Utah
Utah’s quarterback is older than six starting NFL QBs
With the transfer portal, NIL money and the extra COVID-19 year granted by the NCAA, college football rosters are lined with more veteran players than ever before.
That experience will be on full display Friday night on national television when No. 16 Utah (4-1) faces Arizona State (4-1) in a Big 12 matchup in the desert (7:30 p.m. MST, ESPN).
Utah has 29 seniors on its roster, including seventh-year starting quarterback Cam Rising and sixth-year starting running back Micah Bernard. Rising is expected to start for the first time since injuring his throwing hand against Baylor on Sept. 7.
Rising, who last played a full college season in 2022, graduated from Newbury Park High School in Southern California in 2018. He started his college career at Texas as a redshirt, then transferred to Utah in 2019 where he redshirted again. Rising played in one game in 2020, then earned the starting job in 2021. In 2022 he threw for 3,034 yards and 26 touchdowns, to go along with 465 yards and 6 touchdowns on the ground. He led Utah to a 10-4 record and a Pac-12 championship – and he outplayed then-USC quarterback Caleb Williams in the conference championship game.
In Utah’s Jan. 2, 2023 Rose Bowl game vs. Penn State, Rising tore multiple knee ligaments. He sat out the entire 2023 season with a medical redshirt. In the Utes’ 2024 season opener, he threw a career-high 5 touchdown passes in a 49-0 win over Southern Utah.
Nearly seven years of college experience gives Rising a significant advantage over 19 and 20-year-old defensive backs and linebackers. As one example, Arizona State’s leading tackler, defensive back Myles Rowser, will be locked into a chess match with Rising on Friday, trying to determine where he’s going with the ball. Rowser graduated from high school in 2022 and recently turned 20.
Now 25, Rising is older than six current starting quarterbacks in the NFL, including 2023 NFL Rookie of the Year C.J. Stroud. He is widely considered one of the best quarterbacks in college football and is projected as a Day 3 (rounds 4-7) pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Here are the six current NFL starting quarterbacks younger than Rising:
San Francisco 49ers QB Brock Purdy (24)
Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix (24)
Washington Commanders QB Jayden Daniels (23)
Houston Texas QB C.J. Stroud (23)
Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams (22)
New England Patriots QB Drake Maye (22) *
* Maye will make his first NFL start on Sunday, Oct. 13.
More Arizona State vs. Utah analysis
Utah
What Utah transfer Terrence Brown brings to the table for UNC
Utah transfer Terrence Brown gives UNC a dynamic scoring guard with playmaking upside.
Utah transfer Terrence Brown, one of the top combo guards in the portal, has committed to North Carolina, giving the Tar Heels a high-scoring backcourt addition for next season.
Brown chose UNC over Kansas, Kentucky, Oregon, Ole Miss and USC. He is ranked the No. 8 combo guard and No. 38 overall transfer by 247Sports.
The 6-foot-3 rising senior averaged 19.9 points, 3.8 assists and 2.4 rebounds for Utah last season while shootingt 45.3% from the field and 32.7% from 3-point range. He earned All-Big 12 honorable mention.
His ability to both score and create for others makes him a natural candidate to replace former Tar Heels combo guard Seth Trimble.
Here is a full breakdown of what Brown brings to the tables.
What to be excited about
For starters, Brown is a high-level scorer. He scored 20 or more points 18 times and 25 or more points nine times last season. North Carolina’s backcourt had a player score 20 or more points only five times last season. Trimble accounted for four of those games, and Bogavac had one in UNC’s regular-season finale against Clemson.
Brown has shown he can be an effective passer as well. He posted a 27.7 assist percentage, an increase of 6.4 points from the previous season. That number rose to 28.1 percent in conference play, eighth-best in the Big 12.
He has shown he can be a capable defender, averaging 1.7 steals per game throughout his career. His career best was 2.2 steals per game in 2024-25 with Fairleigh Dickinson, which led the Northeast Conference.
What to be concerned about
The only concern UNC should have with Brown is his ability to play with players just as good as, and possibly better than, he is. The worry should not be that he may intentionally ballhog. In fact, he may simply try to do too much.
Because he was on two mediocre programs such as FDU and Utah, Brown had free rein to shoot himself out of slumps as he was the No. 1 scorer and the primary ballhandler. The last two seasons, Brown has ranked in the top 15 in usage rate and has averaged 16.4 and 15.4 shots per game. While his offensive rating improved at Utah, going from 96.8 to 108.1, his effective field-goal percentage was still below 50 percent at 48.6.
He will have to learn not to put too much pressure on himself as he plays alongside teammates such as Neoklis Avdalas, Jarin Stevenson and possibly Henri Veesaar, if Veesaar returns to Chapel Hill.
How He Fits at UNC
Brown should fit in just nicely in Chapel Hill and will provide a much-needed boost to its backcourt.
With UNC’s stronger supporting cast and a coach with a championship pedigree in Michael Malone, Brown will be pushed to process the game faster. He will need to read the floor quickly, use his first step to collapse the defense or kick out to shooters, and he could form an intriguing pick-and-roll duo with both Avdalas and Veesaar.
Brown’s athleticism could be a difference-maker at UNC. All he has to do is improve his shot selection and overall efficiency.
Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.
Utah
California man in Utah for National Guard duties accused of soliciting ‘teen girl’
SALT LAKE CITY — A California man in Utah, as part of his duties with the National Guard, is accused of trying to solicit sex from a young teenager.
Joshua Ruben Rodriguez, 29, of Fresno, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with attempted rape of a child, a first-degree felony, and enticement of a minor, a second-degree felony.
The investigation began when an agent with the Utah State Bureau of Investigation posed as a 13-year-old girl on a “popular social media site … in an attempt to locate and apprehend adults attempting to have sexual contact with children,” according to charging documents.
On April 16, Rodriguez sent the agent a message — believing he was talking to a teen girl — that stated, “I’ll be direct with you, I would like to get to know you and (have sex with) your mind into a daze to where you feel like a woman,” according to charging documents.
When the “girl” asked if he had a problem with her age, Rodriguez replied, “I don’t have a problem with your age,” the charges state.
The agent told Rodriguez to meet at an apartment complex in Salt Lake County where the girl lived, claiming her mother would be gone. When Rodriguez arrived, he was taken into custody, the charges state.
“(Rodriguez) does not have ties to Utah. He is a resident of Fresno, California. (He) was in town as part of his military service with the California National Guard,” prosecutors stated in charging documents while requesting he be held without bail pending trial.
Utah
One hospitalized in St. George after rollover crash south of Utah-Arizona border
ST. GEORGE, Utah (KUTV) — One person was hospitalized at the St. George Regional Hospital after a car rolled and caught fire just south of the Utah-Arizona border.
The Beaver Dam and Littlefield Fire Department in Arizona said its crews responded to the crash near the Black Rock Road exit – roughly two miles south of the state border – on Sunday night.
Upon arrival, crews put out the car fire and found the driver had left the scene. A single occupant, who was able to get out of the car on their own, was transported to the hospital by a Beaver Dam ambulance.
MORE | Crashes
Their condition has not been publicly released.
Details on what led to the crash and the condition of the driver were not immediately available.
The Beaver Dam and Littlefield Fire Department said law enforcement investigated the scene.
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