Hindsight is 20/20, but would Whittingham have handled QB situation differently?

SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah offense was stuck in mud for most of its first five games, but things have since shifted.

With Bryson Barnes back at quarterback after an early-season benching, Utah put up 34 points in consecutive games, both wins over Cal and USC, respectively.

Some of that is due to the emergence of Sione Vaki as a two-way threat, but still, Barnes has looked more confident and more capable in the last two games than at any point in his career. In those two wins, the fourth-year sophomore has completed 65.9% of his passes for 363 yards, three touchdowns and an interception.

Here's the kicker, though. That level of production from Barnes has coincided with Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham and his staff making a decision on who will start at quarterback on Mondays, giving that player all of the first-team reps during the week. Previously, as a full participant in practice coming off major offseason knee surgery, Cam Rising received a sizable share of first-team reps, but was getting ruled out of games late in the week.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but seeing how well Barnes has played lately with a full week of reps, would Whittingham have operated differently over the first five games when it came to his quarterbacks?

"Knowing what we know now, obviously, but we didn't know," Whittingham said Monday morning. "I don't think we could have done anything differently given the circumstances, but if we had known then what we know now, yeah, I think we would've operated a little differently. But we're sitting here at 6-1, so we're doing some things right, coming away with wins."

On Oct. 5, during an appearance on ESPN 700, Rising revealed the extent of his knee injury suffered during the third quarter of the Rose Bowl on Jan. 2. Instead of what was believed to be a torn ACL, Rising said he tore his meniscus, as well as ACL, MCL, and MPFL ligaments. In spite of that, he had been practicing without restrictions since early September.

Whatever Whittingham did or didn't know, regardless of what he knew, regardless of when he knew it, his latter point of the whole thing now being moot is accurate.

Saturday night's 34-32 victory at USC pushed 13th-ranked Utah to 6-1 overall, 3-1 in the Pac-12, and kept reasonably alive the possibility of a Pac-12 championship three-peat — although things are about to get harder on that front.

No. 8 Oregon will visit Rice-Eccles Stadium Saturday afternoon (1:30 p.m. MDT, FOX) in a game with massive conference championship implications. Both teams have one conference loss, and while a second loss would not end conference championship hopes, they would be in real peril.

Furthermore, if one believes either of these teams should be in contention for the College Football Playoff at this still-early juncture, a second loss would all but end those hopes.

While an early-week quarterback decision has in part fueled the last two wins, Whittingham announced postgame Saturday that Rising will be shut down for the remainder of the season as he seeks a medical redshirt for a potential return to college football in 2024 as a seventh-year senior.

That secures the fact that there is no more decision to be made at the most important position on the field; Barnes is the unquestioned starter. He will get the first-team reps throughout the week, then start the biggest game of Utah's season at a point where he has never looked better.

Barnes went 14-for-23 for 235 yards and three touchdowns at USC, plus another 57 yards and a score on the ground. On the game's final drive, which ended with a Cole Becker 38-yard field goal as time expired, Barnes ran for 13 yards on first-and-15, then later ran for 26 on second-and-15 down to the USC 19-yard line to help set up the field goal.

"It was a big step forward; he seems to get better each week," Whittingham said. "He completed over 60% of his balls, he did have the one pick six (early in the fourth quarter) and I know he would want back, but he did a very nice job running the offense and taking care of the ball except for the one play. He just seems to continue to grow and develop, which is a good thing that obviously is a big positive for us."

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