass breakup and an interception.
“He’s big, he’s physical, he’s tough, smart,” Whittingham said.
Barton has had a good start to the year, and hopes to continue making those big plays for Utah’s defense.
“I’m just trying to improve on just making those plays,” Barton said. “I’ve been a step away or a second short of making some big plays, so I just want to be a little bit faster and be able to finish out closing out those big plays.”
