The nearly unanimous Big 12 favorite — the University of Utah Utes — has much to prove in the coming weeks. Can the true freshman deliver?
The Utes came into the 2024 season looking to build around the seventh-year starting quarterback Cam Rising who missed the entirety of the 2023 season due to injury. Rising played all but one drive in the first half of a season-opening blowout of the National Collegiate Athletics Association Division I Football Championship Subdivision team, against Southern Utah University Thunderbirds.
True freshman Isaac Wilson took over with less than one minute to go in the half, in which he was sequentially sacked and intercepted over a three-play span.
Wilson would finish the game throwing for 74 yards and a touchdown, finishing off a 49-0 shutout. Rising would then start the following game at Rice Eccles Stadium before leaving the game with a hand injury, leaving the offense once again in the hands of Isaac Wilson. Rising has yet to return to the field after back-to-back weeks of being a game-time decision scratch.
Wilson led the Utes into matchups against Utah State University and Oklahoma State University, getting the job done by raising Utah to the Associated Press rankings at No. 10 before a late-night matchup with the University of Arizona. Arizona would come with a vengeance to Salt Lake City, taking the Utes down with a final score of 23-10. This loss sent the Utes down to No. 16 in the latest AP poll.
While the Utes have had Wilson step into the spotlight, his youth as a first-year starter has shown through. Looking forward to the schedule, the Utes head into a bye week with a favorable three-game stretch to follow.
Currently, Utah is 4-1 overall and 1-1 in Big 12 play, with this being their first season out of the Pacific-12 Conference. If the Utes can get healthy and return their key positional players over the bye week, they look to be in a position to attain a 7-1 record before their game against Brigham Young University.
The true question lies in the final four games, where they play two currently ranked opponents, BYU and Iowa State University. They also are slated to play the University of Colorado, which is heating up rapidly. When it comes to these games, the Utah defense is going to have to show out under the long tenure of head coach Kyle Whittingham.
With a Rising-led team, I see the Utes dropping two of these games and finishing with a record of 9-3 before a bowl game or Big 12 championship appearance. The most likely losses of these four games as of today are looking to be the No. 14, BYU Cougars, and the current No. 11, Iowa State Cyclones.
