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SALT LAKE CITY — With the benefit of hindsight, Tuesday afternoon's post-practice media session with Kyle Whittingham was entirely predictable.
Four days after the latest college athletics realignment merry-go-round saw the University of Utah land in the Big 12, an initial handful of questions to the Utes head coach predictably centered on just that.
Whittingham, who will go through a conference change for the second time as a head coach after helping steer his football program from the Mountain West to the Pac-12 over a decade ago, predictably wasn't going to spend much time discussing something that is outside his control.
"We're all about the Pac-12, and this year, and this season, and that's it," Whittingham said. "We're excited we got a landing place in the future, but we're all focused on this season with this schedule, namely the Florida Gators."
Whittingham indicated he was not aware of what was happening late last week at the school's highest levels of decision making as the Pac-12 began to crumble. He followed that up by saying he found out Utah would be going to the Big 12 via a Friday afternoon phone call from school president Taylor Randall and athletic director Mark Harlan.
That was it on Tuesday as far as Whittingham and the Big 12 went.
Four questions spanning just over 60 seconds, none of it yielding much in the way of introspection, but again, this was all predictable. When it comes to big-picture matters pertaining to his own team, especially when those things are broached in-season or, in this case, with a season approaching, Whittingham doesn't have a lot of interest, instead opting to focus on the here and now.
In Whittingham's defense, the here and now, 17 practices in 22 days leading up to the Aug. 31 season-opener against the Gators, still have a lot of questions to answer. None of those questions are bigger than the one involving the most-important player on the roster.
Cam Rising, a sixth-year quarterback working his way back from a torn ACL suffered Jan. 2 at the Rose Bowl, remains a limited participant in practice, per Whittingham. That comes as no surprise as Whittingham said on the first day of camp on July 31 that Rising would be in that spot for "at least the first couple of weeks."
Whittingham has said previously that in order for Rising to start on Aug. 31, he needs to be ready to go roughly 10-14 days before that date, but indications on Tuesday were that Whittingham would be willing to wait up to a week before the opener before decisions would have to be made.
Allowing extra time to make a decision is the byproduct of Rising's long-standing comfortability working with offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig and, by extension, Rising's inside-and-out understanding of the offense.
As Rising continues to work his way back, Utah is scheduled for its first extensive live work of camp Thursday in the form of a scrimmage. Just like spring practice, a critical focus of fall camp is the battle for QB2 between Bryson Barnes, Nate Johnson and Brandon Rose. Not only are Whittingham and Ludwig trying to identify Rising's backup, they are trying to determine the most-viable option to start if Rising cannot.
Rose, a redshirt freshman who ran the scout team for the final 75% of last season, left spring ball penciled in as QB2 on the heels of a 19-of-24, 233-yard performance in the 22 Forever Game.
Barnes, though, appears to have at least made up some of the gap and based on what Whittingham said Tuesday, may have taken the lead. Whittingham's preference coming out of Thursday's scrimmage would be to have more of a defined pecking order by Monday.
"He's just making less mistakes, he knows the offense better than the other two," Whittingham said of Barnes. "He's a little more consistent, a little more steady. The other two guys have bright futures, can make some spectacular plays here and there, but it's all about taking care of the football and moving the chains."
