Utah’s backup quarterback race is a ‘dead heat’


Utah quarterback Brandon Rose prepares to throw during 2024 spring camp. Rose and incoming freshman Isaac Wilson are competing for QB2 duties. | Utah Athletics

There’s no doubt about who Utah’s starting quarterback is going to be in 2024 — that was settled the second Cam Rising told the team he was returning — so the attention has been on the backup quarterback race during Utah’s spring camp.

Last spring, coach Kyle Whittingham noted that Brandon Rose separated himself from other contenders and Rose went into fall camp in pole position for the QB2 job. During a fall practice, however, Rose was injured and missed the better part of two months, eventually going down the path of not playing him all of last season and obtaining a medical redshirt.

Even though Rose was healthy in October, that missed time in fall camp and the early part of the season was too much of a setback.

“Missing all that time obviously set him back and had he not missed all that time, he’d be more in the mix,” Whittingham said last October.

This go-around, there’s been no separation yet between Rose, now in his third year in the program, and true freshman Isaac Wilson through three weeks of spring football.

“It’s a dead heat, I would say as dead a heat as it could be right now,” Whittingham said. “But they’re both getting better. That’s the key. They’re both moving forward and we feel good about both of them. I’m pretty sure that this competition will carry into fall camp and so don’t expect to have anybody named after spring ball unless there’s a great disparity in these last five practices.”

For Rose, this year’s backup competition is potentially a make or break moment. He’s entering his third season in the program and has not seen the field. He’s yet to be the primary backup to Rising thus far in his…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/utah-backup-quarterback-race-dead-162721701.html

Author : Deseret News

Publish date : 2024-04-09 16:27:21

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