The quarterback situation at the University of Utah over the last two years has been unbelievable — and untenable.
Ever since Cam Rising suffered a gruesome knee injury in the 2023 Rose Bowl, Utah hasn’t had consistent play at the most important position on the field, and ahead of the 2025 season, the Utes must make moves to fix it.
We’ve hashed and rehashed everything that happened in the quarterback room last season, but here’s a recap. Rising, rehabbing after tearing his ACL, meniscus, MPFL and MCL, didn’t play a snap in 2023. The expectation, however, was that Rising would play at some point in the season, so Utah didn’t land a transfer portal quarterback.
2023
“We were expecting that we’d be set and I don’t know who we could have attracted knowing that Cam was coming back. ... Who’s going to come sit behind Cam?” Whittingham said in 2023. “If you’re in the portal, you’re in the portal to go play somewhere, not sit again. ... That was not an ideal situation for really any quarterback to come to us this past offseason.”
That left Utah with three viable options — Bryson Barnes, who had won the QB2 job each of the prior two years, Brandon Rose and Nate Johnson.
Rose had the lead on QB2 coming out of spring camp, but was injured in a fall scrimmage, which kept him out for two months. By the time he was healthy, the time missed was deemed by Whittingham as too much of a setback to overcome.
Barnes won the QB2 job in the fall of 2023, and Utah raced out to a 6-1 start, including wins over Florida and USC. Aside from a fantastic game by Barnes in the road win over the Trojans, the Utes were winning in spite of quarterback play, not because of it.
Barnes was benched in Week 2 in favor of Johnson, then Johnson was benched in Week 5 in favor of Barnes. Barnes would finish out the rest of the season — save for a late-November game against Colorado in which he was injured — and after starting 6-1, Utah lost four of its next six to finish 8-5.
Among eligible quarterbacks, Barnes ranked No. 94 in yards per game (142.9) and No. 90 in pass efficiency.
When you consider all of the injuries Utah faced, combined with the middling quarterback play, an 8-5 record turned out to be a pretty solid coaching job from Whittingham.
With everything that’s transpired in 2024, that 2023 season doesn’t look too bad after all.
2024
After starting the 2024 season with a bang — 254 yards and five touchdowns in one half against Southern Utah — Rising’s horrible streak of injury luck continued.
Rising reportedly suffered a dislocated finger and laceration in Week 2 against Baylor, which kept him out until Week 6 against Arizona State.
After Barnes and Johnson both transferred, the backups behind Rising were true freshman Isaac Wilson, sophomore Brandon Rose and Washington and Cal Poly transfer Sam Huard.
Wilson, the former Corner Canyon star, won the QB2 job, and after Rising’s injury against Baylor, was forced into action. He wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but he did enough to keep Utah afloat with wins over Utah State and Oklahoma State.
The true freshman slipped in Utah’s first loss of the season, a 23-10 home defeat against Arizona, as the Utes came away without a touchdown on three straight red-zone trips and only mustered one touchdown.
After a bye week, Rising returned against Arizona State, but suffered a season-ending leg injury in a 27-19 loss.
Since that moment, Utah extended its losing streak to seven — the longest since 1986. It’s been competitive every single game that it’s lost — including two last-second losses to BYU and Iowa State — but offensive inefficiency has been the bane of its existence.
Isaac Wilson’s development
This was not the situation Utah envisioned for Wilson when they signed the Corner Canyon High star. Ideally, Wilson was to sit behind Rising for a year, learning from Utah’s veteran quarterback, before possibly taking the reins in 2025.
Instead, he’s been counted on to lead Utah in a tumultuous time for the program. After the third defeat in a row for the program, a 13-7 loss to TCU, offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig resigned. After Wilson’s third consecutive game in which he was unable to move the ball with the required consistency, he was benched in the third quarter of a 17-14 loss to Houston in favor of Rose, who didn’t fare much better.
Rose made his first-ever start against BYU, and performed well in the first half as Utah jumped out to a 21-10 lead, but suffered a Lisfranc injury near the end of the second quarter. He played through the season-ending injury, but was understandably never the same as Utah failed to score in the second half.
Since then, it’s been Wilson leading the team, but he suffered a lower leg injury of his own in the 31-28 loss to Iowa State. Huard — who hasn’t played a snap for Utah — also suffered a season-ending injury, leaving Utah with fifth-string quarterback Luke Bottari to finish the season.
Injuries, and more injuries
Yet again, Utah has dealt with a laundry list of season-ending injuries — Wilson, Rose, Huard, tight end Brant Kuithe, receiver Money Parks, cornerback Kenan Johnson, running back Anthony Woods and offensive guard Michael Mokofisi.
As Utah looks toward 2025, it can’t have a quarterback situation like the last two years.
“Our main issues this year have been on the offensive side of the ball. There’s no secret about that, and we just got to keep recruiting. That’s No. 1. Keep recruiting players and try to get things solved,” Whittingham said. “We’re just not potent enough on offense. And again, if you look just statistically, as good as we are on D, we’re that far down the ladder on offense in those statistical categories.”
Rising, who will be 26 this May, is still mulling over whether he wants to return to Utah for another season. Due to his season-ending injury, he does have another year of eligibility if he chooses to use it.
Whittingham thinks that Rising will come to a decision within the next 10 days, ahead of the transfer portal opening on Dec. 9.
Quality transfer QB
Utah cannot put all of its eggs in the Rising basket again. If Rising chooses to come back, the Utes must have a better plan than they’ve had during the last two years. That plan should start by bringing in a starter-level transfer quarterback, and that would mean not promising Rising — or Wilson/Rose, if Rising decides to move on — the starting gig and instead having a battle for the starting spot.
It’s not as easy as it sounds. A good FBS starting quarterback in the transfer portal will start at $1 million and go up from there, but it may be a price tag the Utes have to pay.
“We can’t be deterred by a hefty price tag. It’s the most important position by far, hands down, no questions asked. I’ve said that many times. And so you can’t compromise and try to get a bargain and get by with something that you don’t think is elite,” Whittingham said.
If everything from this year stays intact, far from a sure thing with the transfer portal, Utah would have a QB room of Rising, Wilson, Rose, Huard and incoming 2025 three-star Wyatt Becker.
Wilson was placed into a tough situation, no doubt about it. He showed a few flashes of potential at times, but never made a true jump as the season went along. He finished his season with 167.8 passing yards per game (No. 98 in the nation), a 56.4% completion percentage (102), 10 passing touchdowns (103), and 11 interceptions.
His processing never improved to an FBS level throughout the season; he continued to be a second late making decisions, and he was too turnover-prone. That said, Wilson is just a true freshman, and with a year of experience under his belt, certainly is a good candidate to improve ahead of next year.
“He comes in on his own and watches a ton of film so we’re doing everything we can. He’s doing everything he can to continue to develop and see things quicker,” Whittingham said. “And that was another issue in the (Colorado) game particularly early on. It got better as the game wore on, but holding the ball too long and need to go through those reads and spit it out or tuck it and run.”
Rose’s injury will put him out six to eight months, Whittingham said on his ESPN 700 coaches show, causing him to miss the spring and summer. Huard, who has to have surgery himself, apparently never showed enough in practice this season to challenge for QB2 before his injury.
Whether Rising returns or not, it seems like the best course of action ahead of 2025 would be to bring in a true starter-level transfer QB and let the chips fall where they may, whether that’s one of the quarterbacks currently on the roster or a transfer quarterback winning the starting job.
“Well, we got to solve our quarterback problems, I can tell you that. And that has been a difficult thing this year,” Whittingham said. “... Quarterback, as I’ve said over and over, the most important position in football, in team sports, period, and you better be good there if you want to have a chance to win. So we’ve got to evaluate just like I’ve got to evaluate my situation, we’ve got to evaluate the quarterback situation and make sure we have ourselves covered for next year.”
