Editor’s note: This story is the 15th in a series previewing each football team in the Big 12 in 2024.
Kyle Whittingham has accomplished a lot during his illustrious 19-year run as the head coach of the University of Utah’s football team.
A Mountain West conference championship? Check.
An undefeated season and BCS bowl win over Nick Saban and Alabama? Check.
Two Pac-12 championships? Check.
There’s only one accomplishment, aside from a Rose Bowl victory, that has eluded Whittingham and his team — a berth in the College Football Playoff.
The Utes have been close before, notably in 2019, when they entered the Pac-12 championship game against Oregon with an 11-1 record and a No. 5 ranking in the CFP poll.
A win against the Ducks would likely have punched the Utes’ ticket to the playoff, but Utah was manhandled along both lines in uncharacteristic fashion, losing 37-15.
While the Utes won back-to-back Pac-12 titles in 2021 and 2022, they didn’t have the sterling regular-season record to be considered one of the top four teams in the nation.
But this season, the College Football Playoff expands to 12, and the five highest-ranked conference champions will receive an automatic bid. The top four highest-ranked conference champions will receive a bye and move directly to the quarterfinals. This means the champion of each of the four major “autonomy conferences” — SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 — are practically guaranteed a berth — and a bye — in the playoff.
For Utah, it’s simple. Win the Big 12, and the Utes are in the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history.
“Our players were excited about the opportunity. We control our own destiny. If we’re able to win the championship of the Big 12, we are going to the playoffs. We don’t have to hope somebody votes us in,” Whittingham said.
Utah football in 2024
From Whittingham on down, the expectations are high for the Utes in their first season in the Big 12.
The media agrees, voting Utah No. 1 in the preseason conference poll.
“The state of our program right now, where we are, we expect to play for championships every year. That’s just how it should be. That’s the expectation that we’ve created. Certainly, being able to have access to the playoffs like never before is a motivating factor,” Whittingham said.
Whittingham says that Utah’s roster is equipped to compete “right away” in its new conference home, led by quarterback Cam Rising. Rising returns after missing all of the 2023 season due to knee surgery rehab and is the main reason for the optimism in Salt Lake City.
Cam Rising
Over his two seasons as the full-time starter, Rising has thrown for 5,572 yards and 46 touchdowns over his Utes career and led the Utes to back-to-back Pac-12 titles.
The sight of him under center again is a welcome one for Utah’s coaching staff after Bryson Barnes and Nate Johnson largely failed to get the “throw game” going last year. Though Barnes did have a good showing in wins over Florida and USC, the Utes’ passing offense ranked No. 117 in FBS last year (165.8 yards per game) and the offense as a whole mustered just 23.2 points per game — No. 98 in FBS, one spot ahead of rival BYU.
A healthy Rising — he played every minute of spring practice and looked like his old self — should fix Utah’s passing game woes if he plays at the level that he did in 2021 and 2022.
He’s perfectly suited to Andy Ludwig’s offense and has helped elevate it to new heights, as Utah averaged 36.1 points per game in 2021 and 38.6 in 2022.
“He immediately makes us better,” Whittingham said.
He continued, “And Cam has that ‘it’ factor. As much as he does for us in play, it’s his leadership that really is probably the most valuable asset that he brings to the football team. He’s one of those guys that’s able to make everybody around him better. And that’s really what a great player does, is he makes his supporting cast play better.”
Wide receivers
That supporting cast includes a talented group of pass catchers, headlined by USC transfer Dorian Singer, who has already developed chemistry with Rising during the offseason.
That was on display at Utah’s spring game, where Singer led all receivers with 92 yards on five receptions during Rising’s three series, including a 40-yard deep ball.
“He’s such a hard worker. He always wants to go out there and throw, always wants to go catch the football pretty much, and because of that, I think we’ve developed a lot of chemistry in such a short time and it’s just going to keep getting better,” Rising said.
Singer had 66 receptions for 1,105 receiving yards and six touchdowns in 2022 for Arizona, but his production fell after transferring to USC last season. He had 289 yards and three touchdowns on 24 receptions.
After a good spring, Utah is hoping for a 2022-like season out of what could be their new WR1.
While the Utes lost two of their top four receivers from last year, senior Devaughn Vele (43 receptions for 593 yards) and promising Mikey Matthews (29 receptions for 261 yards), Utah reloaded well with the additions of Singer and Syracuse transfer Damien Alford. The 6-foot-5, 210-pound senior was the Orange’s leading receiver last year with 33 receptions for 610 yards and three touchdowns, and is a deep…
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