Can Utes crash Big 12 party and win the conference?

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For the first time in over a decade, the University of Utah won’t be traveling to Oregon, Washington or California during conference play.

Instead, the Utes will venture to places like Oklahoma, Texas and Florida this football season in their new cross-country home, the Big 12 Conference.

It’s a new era, not just for Kyle Whittingham and Utah, but for all of college football after realignment shook up the sport last summer.

Sure, there’s some familiar faces in Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Colorado and even TCU, but for the most part, it’s a whole new ballgame for Utah.

From the desert in Arizona to the plains of Kansas, from the mountains of Morgantown to the waves in Florida, the Utes have a new conference.

And they’re ready to crash the party.

In its inaugural Big 12 season, the Utes are the media’s pick to win the conference title, aided by veteran quarterback Cam Rising , a host of pass-catching options, and a stout defense.

The schedule helps matters — Utah misses Kansas, Kansas State and West Virginia and only plays one team projected in the top seven of the conference on the road — and by Week 5, after playing at Oklahoma State and vs. Arizona, the Utes should know what kind of team they have.

The No. 12 Utes understand it’s going to be a tough league.

There are four other Big 12 teams — No. 17 Oklahoma State, No. 18 Kansas State, No. 21 Arizona and No. 22 Kansas — ranked in the AP Preseason Top 25 — and teams like UCF, Iowa State and West Virginia are other contenders that could end up in Arlington for the Big 12 championship game if things break right.

That said, Whittingham says the Utes have a roster equipped to compete right away, and no player or coach has been shy about the goal — winning the Big 12 and earning a guaranteed trip to the College Football Playoff.

Now, it’s time for Utah to prove it. Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s squad ahed of its season open Thursday night against Southern Utah.

Offense

It’s a lot of pressure on one person’s shoulders, but that’s why Cam Rising earns the big NIL bucks.

Though Utah’s quarterback situation behind Rising should be much improved from last year, thanks to freshman Isaac Wilson being ahead of schedule and winning the backup job, if the Utes want to accomplish their goals, Rising has to be healthy and playing at the level he has during 2021 and 2022.

“Having Cam Rising back, that’s the biggest factor for us this season is to have Cam back at quarterback,” Whittingham said. “He’s the alpha dog of the football team, the unquestioned leader. And we have to keep him upright this year. We keep him upright, we’ve got a really good chance.”

Rising, who has thrown for 5,572 yards and 46 touchdowns over his Utes career, led Utah to back-to-back Pac-12 titles in 2021 and 2022, the last years when he was healthy and starting.

What will the 25-year-old quarterback look like in his return to play after suffering a brutal knee injury in the 2023 Rose Bowl that resulted in a torn ACL, meniscus, MPFL and MCL?

Nobody can truly know until the lights go on, but watching spring practice and the spring game, he looked like his old self.

The one aspect of Rising’s game that could change is running, something that he has utilized to his advantage in the past, rushing for over 800 yards in his career.

Offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig says he’ll limit designed runs for Rising, especially early in the year.

“I think the only schematic change that you would see is less reliance on a quarterback run. Let’s not dial those up,” Ludwig said. “That puts a little more pressure on the tailback, hey, because the quarterback run is a great equalizer when you add that 11th hat into the scheme, but that’s just not going to be a big part of the plan at this date.”

Other changes include an added emphasis on getting the ball out early — or on time — to avoid scrambling, and if he does have to run, stepping out of bounds or throwing the ball away at times.

When the game is on the line, though, all bets are off on that plan for Rising.

“It’s still football. You got to go out there and do whatever you got to do to win. That’s pretty much the only goal,” Rising said at Big 12 media days.

As far as any rust, offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig said Rising shook that off during the start of fall camp.

“If there was a little rust earlier, I see that getting polished up very, very much. So it’s all going to be a matter about taking that first hit, which we’d all like to avoid, but it’s a contact sport, collision sport,” Ludwig said. “See how he reacts to that and move on. But I’m not seeing the rust. There’s no rust.”

While Rising is the biggest factor for the Utes’ offense this season, there’s 11 players on that side of the ball, and they all need to perform at their best for Utah to have a chance to conquer the Big 12.

Most important, for Rising’s sake, is the rebuilt offense line.

Three 2023 starters — center Kolinu’u Faaiu, left guard Keaton Bills and right tackle Sataoa Laumea — need to be replaced, while Spencer Fano, who started at left tackle as a true freshman but will move over to right tackle this year, and right guard Michael Mokofisi return.

Utah identified its starters early — right tackle Spencer Fano, right guard Michael Mokofisi, center Jaren Kump, left guard Tanoa Togiai and left tackle Caleb Lomu — which is a good thing in terms of chemistry.

The left side of the line, though, is fairly low on starting experience — Togiai, a junior, has started just two games in his career and has 430 career snaps and Lomu, a redshirt freshman who was one of the top offensive tackle recruits in the country, has only 25 career snaps.

“I think the offensive line is athletic, is smart and we have excellent depth,” Ludwig said. “They got good length, so very pleased with where they are with the growth and their growth. And under the leadership of Jim Harding, I think it has a chance to be an elite group.”

After a less-than-stellar season last year (though quarterback play didn’t do them any favors), the Utes have to be “elite” here. Will the in-house retooling work?

As far as pass-catching options, there may be more talent here than in any time in the Whittingham era.

Dorian Singer, who transferred from USC, leads Utah’s wide receivers. Singer had 66 receptions for 1,105 receiving yards and six touchdowns in 2022 for Arizona, then his production fell after transferring to USC last season, where he was on the field for 405 fewer snaps last year and had 289 yards and three touchdowns on 24 receptions.

He cited “opportunity that the coaching staff gives me” in regards to his 2023 season. Rest assured that won’t be a problem in Salt Lake City, as Rising is going to throw the ball his way a lot in 2024. Singer has the opportunity to become the Utes’ first 1,000-yard receiver since Dres Anderson did so in 2013, and he and Rising have demonstrated an excellent connection.

“He is an exceptional football player,” Whittingham said of Singer. “I mean, he does things out on the practice field that you just go, ‘Wow.’ You just look at each other as coaches and say, ‘Yeah, that’s why we brought him here.’ He’s got certainly one of the best sets of hands that we’ve had ever in our program.”

Money Parks (293 yards on 31 catches and two touchdowns last year; 26 catches for 414 yards in Rising’s last season) and Mycah Pittman (317 yards on 29 catches with three scores in 2022 for Florida State; suffered season-ending injury two games into 2023) round out the starting lineup, and 6-foot-6, 220-pound Syracuse transfer Damien Alford, who had 33 receptions for 610 yards and three touchdowns last season for the Orange, should get opportunities.

The tight end room has six players — Brant Kuithe, Landen King, Caleb Lohner, Dallen Bentley, Carsen Ryan and Miki Suguturaga — that will likely see the field this year, depending on the situation and play call. Kuithe, who returns after missing the 2023 season with knee rehab of his own, is the headliner — in his last fully healthy season, 2021, he had 611 yards on 50 receptions with six touchdowns.

“Every play requires a different skillset, and so whether it’s one, two or three tight ends in there, or sometimes four with goal line where we put one of them at fullback, my job as a coach is to decide, ‘OK, who gives us the best chance to execute the particular assignment on that play for success?’” tight ends coach Freddie Whittingham said.

Utah usually has a lead running back at this stage, but even though Micah Bernard is listed as the starter on the depth chart, the Utes will handle the position by committee to start the season, with Bernard, Jaylon Glover and redshirt freshman Mike Mitchell splitting reps.

Mitchell, 6 feet and 220 pounds, is the physical back that Utah has been looking for. Depending on his play, he could emerge as the lead back during the season, or it could go to Bernard or Glover, who are veterans in the program.

Defense

Last year, Utah’s defense was the major reason the Utes finished 8-4, even with the deluge of injuries to starting players.

As the offense floundered without Rising — the Utes’ passing offense ranked No. 117 in FBS last year (165.8 yards per game) and the offense as a whole mustered just 23.2 points per game — No. 98 in FBS — Morgan Scalley’s defense helped win Utah games.

A lot of contributors from that 2023 defense return for the Utes.

Utah’s defensive line is the best in the Big 12, according to college football expert Phil Steele, and the reason for that is continuity. Utah lost just one starter from its defensive front, but he leaves a huge hole — Jonah Elliss, who had 37 tackles, 12 sacks, 16 tackles for loss, a forced fumble and three pass breakups in 10 games.

While one player might not reach that level of production this season, Utah is banking on big things from its starting front — left end Connor O’Toole, left tackle Junior Tafuna, right tackle Keanu Tanuvasa and right ends Logan Fano and Van Fillinger, who are listed as co-starters.

“Defensive line should be a strong suit for us. Defensive end position is loaded. We’ve got four or five, maybe six guys that we feel really good about. Junior Tafuna and his crew inside are two and three deep,” Whittingham said.

The linebacker group, which will be a big strength, took a hit when Levani Damuni suffered an injury in the spring that will keep him out for at least the majority of the season, but Utah still has three rock-solid starters.

Lander Barton was having a fantastic year before suffering a season-ending injury in October at USC and Karene Reid is the leader and heartbeat of the defense and a steady producer at linebacker. Together, they’ll make up one of the best linebacker duos in the conference, if not the country. Sione Fotu, who started as a true freshman in 2020 and played nearly 100 snaps last year after returning from a mission, has been elevated to LB3 in Damuni’s absence.

Utah identified its starting cornerbacks in the spring — returning star Zemaiah Vaughn on the left side and Georgia Tech transfer Kenan Johnson, who was brought in to replace JaTravis Broughton and Miles Battle, on the right, with Smith Snowden at nickel.

The depth behind them is a little thin, with Cameron Calhoun, Elijah Davis and four-star-running-back-turned-cornerback John Randle Jr. the backups on the outside and Quimari Shemwell the backup at nickel.

The most intriguing part of the offseason, defensively, was who the Utes would play at safety with starters Cole Bishop and Sione Vaki gone.

Tao Johnson moved from nickel to his more natural position at free safety and has gotten a lot of praise from Scalley for his speed and ability to play the position. Nate Ritchie — who suffered a back injury that kept him out of spring ball in 2023 and took a little bit to get into a groove last season after returning from a mission — is listed as the co-starter at free safety after an impressive camp. Alaka’i Gilman, the Stanford transfer senior and 2023 All-Pac-12 honorable mention, had a strong close to fall camp and is listed as the strong safety starter.

All three will get playing time this season.

The backfield has been rebuilt. Now, will it live up to the lofty standards expected from a Whittingham team?

Special teams

No surprises here, which is good news.

Kicker Cole Becker and punter Jack Bouwmeester return to headline Utah’s special teams. Becker, who transferred from Colorado last year, converted 15 of 18 field goals in 2023 — including a game-winner at USC — and made all 28 extra points; his field goal percentage ranked No. 26 in college football.

Bouwmeester, an All-Big-12 preseason selection, took a big step forward last year. He averaged 45.5 yards on 55 punts, ranking 16th in the country — though the Utes hope that they won’t have to utilize his services as much this season.

Rayshawn Glover — a transfer wide receiver from Trinity Valley Community College — wasn’t on many people’s radars entering fall camp, but emerged as Utah’s punt returner, while Money Parks and Dijon Stanley will handle kick returns.

After some up-and-down years for special teams, the Utes need to continue their upward trajectory from 2023.

Utah 2024 schedule

• Aug. 29: Southern Utah
• Sept. 7: Baylor
• Sept. 14: at Utah State
• Sept. 21: at Oklahoma State
• Sept. 28: Arizona
• Oct. 5: Bye
• Oct. 11: at Arizona State
• Oct. 19: TCU
• Oct. 26: at Houston
• Nov. 2: Bye
• Nov. 9: BYU
• Nov. 16: at Colorado
• Nov. 23: Iowa State
• Nov. 29: at UCF

In case you missed it

For the record, Cam Rising is a fan of “Bad Moon Rising.” When the song plays Thursday, it’ll mark the end of an arduous journey to get back onto the field, and the start of a new one for the QB — one that just might end with a third conference title.

From the archives

Extra points

• Tyler Huntley isn’t going anywhere just yet ( Deseret News )
• Utah’s current QB3, position changes, and what Kyle Whittingham wants to see in the opener ( Deseret News )
• Report: Runnin’ Utes to play Mississippi State in November at neutral site ( Deseret News )