Los Angeles • What has Cam Rising meant to this program over the last two seasons?
I was interested in a fan’s take, so I asked one.
If you are a University of Utah fan who frequents Twitter, you probably know who Connor Schone is, aka @cronair.
If you know that Twitter handle, and you’ve been around Ute Twitter long enough, maybe you’re aware Schone is one of the architects behind the #ThiccBoi7 hashtag, which became something of a fanbase internet rallying cry last fall as quarterback Cam Rising helped lead the program to its first Rose Bowl.
I’ve been wanting for a long while to get into the genesis of #ThiccBoi7, so I got Schone on the phone last week and we started talking about it. In the middle of that 15-minute chat, I veered us in a different direction.
As a fan, I asked, what has Rising meant to this program over the last two seasons?
“I think it’s hard to overstate his importance,” Schone said. “As a fanbase, we had Tyler Huntley, who was an incredible quarterback, and those ‘18 and ‘19 seasons, making the Pac-12 championship game, but ultimately falling short kind’ve showed us what Utah was capable of.
“I think Ute fans are a little bit of a self-loathing group, so that kind’ve gave us hope of what we can do. For years and years, it was always two steps forward and one step back in a lot of ways, and Cam, after a couple of fits and starts, coming in after Huntley and really picking the program up at that point, being really the difference maker and allowing to move forward, win a Pac-12 championship, go to a Rose Bowl, I really don’t think you can overstate that importance.”
Schone, of course, does not speak for all Utah fans, but that’s well said and I think really gets to the crux of Rising’s time at Utah, which may extend to 2023 if he decides to return next fall as a sixth-year senior.
Frankly, Rising has been a transformative player for a program that has not exactly been Quarterback U through the years. More to the point, as Schone alluded to, Rising has gotten the Utes over the hump, turning them from The Little Engine That Could into a legitimate Power Five contender whose Rose Bowl run last year was clearly no fluke.
In fairness, a lot of the praise needs to go to Kyle Whittingham and Andy Ludwig, who first had to trust Rising and allow this particular quarterback to operate in a manner that past Utah QBs were not allowed to. In the end, though, Rising is the one who has to go out there and produce, and he has, time and time again, even if the numbers on some nights didn’t jump off the stat sheet.
“He has been what we as a fanbase have always really wanted, which is a quarterback that can go out, throw for 400 yards, and win a football game like he did against USC,” Schone said. “For everything Huntley did extremely well, that was not his game, and that’s probably the one thing we’ve been jealous of BYU for, is that type of offense that can go win a game through the air, whereas Utah has relied on the run game and the defense. He has really given us that final piece of the puzzle to get the program over the top.”
Is everyone doing this again next year? Utah winning the Pac-12, winding up in the Rose Bowl, which is a College Football Playoff semifinal, or some other New Year’s Six contest if the Utes fall short of the CFP?
Well, would you bet against Rising at this point?
Other things on my mind
• Let’s cautiously assume that R.J. Hubert returns for a sixth year in 2023, and Nate Ritchie returns to form coming off his Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission. Utah would have five legitimate safeties to choose from between Hubert, Ritchie, Cole Bishop, Sione Vaki and Clayton Isbell.
Hubert, Bishop and Vaki all played at an All-Pac-12 level at various points this season, Ritchie had a productive, promising freshman season in 2020 before leaving, and Isbell was a two-time FCS All-American at the position at Illinois State before transferring in.
These are good problems for Kyle Whittingham and Morgan Scalley to have.
• Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig on Friday morning called Penn State “the best defense we’ve seen this year, without a doubt.” No argument here as the Nittany Lions, at least from a statistical standpoint, are elite, sitting 14th nationally in total defense at 317.8 yards per game. Penn State is in the top 20 nationally in nearly every defensive metric that people care about, so while I like Utah to win this game, the Utes are not going to hit the 40 points they average per game, which is good for seventh nationally. Frankly, I would be mildly surprised if either team got to 30 on Monday.
• The Runnin’ Utes are 3-0 in the Pac-12 for the first time since 2014-15 after a 58-43 grinder at Cal on Thursday night, supporting the resume by not taking on a loss that would absolutely be detrimental to any NCAA Tournament hopes, whether they be real or fantasy.
Utah is now 14 games into the season, so at this point, the Utes mostly are what they are. Craig Smith’s group defends, often at a superior level, and its rebounding feels like a quantum leap from where it was a year ago. That said, offensively, it’s too often a struggle with too few options to get Craig Smith’s group through. Shooting 39.6% from the field and 3-for-19 from deep will get you beat against good teams no matter how prolific your defense is.
As far as the resume goes, there is a lot of work to do. The win at Washington State is no longer a Quadrant 1 as the Cougars have floundered through December, and Sam Houston, which beat the Utes at the Huntsman Center early in the season, lost to Utah Valley on Thursday night. Too many more of those for the Bearkats through WAC play, and Utah losing that game is going to start looking pretty bad from a metrics standpoint.