Utah (4-2, 1-2) vs. TCU (3-3, 1-2)

• Kickoff: Saturday, 8:30 p.m. MDT
• Venue: Rice-Eccles Stadium
• TV: ESPN
• Livestream: espn.com/watch
• Radio: ESPN 700 AM/92.1 FM
• Series: Utah leads 5-3
• Weather: Clear with temperatures in the low 50s at kickoff, dropping to mid 40s by end of game.

The trends

For Utah: The Utes have dropped two consecutive games, losing 23-10 to Arizona in Salt Lake City before falling to Arizona State 27-19 in Tempe last week.

For TCU: The Horned Frogs have lost three of their last four contests, losing 66-42 at rival SMU, then beating Kansas 38-27 before losing to Big 12 bottom-dweller Houston 30-19 last week. The Cougars entered the game having scored zero points in their previous two contests, but broke that streak against TCU.

What to watch for

This week, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham announced that starting quarterback Cam Rising, who suffered a leg injury early in his return against Arizona State, is out for the season.

That means that true freshman Isaac Wilson will be the Utes’ starter for the rest of the season.

It’s not a foreign position for Wilson, who has started three games in Rising’s absence this year, but this upcoming start feels different. No more dueling game plans in practice in case Rising is able to play, no more looking over his shoulder to see if Rising is going to come back this week.

Utah is finally tailoring a game plan just for Wilson, and the team has rallied behind him this week.

Wilson has had his struggles — too many interceptions (seven on the year) and not turning enough red-zone trips into touchdowns — and will still make freshman mistakes, but he’s shown flashes of potential and has generally moved the ball between the 20s well.

If the Utes can convert in the red zone this week, things will be looking up.

It will be interesting to see how Wilson performs with a week of game-planning tailored to his strengths. He’s shown a propensity to run, and TCU has struggled to contain rushing quarterbacks. Could we see more designed quarterback runs in Utah’s playbook this week?

Key player

Josh Hoover, TCU quarterback: Without a reliable rushing game, Hoover has been tasked with producing the majority of TCU’s offensive yards, and he’s delivered.

TCU coach Sonny Dykes has always favored the passing game, and he’s got a good quarterback under center to run his offense. Hoover has thrown for 2,007 yards and 16 touchdowns on 69% accuracy, with his favorite target being wide receiver Jack Bech, who has hauled in 39 receptions for seven scores and 702 yards.

TCU isn’t hurting for other weapons, either, with three other receivers over 300 yards on the season. All of that has added up to produce the nation’s fifth-best passing offense, which averages 342.8 yards and 35.3 points per game.

The weakness of the offense has been turning the ball over too much. The Horned Frogs had given the ball away 14 times this season — Hoover has thrown six interceptions and TCU has fumbled the ball eight times.

The Utes will have their hands full with one of the best quarterbacks they’ve faced this year.

Quotable

“What’s really impressive to me is their conversion down rate. Almost 50% on third down, almost 75% on fourth down and in the red zone they’re over 80% touchdown efficient. So they’re doing some really good things offensively and really difficult to stop.” — Utah coach Kyle Whittingham

“I think the fact that he’s got the whole week to prepare that there’s some clarity I think at that position, probably helps them just because I’m guessing that there’s been splitting reps and that kind of thing as Cam’s been trying to get healthy. I don’t know how much different it’s going to be for us from a preparation standpoint, but it will be a little bit.” — TCU coach Sonny Dykes

Next up

• Utah: at Houston
• TCU: vs. Texas Tech

Utah schedule

• Aug. 29: Utah 49, Southern Utah 0
• Sept. 7: Utah 23, Baylor 12
• Sept. 14: Utah 38, Utah State 21
• Sept. 21: Utah 22, Oklahoma State 19
• Sept. 28: Arizona 23, Utah 10.
• Oct. 5: Bye
• Oct. 11: Arizona State 27, Utah 19.
• Oct. 19: TCU (8:30 p.m., ESPN)
• Oct. 26: at Houston
• Nov. 2: Bye
• Nov. 9: BYU
• Nov. 16: at Colorado
• Nov. 23: Iowa State
• Nov. 29: at UCF (6 p.m., Fox)

All times Mountain time zone.