Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
Welcome to the Holy Score, a weekly look at Utah and Brigham Young football in which we assess their performances with no punches pulled or apologies forthcoming. If one of them stinks, we'll tell you they stink. Most Utah and BYU fans are entirely reasonable — sarcasm alert! — but those who can't handle the truth should read the message boards instead.
Just as everyone predicted, the road to the Big 12 championship runs through Utah.
Except the script has flipped along Interstate 15: Brigham Young is undefeated, tied atop the conference and barreling toward a possible College Football Playoff berth; Utah is two games out of first place after back-to-back losses, searching for identity and momentum.
It wasn't supposed to play out like this.
The Cougars had a coach on the Warm Seat in Kalani Sitake and were picked 13th in the Big 12 preseason poll, partly because of uncertainty created by a quarterback competition between Jake Retzlaff and Gerry Bohanon.
The Utes were pegged to win the conference, largely because they had a veteran quarterback, Cam Rising, who was a proven winner and finally healthy after an 18-month recovery from a knee injury.
Then everything went haywire in the Beehive State when Rising was pushed into a set of water coolers on the Baylor sideline in the second game of the season.
That's right, Utah's trajectory changed dramatically because of a simple push — the kind of push-in-the-back by defensive players that takes place all the time when scrambling quarterbacks are seeking shelter out of bounds.
And because of something as innocuous as water coolers — the kind of water coolers that are on every team's sideline.
Except these water coolers were a little too close to the field, and Rising's collision with them was a little too unfortunate.
Nothing has been the same since for the Utes, but the situation feels familiar.
Brigham Young experienced a comparable plot twist 50 weeks ago when starting quarterback Kedon Slovis was forced to cut his season short because of injuries.
The Cougars turned to Retzlaff, who had thrown zero career passes when he replaced Slovis for the stretch run. And his inexperience showed. Retzlaff completed only 50 percent of his attempts and threw as many interceptions as touchdowns in his four starts — all losses.
He spent the offseason competing with Bohanon, won the job in training camp and kept the job despite several uneven performances in maturing into a dependable starter before their eyes.
That's not exactly how the situation unfolded in Salt Lake City, for Rising's late-career fate does not exactly mirror Slovis' arc. But it's reasonably close.
He was brilliant in the season opener — the Rising of old. Then came Baylor, the shove, the water coolers and an injury to his throwing hand that would force Rising to miss three games. (He reportedly suffered a dislocation and laceration.)
Freshman Isaac Wilson performing the stopgap role Retzlaff filled late last season for BYU, did his best to keep the offense functioning while everyone waited for Rising's return.
The weekly guessing game that dominated Utah's program last season played out again. It affected Wilson, the offense, the team — everyone associated with the program.
When Rising finally returned, last week at Arizona State, good fortune was fleeting. On his second pass of the game, Rising was hit in the lower leg and appeared to injure his ankle. He gutted through the rest of the game, unable to throw or run properly as the Utes were hit with their second consecutive loss.
On Monday, they announced Rising has sustained a season-ending injury.
Now, it's Wilson's offense. The weekly guessing game is over. The shadow is gone. The uncertainty has vanished.
Now, the Utes can move forward knowing the identity of their QB1.
Their season can begin anew.
They are out of purgatory.
It's not too late, either. Utah is two games behind the conference leaders and probably needs to run the table in order to qualify for the Big 12 championship game.
That's unlikely but not improbable. Just three years ago, they got hot in the second half and charged to the Pac-12 title.
Everything hinges on Wilson, the former blue-chip recruit with NFL bloodlines and the arm to make all the throws.
He has started three games and played in five, completing slightly more than half of his 122 attempts. Six passes have gone for touchdowns; seven have gone to the other team.
Wilson is not where Retzlaff was last November — he's well beyond that stage. That's not in question. The question is this: How quickly will Wilson reach the level Retzlaff is now?
Where the thinking ends and the reacting begins?
Where confidence and comfort soar and the game slows down?
We anticipate swift progress. The Utes host TCU this weekend, then visit Houston in late October. They should win both, handily, as Wilson settles into his new role. It's the same as his previous role except for, well, everything.
He's no longer the understudy. It's his offense. The future of Utah football is now the present.
But November is daunting.
It starts with the Holy War, with Utah potentially playing the role of spoiler — how's that for a plot twist! — and features matchups against Colorado and Iowa State, plus a season-ending trip to UCF.
Six games to course correct a season and jump-start a career.
Six games for the script to flip, again.
Six games for a new era to begin in Salt Lake City, just as it has in Provo.
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Jon Wilner has been covering college sports for decades and is an AP Top 25 football and basketball voter as well as a Heisman Trophy voter. He was named Beat Writer of the Year in 2013 by the Football Writers Association of America for his coverage of the Pac-12, won first place for feature writing in 2016 in the Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest and is a five-time APSE honoree. You can follow him on Twitter @WilnerHotline or send an email at jwilner@bayareanewsgroup.com.
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