Born into a baseball family, Utah has been around baseball his entire life. His dad, Billy Jones, was one of the top assistant coaches in all of baseball for many years. He coached at power schools like Oregon State, Arizona State, North Carolina State and Oklahoma State. His brother, Ryder Jones, was a second round draft pick and has played in the big leagues with the San Francisco Giants.

Utah played baseball at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for two years (2016-2017) before transferring to Division II powerhouse, North Greenville University (2018-2019). Utah hit .403 his senior season at North Greenville, earning Conference Player of the Year, Male-Athlete of the Year, and becoming a First Team All-American. He would go on to be drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 29th round of the 2019 MLB draft. During his one year of professional baseball, Utah would make it all the way up to Double-A before being released during the offseason due to COVID. Utah returned to North Greenville to finish his degree and became a Student-Assistant coach for the baseball team, primarily working with hitters and infielders. In his first season as a coach, the team earned the title of Conference Champions and Regional Champions before losing in the Super Regional.