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SALT LAKE CITY — The months-long quarterback saga at the University of Utah has reached an interesting juncture as the Utes prepare to host UCLA Saturday afternoon in the Pac-12 opener.
Coming off a torn ACL suffered Jan. 2 in the Rose Bowl, it appears Cam Rising is about ready to make his debut for the Utes.
Either way, between the fourth quarter at Baylor and the win over Weber State, Nate Johnson showed some stuff. Enough stuff to win a game in relief and enough stuff to win as a starter, but there is an interesting question to ponder once this season starts to wind down.
We'll start this Utes mailbag right there.
Q: "Long-term issue, but do you think Nate Johnson has proven enough to undoubtedly be in line as QB1 next year, or will they go to the transfer portal for some help?" - @thomas_conneen
Good question, and if Nate Johnson keeps playing well in whatever role he is given, this will start to get a little louder. For what it's worth, on the latest Utah Checkdown podcast, Josh Furlong and I started talking about Johnson at roughly 8:00, and actually got into this very question at 14:40. Keep in mind, our thoughts on this came before the Weber State game.
No, Johnson has not done enough yet for Kyle Whittingham to emerge from this season and feel comfortable with the redshirt freshman as the starter. Maybe that happens as things begin to pan out, but no, one career start and 32 career pass attempts isn't enough.
All of that said, I think you have to feel more optimistic about Johnson now than you did before this season began. He's taking first-team reps, he's performing well, or at least well enough, and he's showing you the things you were all told he could do. He can run, he throws a good ball, he is cerebral, he can lead a team. Yes, the fumbling needs to stop. Yes, there were some errant passes against Weber State, but I think there is way more good than bad right now.
I don't know that you're going to see a full-blown spring QB competition, but if there is some semblance of openness at the position, Johnson has a leg up and enters spring as No. 1, with Brandon Rose presumably healthy and ready to compete. I think we're about done with Bryson Barnes as a viable option, while Mack Howard may also get a real crack. The x-factor here is whether or not Isaac Wilson shows up and immediately puts himself in the mix.
As for the transfer portal, I have been a loud proponent of Whittingham hitting the portal for QB help if he deems it necessary, in spite of perceived portal misses at the position. What happened with Jake Bentley, Charlie Brewer and, to a lesser extent, Ja'Quinden Jackson are their own separate individual discussions and should not play any role at all in QB portal decisions moving forward.
In this case, if Whittingham thinks he has the 2024 starter in the room, and he is fine with the level of depth at the position, then there is no need to go portal diving.
Q: "On a scale of 1-Whittingham, how joyful are you to have a day game and have it end in under three hours?" - @el_diamante3
The fact Utah had a noon kickoff Saturday and the game only took 2:54 to complete is such a thing of beauty; it left me speechless.
If you're not aware, one of my big in-season things on X, formerly known as Twitter, is that I love early kickoffs. Really, anything 3:30 p.m. or earlier is great, but I love 11 a.m. and noon kickoffs. The earlier the better, to be honest. I can be sufficiently caffeinated and ready to cover a game at 8 a.m., but I digress.
I understand a significant portion of this fan base prefers night kickoffs, but I don't, and I can't imagine many media members covering college football would argue with me. I speak for myself when I say night kickoffs are brutal because the work is not done until roughly 2 a.m., then an early morning with our toddler, and I'm a bit of a zombie until Monday.
Yes, my reasoning is selfish. Early kickoffs mean I'm home early. I can probably make dinner with my kid with a noon kickoff, and I'm definitely making bedtime. I like being a father and I like being around as a father, so sue me.
Yes, the atmosphere for a night game at Rice-Eccles Stadium is exponentially better than a day game, but that hardly matters to me at this point.
Q: "How I hope you answer this. What is the most annoying thing for you to address? Utah's QB3/4 situation, Aaron Rodgers in 2024, or the Huntsman Center curtains?" - @RedSoxRooskie
The QB situation is no big deal to me. Whether I like it or not, that's been a necessary part of covering the program for the last nine months. Aaron Rodgers in 2024 is likely happening, so that's also no big deal other than being a personal fanhood aggravation having really nothing to do with work.
The Huntsman Center curtains were the absolute bane of my existence last basketball season, by far the most useless, annoying thing that still gets brought up now, all these months later.
I was and remain very dug-in on that topic. I believe I was and am 100% right on the curtains, while believing that all of you going the other way are hopelessly wrong. We're never going to agree on this, which is fine, because you're all wrong.
Congrats, the curtains will be up for the entire schedule this winter. My knee-jerk guess for the attendance at the Nov. 6 opener vs. Eastern Washington, a Monday night with a TBD start time, is 4,500, and that feels generous.
You were all wrong then, you're all wrong now, and you're all going to be wrong well into the future.
Q: "Your level of confidence in a win next week if Nate Johnson is QB1 to open conference-play?" - @rsutt80
Certainly higher than it was a couple of weeks ago. On a scale of 1-10, my instinct was a 6, but let's consider what the win over Weber State showed us.
Let's not consider this gospel for the offense going forward, but Utah ran the ball on a whopping 71.2% of plays, which included both Johnson scrambling and designed keepers. The Utes rushed for 231 yards, which took a lot of pressure off Johnson in his first start to do a ton.
Whether it's Johnson or Rising against UCLA, I think we'll see Utah try to go run-heavy, but with a smaller disparity vs. what we just saw over the weekend. Johnson may have to make more throws against a better opponent in the Bruins, but that's fine. Utah can win Pac-12 games with Johnson, including this one. Maybe he can't go 7-2, 8-1 like a healthy Rising might, but that's besides the point.
Let's call my confidence level in Johnson winning this game a 7 on a scale of 1-10.
Q: "Isn't it unrealistic for fans to expect everything to be fine "once Rising and Kuithe come back"? They may not be the same players." - @UofUMansir
Things have been far from bad for Utah through three weeks, but I agree with this notion that they're not completely fine either.
Most of the trouble as I see it is the abundance of injuries, so to judge this team as currently presented is not entirely fair. On the flip side of that, well, this is the team playing at the moment, so maybe we should be judging it as such.
To believe a flip will switch when Rising comes back would be naive, but things will certainly get better with your best, most-capable player returning at the most-important position on the field. We have talked a lot about Rising returning at full health, but yeah, off knee surgery, returning as the same player he was is not a lock. That possibility has not been discussed enough.
Kuithe has not addressed the beat writers in, I believe, a year, before the knee injury. I listened to his ESPN 700 interview last week. You can take what he said there at face value, but you have to prepare for the possibility that the timeline drags on so long that maybe — MAYBE — the best course of action is to end his college career and prepare for the NFL.
My penciled-in, rough deadline for Kuithe to return before you start thinking about not returning at all is Halloween.
Q: "Which has a higher ceiling, pumpkin spice latte or pumpkin milkshake?" - @christianmjudd
I have long been on a crusade to rid the world of pumpkin-flavored things, but somewhere along the line, my palate matured.
Pumpkin beers, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin bread are all things I now enjoy. I'll do a pumpkin-flavored coffee every now and again, but I am not enough of an expert on the matter to label a pumpkin spice latte's ceiling. That's for a true gourmand like Christian to tackle.
I have to draw a line at pumpkin milkshakes/ice cream, though. That sounds pretty vile, and I won't stand for it.
Q: "Eleven? Who else is gone besides the kid from Turkey?" - @KellyKillian15
This is in relation to a tweet last week in which I referenced that the Utah men's basketball team is likely to start this season with 11 eligible scholarship players.
The kid from Turkey is Karahan Efeoglu, who represented the 13th and final scholarship for 2023-24 when he came aboard last month. He has since left the program and joined national junior college powerhouse Northwest Florida State. I was told this stemmed from a Visa issue.
Efeoglu's exit makes 12 scholarship players, but remember, Georgia Tech transfer Deivon Smith needs an eligibility waiver as a two-time transfer as an undergraduate. The NCAA is cracking down on two-time undergrad transfers, so it remains to be seen if Smith gets one.
If you take a look around the country at some of the football transfer decisions being levied by the NCAA, optimism for Smith is not through the roof.
Stay tuned.
