Utah
Utah season wrap-up: Offensive struggles provide déjà vu
In many ways, 2024 felt like déjà vu for Utah fans.
Starting quarterback Cam Rising missed the majority of the season after missing all of 2023, the production behind him never materialized, and the regular season ended with fifth-string Luke Bottari starting once again.
Sound familiar?
Yet again, offense was the weak link on Utah’s team as the Utes scored 23.6 points per game (14th in the Big 12), passed for just 199.4 yards per game (15th in the Big 12) and rushed for 130.4 yards per game (12th in the Big 12).
A season that began with such promise never materialized, as Utah went from preseason Big 12 favorites to finishing 13th in the 16-team league.
Injuries piled up once more on the offensive side of the ball, as Rising, quarterbacks Isaac Wilson, Sam Huard and Brandon Rose, tight end Brant Kuithe, running back Anthony Woods and offensive guard Michael Mokofisi all suffered season-ending injuries.
While the Utes were dealt another bad hand injury-wise, the offensive doldrums, just like last year, came down to the fact that there wasn’t a solid plan if Rising went down with injury.
Unfortunately for the Utes, Rising missed all but 2.5 games, injuring his fingers in Week 2 against Baylor, then suffering a season-ending leg injury in Week 6 against Arizona State.
Without a quarterback that could elevate the offense, Utah suffered seven-straight losses — the longest losing streak in the Kyle Whittingham era and the program’s lengthiest since 1986 — before winning the season finale at UCF with Bottari at quarterback.
The Utes missed a bowl game in a full season for the first time since 2013 — just the third time that’s happened in the Whittingham era.
Utah knows that it has to solve the quarterback quandary that has plaguetd it for two years to find success again, and it’ll be a huge priority this offseason.
“Well, we got to solve our quarterback problems, I can tell you that. And that has been a difficult thing this year,” Whittingham said. “… Quarterback, as I’ve said over and over, the most important position in football, in team sports, period, and you better be good there if you want to have a chance to win. So we’ve got to evaluate just like I’ve got to evaluate my situation, we’ve got to evaluate the quarterback situation and make sure we have ourselves covered for next year.”
With the season wrapped up, here’s a look at how each position group on the Utes’ offense performed in 2024.
Quarterback
With Rising on the sidelines for the majority of the season, backup duties fell to Corner Canyon High true freshman Isaac Wilson, who won the QB2 job in fall camp.
With Rising returning as the undisputed starter, Utah couldn’t attract a quality backup in the transfer portal. The school tried, offering multiple quarterbacks, including Michigan State’s Sam Leavitt, but starting-level quarterbacks wanted to go somewhere where they wouldn’t be the backup to start the year.
Whittingham and the Utah offensive staff decided Wilson would be the best backup — over Rose and Huard — and for the first couple of games, it felt like the right decision.
The true freshman helped Utah to road wins over Utah State and Oklahoma State, and while there was stuff to clean up in both games, he was able to get the job done.
As Wilson started in three of the next four games, his play left a lot to be desired as the losses piled up, offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig resigned, and the Utes failed to score more than 14 points with the true freshman at the helm. After losses to Arizona, TCU, and a poor first half at Houston, Wilson was benched.
Season-long issues kept creeping up over and over — he had a tendency to hold onto the ball a little too long, his processing never improved to an FBS-starter level, and he threw too many interceptions (11 on the season).
Wilson’s final stat line: 1,510 yards, 10 touchdowns, 11 interceptions on a 56.4% competition rate.
“He comes in on his own and watches a ton of film so we’re doing everything we can. He’s doing everything he can to continue to develop and see things quicker,” Whittingham said. “And that was another issue in the (Colorado) game particularly early on. It got better as the game wore on, but holding the ball too long and need to go through those reads and spit it out or tuck it and run.”
There were still flashes of potential, like a 40-yard touchdown pass against Colorado that was Wilson’s best throw of the season, a 71-yard score against TCU, or a throw against Utah State where Wilson didn’t take the easy underneath first-down completion, but instead made a tougher downfield throw to Money Parks, dropping the ball perfectly between two defenders for a 20-yard gain.
Those moments were too far and in between, however.
Utah shouldn’t write Wilson off after one season — he will continue to develop and he could become a good college quarterback, but he clearly wasn’t ready at this moment. The plan was never to have Wilson play this season except in mop-up time while he sat and learned from Rising for a season, but that went out the window early.
Would the Utes have been better served with Rose as their backup?
It’s a small sample size, and the third-year player wasn’t able to deliver a Ute win when he was inserted into the game in the third quarter against Houston, but Utah’s offense looked the most alive it had been since Rising was the quarterback with Rose under center against BYU before he suffered a season-ending Lisfranc injury.
As Utah moves onto the 2025 season, its next starting quarterback may not be on the roster, but in the transfer portal.
Offensive line
Utah had to replace three starters along the offensive line — tackle Sataoa Laumea, guard Keaton Bills and center Kolinu’u Faaiu — with tackle Spencer Fano and guard Micahel Mokofisi the only remaining starters.
For the majority of the season, Utah went with Caleb Lomu, Tanoa Togiai, Jaren Kump, Mokofisi and Fano.
As a unit, it was an up-and-down performance throughout the season, but one player stood above the rest and was consistently good.
Fano was rated the top tackle in all of college football (minimum 300 snaps) by Pro Football Focus, which gave him a grade of 91.5 (out of 100) on the season. Lomu also had a good first starting season.
Things got dicey in certain games along the interior offensive line, and as the season grew on — and the passing game continued to stagnate and loaded boxes became common — the line struggled to get push at times in the run game.
It’s impossible to completely separate quarterback play and line play, and the offensive line had a tough task this season in the run game due to the lack of a passing offense.
Running back
Utah started the year with a running-back-by-committee approach with Micah Bernard, Mike Mitchell and Jaylon Glover, but Bernard grabbed the RB1 role by the horns and no one really stepped up to be a change-of-pace back this season.
Bernard was the heart and soul of the offense, finally getting a chance to be the lead back after five years in the program. He made the most of his opportunity, becoming the 17th Ute to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
“He’s been huge this year. He has been the vast bulk and majority of our rush game this year. He’s by far got the most carries and the most production,” Whittingham said. “And talk about a guy who maybe thought he was done playing football last year to what he accomplished this year is pretty impressive, and we’re elated that obviously he was on our team this year and came back for this last year.”
While Bernard had some great performances — he rushed for over 100 yards four times this year — the lack of an RB2 was a little bit puzzling.
Of course, when you have an RB1 with the production of Bernard, they’re going to get the ball the vast majority of the time, but it’s nice to have someone that can help shoulder the load.
Mitchell assumed that role at the beginning of the year, but had a nagging injury much of the season and didn’t produce as much as hoped — 158 yards on 47 carries.
Beyond that, there was pretty much nothing. Glover only had 12 carries for 60 yards and Dijon Stanley wasn’t utilized much after the first game.
With Bernard graduating, this is one of the more intriguing positions heading into 2025. Who will grab the RB1 position?
Wide receivers
Dorian Singer is one of the most talented receivers Utah has ever had, and it would have been fun to see what he could have done with a healthy Rising.
Even with the middling quarterback play this season, Singer still had 702 yards and a touchdown on 53 receptions. He was the safety blanket for Wilson for much of the season and was a fantastic route runner, consistently getting open. His hands were the surest thing on the team, too — he dropped just one of his 93 targets this season.
Money Parks was a decent second option, catching 21 balls for 291 yards, but after that, there was a steep dropoff.
Mycah Pittman played through injury and wasn’t able to produce much, and players like Daidren Zipperer, Damien Alford and Taeshaun Lyons rarely saw the field.
One player to watch next season is Zacharyus Williams, who played four games (preserving his redshirt) and ended up with the third-most receptions among receivers — 10 for 101 yards.
Tight end
Perhaps the most puzzling position group on the team this year was the tight end room.
Brant Kuithe played for the first time since 2022 and had a great season with 35 receptions for 505 yards and six touchdowns before suffering a season-ending injury.
But a tight end room that was touted as six-deep never truly materialized this season.
You have to take the lack of production across the board overall into account, but for the majority of the season, Kuithe was the only tight end getting consistent targets. Landen King had just three receptions for 54 yards and Dallen Bentley had just two receptions for 15 yards.
Caleb Lohner had a solid year — he could have potentially been used a little bit more in goal-line situations — and made the most of his opportunity playing college football. He had four receptions — all of them resulting in touchdowns.
UCLA transfer Carsen Ryan was rarely utilized, but a strong game against Colorado — 78 yards on four receptions — made him the second-most-productive tight end this season in terms of yardage.
A lot of things didn’t go as planned for the offense this season, but the lack of utilization of the tight end room might be the most head-scratching.
SANDY — Vibes were as high as the temperature in some cases as thousands gathered at Real Salt Lake’s home stadium to cheer on the United States’ 2-0 win over Australia in the second match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Fernando Sanchez took it all in, between belts of his drum standing in front of more than 4,000 people at the Sandy stadium.
“I was born and raised in Mexico City,” said Sanchez, who hosts a podcast called the “Fercho Show” from his current home in Utah. “But I’m from the U.S. now.”
Four years after scoring just two goals in three group games before a 3-1 exit to the Netherlands in the Round of 16, the United States is flying under Mauricio Pochettino, exciting fans across the country — from the sellout crowd at 69,000-seat Lumen Field in Seattle to watch parties around the world, including Friday in Sandy.
“The vibe is amazing,” Sanchez told KSL.com. “You can see all of the people who came out, everybody is happy because this World Cup means so much for Utah, for everybody. It’s the best of the best from each country fighting on the field. That’s what it feels like, and it’s so good to be part of this game.”
Less than 24 hours after some 9,200 fans showed up at America First Field for Mexico’s 1-0 win over South Korea, Real Salt Lake employees braced to host as many as 6,000 American fans who submitted an RSVP to spend a portion of the Juneteenth holiday in 94-degree weather.
In-game hydration breaks became as much of a necessity for fans as the players in Seattle, with hundreds flooding the open hydration stations, concessions area, and a few food trucks at each “quarter break” installed by FIFA for the first time at a men’s World Cup.
While final attendance dropped to around 4,500 fans in Sandy, the spirits remained high as Folarin Balogun, who scored two goals in a 4-1 win over Paraguay in the World Cup opener, forced the opening goal off Australia’s Cameron Burgess.
Alex Freeman, the son of former Super Bowl champion Antonio Freeman who at 21 is the youngest player on the roster, doubled the advantage in the 43rd minute off a set piece that was initially ruled offside.
But after a lengthy video review where fans refused to sit down, pandemonium ensued as the U.S. fans in Sandy recognized their national team was moments away from clinching passage out of the group in the first men’s World Cup on home soil since 1994.
It’s the first time the United States men’s national team has won consecutive games at a World Cup tournament since 1930.
Yet it’s not just the wins, but how the Yanks are winning that has Americans excited about a sport that has made significant strides domestically in three decades since the founding of Major League Soccer.
The U.S. is winning with an exciting brand of attacking soccer led by Balogun, who grew up in England but chose to represent the country of his birth over his parents’ native Nigeria in 2023, and Christian Pulisic, the AC Milan winger with 33 goals in 87 international appearances from Pennsylvania who did not play Friday due to a calf injury.
“There’s a lot of American pride,” said St. George youth soccer player Tate Hurst, who showed up to the watch party with a half-dozen club teammates at Fire SC during Western Presidents Cup regional this weekend. “The American dream.”
Sunburn, heat and hydration aside, the moment created a memory for thousands of soccer fans and casuals alike. That included RSL season ticket holders, waiting until the end of the month-long international break for the club’s MLS season to resume in July.
But for one afternoon — and perhaps another, as the club plans to host a similar watch party next Thursday when the United States hosts Türkiye in Los Angeles (8 p.m. MT, FS1) — each soccer fan was pulling for the same team.
Except, perhaps, for the dozen or so Australia fans in the corner of the east lawn who represented their own Socceroos for the entire 90 minutes.
“Soccer brings everybody together,” one RSL staff member said over the public-address system as fans headed for the parking lot while James Brown’s “Living in America” blasted over the sound system after the full-time whistle. “That’s what today was all about.”
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah athletics is making a notable change to the Huntsman Center gameday setup, but the move is about more than where the team sits.
The Runnin’ Utes are moving the team bench from the east side of the Jon M. Huntsman Center to the west side, returning the bench to the side it occupied during the Rick Majerus era. The change will also move the MUSS and band from the west side to the east side.
The shift is part of a larger effort by Utah Athletics to improve the student-section experience, create a more consistent setup inside the Huntsman Center and better connect the arena to the university’s growing College Town Magic initiative.
Enhancing The MUSS And Fan Experience
Nowlin said the primary motivation behind the change is improving the MUSS and the overall fan experience.
“The reason we’re doing this is we want to enhance the MUSS,” Utah’s Deputy Athletics Director & Chief Revenue Officer, Patrick Nowlin said. “As an ongoing effort, we’ve been working on for the past two years, how do we enhance the fan experience?”
One issue Utah identified was that the MUSS had been located in different areas for different events. Moving the student section and band to the east side gives the department a more consistent location to build around.
“We wanted to create a better fan experience,” Nowlin said. “We wanted to be able to have one spot that we can build on, which means we can brand. We can enhance everything about it.”
The move also ties directly into College Town Magic. Nowlin said the area around the Huntsman Center will include more than 2,900 total beds, including more than 1,400 new beds, giving students a direct path from nearby housing to the student-section entrance.
“There’s over 2,900 new beds that are right there, which will be right at the branded entrance, right where the student section is,” Nowlin said. “They don’t have to go far at all. So it’s just a walk straight down from the dorm, right in the door.”
And according to Utah’s Patrick Nowlin, the move is not limited to men’s basketball.
“It’s not just men’s basketball. It’s all Huntsman Center events,” Nowlin said.
A Nod To Utah Basketball History
While the move is primarily about fan experience, there is also a clear basketball-history component.
The west-side bench location is where Utah sat during the Majerus era, when the Runnin’ Utes were one of the top programs in the country and the Huntsman Center had a different level of edge. Alex Jensen was part of that era as a player, and now, as Utah’s head coach, the move reconnects the current program with one of its most successful periods.
Nowlin said the historical connection was part of the conversation, even if it was not solely Jensen’s decision.
“Yeah, it’s a nod to history,” Nowlin said. “I think Alex, him being here, he’s a steward of the program. There’s a lot of history to having it on that side.”
Still, Nowlin made clear the change was not simply pushed through by Jensen.
“It wasn’t a push from him,” Nowlin said. “It was a concerted effort from everybody to where, how do we create an area that the MUSS can have, but also how do we lean into our history, but still move forward in a way that we can honor that, but create an unbelievable environment.”
That is the heart of the move. Utah is trying to bring back a piece of its basketball identity while also reworking the building for the future.
How Fans Will Be Impacted
The change will affect some season-ticket holders, donors and fans seated near the current bench, MUSS and band areas, but Utah tried to limit the disruption.
Nowlin said the department spent months working through the seating impact and expects fewer than 200 accounts to be directly affected. Those accounts are in sections T, U and V.
“This wasn’t something that just came about,” Nowlin said. “We’ve been working on this for a few months now, and we wanted to find a way that we could minimize the accounts that were directly impacted, but still create the fan experience change we were after.”
Utah’s plan is to work individually with affected fans and mirror their seat location as closely as possible on the other end of the court.
“If you’re on one end and now you’re going on the other end, we will work with you to get you in the seat that is similar to where you were and allow you to have the same experience you’ve had, just on the other end of the court,” Nowlin said.
Utah will also hold a virtual seat-selection process from July 7-17, allowing fans who want to move to choose from available options.
“We’re going to take care of everybody, but we’re also going to allow people the choice and the freedom to be able to make the changes they want to make,” Nowlin said. “We want to create every opportunity we can to give our fans opportunities to choose their own experience.”
Not Part Of The Huntsman Renovation
The bench and MUSS move is not directly tied to the larger Huntsman Center renovation discussions. Nowlin said the change is instead connected to College Town Magic and Utah’s effort to improve the student and fan experience inside the building.
“It does not have to do with the renovation, but it does have to do with College Town Magic,” Nowlin said.
The move could create some new seating and premium opportunities, particularly around courtside and floor seating. Nowlin said Utah is still evaluating those possibilities.
“By doing this, this will create additional opportunities for us on courtside and floor,” Nowlin said. “We’re also looking to how do we enhance our premium experience across the board. So this is a step in a process that will continue.”
The Bottom Line
Utah’s bench move is not just a nostalgic callback to the Rick Majerus era, and it is not just a seating chart adjustment. It is part of a broader effort to reshape the Huntsman Center experience.
The team bench is moving back to the west side, where Utah sat during some of the program’s most successful years. The MUSS and band are moving to the east side, where Utah believes it can build a stronger, more consistent student-section identity tied to College Town Magic.
For Utah Athletics, it is another step toward rethinking how the Huntsman Center looks, sounds and feels on game day. For Jensen, the move reconnects the program to its winning past.
The symbolism will matter to longtime Utah basketball fans. The logistics will matter to students, band members and season-ticket holders. But the larger goal is simple: make the building feel more intentional, more connected and more like home again.
Steve Bartle is the Utah insider for KSL Sports. He hosts The Utah Blockcast (SUBSCRIBE) and appears on KSL Sports Zone to break down the Utes. You can follow him on X for the latest Utah updates and game analysis.
Take us with you, wherever you go. Download the new & improved KSL Sports app from Utah’s sports leader. You can stream live radio, video and stay up to date on all of your favorite teams.
SALT LAKE CITY – The San Juan County assessor has resigned partway through his second term, following a recommendation that he be removed from office.
Rick Meyer’s resignation became effective on Monday, according to San Juan County Commissioner Lori Maughan. A copy of Meyer’s resignation letter was not immediately available.
This comes after the Utah State Tax Commission determined that Meyer had failed to follow the law and was “unfit to perform his duties.” In a letter last week to San Juan County commissioners, the tax commission recommended “the immediate removal of the San Juan County assessor from office to protect the public interest and restore the integrity of the property tax system in San Juan County.”
Among other things, Meyer was accused of failing to tax agricultural buildings, misclassifying property, and giving property tax exemptions to certain parcels, including vacant land, when he shouldn’t have.
The recommendation to remove Meyer from office was the first under a recent state law giving the Utah State Tax Commission more power to take corrective action against county assessors who aren’t doing their jobs properly. Assessors play a major role in the property tax process by determining the value of property throughout their counties.
Yet, it was unclear whether the San Juan County Commission could have actually removed Meyer from office had he not stepped down.
With Meyer’s resignation, the San Juan County Assessor’s Office has just one employee left. Deputy assessor Nathan Pitts will run the office until the San Juan County Republican Party recommends a replacement and the County Commission appoints one.
“It’s me holding down the fort here,” Pitts told KSL on Thursday, noting that he has spoken with the Utah Association of Counties and the state tax commission about plans for this interim period. “Everybody’s on board to assist and try to make it the best as we can, (but) I’ve definitely got my work cut out for me.”
Pitts said he does not plan to run for county assessor to replace his old boss.
“That is not my intention at all,” he said. “I’m quite content as a deputy assessor.”
Meyer was first elected as San Juan County assessor in 2020 and won reelection in 2024. His current term was set to conclude in 2029.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
-
Wyoming4 minutes agoWith high costs and access gaps, Wyoming’s elder care landscape is ‘in crisis’
-
Crypto7 minutes agoIran Moves to Close the Strait of Hormuz as Tensions Erupt Over Broken Ceasefire Deal
-
Finance12 minutes agoPersonal Finance: SpaceX IPO bends the rules | Chattanooga Times Free Press
-
Fitness19 minutes ago8News tries Pilates exercises for Fitness Friday
-
Movie Reviews27 minutes ago1986 Movie Reviews – Karate Kid Part II and Legal Eagles | The Nerdy
-
World36 minutes agoVideo: Moscow Tanker Blast Most Likely Russian Missile, Video Shows
-
News42 minutes agoVideo: The Sacred Catholic Site Where Trump Wants a Border Wall
-
Health1 hour agoThe Mental Trick That Ends Compulsive Eating and Makes Weight Loss Easier
