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SALT LAKE CITY — For eight months, Thursday night's season opener between the University of Utah and the University of Florida wasn't so much hyped up as it was deconstructed.
Deconstructed in the sense that for eight months, anyone with even a passing interest in the Utes tried to break down what was going to happen at quarterback. How hurt is Cam Rising after tearing his left ACL on Jan. 2 in the Rose Bowl? What is the timeline? Can he meet it? If not, who starts? Is it Bryson Barnes? Is it Nate Johnson?
In the end, it was Barnes, once a near-Rose Bowl hero, now something of a polarizing figure among fans at the most-important position on the field.
In the end, Barnes did exactly what Utah needed him to do. For one play, specifically the first offensive snap, you momentarily forgot Rising was on the shelf. That's what a 70-yard bomb for a touchdown, perfectly placed into the hands of a streaking Money Parks, will do.
Kyle Whittingham will tell you that Thursday's 24-11 win over the Gators belonged to the defense. He's right, because his defense was, as he put it, suffocating, but for all the back and forth about Barnes being good enough, or not being good enough, or being serviceable enough, or that he shouldn't see the light of day, he delivered when he was asked to.
No argument. End of story. Period.
Part of Thursday's win belongs to the Milford native.
The two-quarterback plan
Whittingham made clear Monday that Nate Johnson was going to play, regardless of whether or not he started the game. That opened the door to Barnes and Johnson both playing extensively, which offered an unorthodox dynamic with Rising unavailable.
Barnes finished 12-of-18 for 159 yards and a touchdown. The fact 70 of those yards came on the very first play is irrelevant because he did exactly what he needed to do; he took care of the ball and he made a handful of throws when he needed to.
Johnson, a true dual-threat that can give you more in the way of speed and elusiveness with his legs, also did what he needed to do. He changed the tone of the game upon entering, making Florida's defense respect the fact that he would tuck it and run, either by design or off a broken play.
To be clear, there were imperfections (Johnson fumbled twice, Barnes sailed a couple of passes, and a couple of others were dropped), but all told, it worked. It worked to the point where Whittingham should feel comfortable doing it again at Baylor on Sept. 9, a game that is now quite massive for Utah if it wants to paint itself as a College Football Playoff contender.
The change of pace Johnson showed upon entering early in the second quarter on the game's fourth drive was obvious.
A keeper to the right side went for 8 yards, his first completion of the night to Mikey Matthews a short time later went for 9 yards. His highlight of the evening, a 27-yard touchdown run to cap that drive, featured a juke that made a would-be tackler miss.
On that drive, both quarterbacks played, which is something to watch going forward. One might argue that pulling a QB in the middle of a drive where he may have some momentum behind him may be counterproductive, but nobody felt that way postgame, and it stands to reason we'll be seeing that some more.
Two final points on Barnes: He is now 2-0 as a starter. Thursday marked the first time there was a game plan in place tailored for him. His three more memorable moments are winning at Washington State on 45 minutes notice and two relief Rose Bowl appearances after Rising went out with injury.
Utah goes up 14-3 on the Gators 👀 pic.twitter.com/moHBGcGJLw
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) September 1, 2023
The defense overcame a lot of absences
Florida finished with 346 yards of total offense, roughly 10 more than Utah's top-30 defense gave up a year ago, but that number needs a lot of context.
Connor O'Toole, Simote Pepa, and Junior Tafuna, who Whittingham postgame called the best interior tackle in the Pac-12, were all out with injury. Karene Reid left in the first quarter with what appeared to be a head injury. Add that all up and Utah was deep in its depth at multiple positions.
Despite that, the Utes gave up all of 13 rushing yards to a team that includes Travis Etienne and Montrell Johnson Jr. The fact Graham Mertz threw for 333 yards rings hollow as 220 of it came after halftime with Florida trailing and forced to throw without a run game.
Utah sacked Mertz five times, two of them coming from Jonah Elliss. Florida was 1-for-13 on third down, the one not coming until the fourth quarter.
Consider this: A good chunk of Utah's second-team defense essentially turned a 346-yard night for Florida's offense into a mirage. Elliss, Logan Fano, Sione Fotu, Levani Damuni, and Aliki Vimahi were not projected starters coming out of camp, but all of them played significant roles, as did Van Fillinger off the bench from his defensive end. Had Fillinger not missed 90% of camp with an illness, per Whittingham Thursday night, he may have wound up a starter.
Seriously, how's that for depth all over the place? Better yet, how's that for a recruiting pitch?
Utah needs to find a rushing attack
If we told you that in a game between Florida and Utah, the Gators would have 13 rushing yards and the Utes would have just 66 from their running backs, would you have bought it?
Thursday was a small sample size, but Utah is going to need to figure that out. Specifically, if Whittingham is going to paint Ja'Quinden Jackson as his No. 1 running back option, there needs to be more there than five carries for 15 yards. Micah Bernard's seven carries for 45 yards featured a few bruising downhill runs, which bodes well. When Bernard is healthy, as he is right now, he is probably Utah's most-physical, most-capable, most-versatile option until Jackson begins doing it at more of a consistent level.
The more I think about this, the more this might be an underrated, intriguing storyline as September unfolds. You have a running back room that is perceived by some as loaded, running behind a mostly-veteran offensive line, but you also have a stable of quarterbacks with legs.
Assuming Rising returns at full capacity, there will be designed keepers called for him. Whittingham last season was comfortable with roughly 8-12 QB keepers for Rising between play calls and scrambles. If we assume Johnson will keep having a role as the change-of-pace guy when Rising returns, there's going to be keepers called there, too.
If you've come this far, then you understand that designed QB keepers are going to eat into the rushing attempts for the running backs.
I admit I'm overthinking this off one game, but this is at least worth discussing. Takeaway Bernard and there wasn't much meat there for what is supposed to be a strength of the team on a night where Utah went to the run nearly 57% of the time.
Other things on my mind
- Whittingham said postgame that Rising has been given more latitude from medical personnel and that the plan is to practice fully next week with no limitations. The sixth-year senior has not been cleared to play in a game, but next week is a key step forward toward that. Based on that nugget, armchair quarterbacking says that if Rising cannot play Sept. 9 at Baylor, it now feels like Sept. 16 vs. Weber State is the date to circle.
- Is Utah's two-year kicking/punting problem over? Colorado transfer Cole Becker kicked a 51-yard field goal late in the second quarter and had enough leg for a 55-yarder in the fourth quarter, but missed it. Whittingham deciding to try the 55-yarder is noteworthy, because that was not going to happen for most of last season with Jadon Redding. Jack Bouwmeester averaged 51.8 yards on six punts, including one of 61 and another of 64. That marked the first time a Utah punter booted two over 60 yards in a game since Tom Hackett in 2014. Hackett, for what it's worth, won the Ray Guy Award that season as the nation's best punter.
- Florida is a mess. Follow me here. Early second quarter, third-and-9 at the Utah 16, delay of game penalty on the Gators. Mertz picks up 11 yards on a scramble to set up fourth-and-1 at the 9. False start as they lined up to go for it, and Adam Mihalik misses a 31-yard field goal. Later in the quarter, with Utah ready to punt on fourth-and-3 at the Gators' 49, Florida is hit with an illegal substitution call, the result of two players wearing No. 3. Utah's drive continues and three plays later, Johnson with the 27-yard score. If Billy Napier wanted to calm down an agitated fan base on Thursday, he failed.
- Mycah Pittman had a tough debut. He dropped a Barnes pass late in the second quarter that would have been a huge gain, and appeared to look out of sync on three punt returns. He will have better days.
- Mikey Matthews: Four catches on four targets for 34 yards. Whittingham zeroed in on the true freshman early in spring practice as one to watch, even tossing out a soft Britain Covey comparison. There's a lot of optimism there, and his debut Thursday night was why.
- Jaren Kump getting the start at center means the fourth-year junior has now started at least one game at four of the five offensive line spots, the outlier being at left guard. Kump appeared on the initial two-deep late last week as the backup right guard, but had spent much of camp locked in a three-way battle at center with Johnny Maea and Koli Faaiu. The point there is, Kump's versatility is a huge plus, just as Nick Ford's was just a few years back. Utah's offensive line as presented on Thursday night is a veteran group with a lot of games under its belt, save for left tackle Spencer Fano, who became just the third Utah true freshman in at least 20 years to start an opener along the OL.
