Utah Football Needs More Out Of The Passing Attack
Sep 10, 2024, 10:14 AM | Updated: 3:31 pm
SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Football went into last Saturday’s contest against Baylor, looking to flex some muscle. It was an opportunity for the program to showcase their star quarterback and an offense tailored to him.
Through the first quarter of action, it looked like Utah was well on its way to doing just that. The Utes had scored two touchdowns in the first seven minutes of the game, both of which came by way of Cam Rising’s throwing hand.
“As far as an update, again, reminder we don’t give any injury updates unless they’re season-ending, and so we won’t say who’s going to play quarterback, even when we know; it’s just not how we do it. So we’ll see what happens. But other than Cam going out, we seemed to stay fairly healthy in that game, and looking forward to going up to Logan.” – Kyle Whittingham on Cam Rising, team health
Utah Passing Attack With And Without Cam Rising
Utah added another touchdown after a blocked field goal attempt and 77-yard return by Tao Johnson. The Utes were up 23-0 and were driving late in the half.
And then the unthinkable happened when Rising escaped the pocket and was pursued to the sideline. He was shoved into water coolers- which didn’t draw a penalty, instead, it caused injury to Rising’s throwing hand, which completely altered the game in every conceivable way.
Facing our brothers up North this week😤
🏟️: Maverick Stadium
⏰: SAT 9.14 | 2:30PM MT
📺: CBS Sports Network
📻: ESPN 700 AM / 92.1 FM#GoUtes pic.twitter.com/v0HxfDJ7Fg— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) September 9, 2024
Even Before Cam Rising’s injury, offensive efficiency dipped
Despite zero concern from Whittingham over the passing game when Rising is on the field, there should be at least some.
Rising’s day ended after seven possessions. They scored on three of those seven possessions- two touchdowns and a field goal. The Utes punted three times and a missed 45-yard field goal late in the half. He completed 8-of-14 passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns in 28 minutes of action.
The offense enjoyed a 52.6% success rate and generated 7.95 yards per play in the first quarter. However, in the second quarter, Utah’s success rate fell all the way to 25.0% and yards per play plummeted to 2.88 for the quarter. And the passing attack generated just 6 yards on 9 attempts in the quarter. Clearly, the offense struggled even before Rising exited the game.
Forging a new offensive identity or not?
Coming into the season, there was a belief that Utah’s offense would be geared more toward the throw game. Andy Ludwig recently called this a pass-first offense. Brant Kuithe talked about how excited he was to see more passing this season.
That’s created a higher standard for assessing the passing attack. And with Utah’s offensive reputation under Whittingham, the throw game doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt.
To his credit, Rising has thrown 7 touchdowns in 18 completions, which means he’s throwing a touchdown every 2.6 attempts for a rather impressive scoring efficiency.
Utah has totaled 450 yards through two games for an average of 225 yards per game. That average is good for No. 10 in the Big 12 and No. 71 nationally. But the bulk of that production came against an FCS opponent, which holds that average up.
After a 23-12 win over Baylor, @Utah_Football has fallen a spot in the latest AP Top 25 Poll. pic.twitter.com/sWVyZLMZhk
— KSL Sports (@kslsports) September 8, 2024
No one expects Utah’s pass production to be gaudy. But Utah should be aiming for at least the same sort of production they got in 2022 when the passing attack averaged 249 yards per game.
Through two games, there have been a handful of missed opportunities in the passing game. Unfortunately, even after just two games, it already feels like Utah can’t afford to miss many more.
Whittingham made it clear on Monday that they want to be productive in both phases of the offense.
“If we can be balanced, 225, 250, hit 300 (yards) some weeks- if you can throw 300 a game, you’re going to throw for 3,600 yards in the regular season,” Whittingham shared. “We haven’t hit that mark. We’ve been over 3,000 a couple of times; Tyler Huntley I believe threw for 3,000, Cam did it a couple of years back. At 3,000 throwing and about 2,000 or probably 2,500 (rushing), that would be ideal for us.”
So, despite the slow start, Utah has pretty significant goals for the offense and passing game in particular.
Isaac Wilson is still just a true freshman
Through two games, Wilson has played two second halves of football. In those four quarters of action- which is split evenly between two very different circumstances, Wilson has completed 11-of-20 passes for 104 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions.
To his credit, Wilson showed a lot of maturity in the Baylor post-game press conference. He reiterated over and over that he needed to be ready and needed to be better prepared for his teammates. There were opportunities for him to make plays deep down the field and that’s part of the learning curve for a true freshman quarterback.
Not only is Wilson learning a brand new playbook, but he’s also learning how to identify defenses and coverages that he probably didn’t see a whole lot of in high school. The game is more advanced at every level and he’s working through that adjustment.
This is the biggest difference for quarterbacks moving up to the collegiate level. Be patient and allow Wilson the time to learn and adapt to the great degree of difficulty at this level.
If Wilson has to be the guy on Saturday, Coach Whittingham was pretty adamant that increased work in practice would benefit the true freshman.
“When you split the reps in practice between the 1’s and the 2’s, it’s not 50/50, it’s more like 80/20 or 70/30,” Whittingham said quarterback practice reps. “I think one thing that would definitely help Isaac is if he got those 80% or 70% of the reps all week long. I know he’d be more advanced, also just more experienced.”
Wilson added a similar sentiment when he met with the media later in the day.
“I’ve got to prepare the same every week if I’m the first, second or third string,” Wilson said. “I’ve got to come into this game like I’m the starter 100% of the time and just gotta prepare. I mean, I could have prepared a little better last game. I felt like I did good, but always more to improve on.
Utah Football Schedule
Utah will hit the road for their first game away from Rice-Eccles Stadium this weekend against Utah State. You can find Utah football’s conference schedule here.
