Building Around Utah’s New QB1 Isaac Wilson Should Help Everybody

Oct 15, 2024, 1:52 PM | Updated: 1:54 pm

Utah Insider

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Football coach Kyle Whittingham announced Isaac Wilson will be the team’s starting quarterback. Given the update Monday evening that Cam Rising has indeed suffered a season-ending injury, this is now Wilson’s team.

Utah struggled to get anything going on offense against the Sun Devils, eventually falling by a score of 27-19. Largely due to the injury Rising suffered very early in the game, the offense continued to sputter. Despite Rising’s struggles, he continued to play through the pain.

“Cam’s a warrior, he wanted to play. We started moving the ball at the end of the half. Didn’t get into the end zone,” Whittingham continued. “That continued in the second half. We thought about it, talked about it, but he’s a vet and he’d let us know if he couldn’t go.”

That injury proved to be rather significant and has ushered in the Isaac Wilson era for Utah Football.

Isaac Wilson, Utah Football’s Starting Quarterback

After starting three games in place of Cam Rising, Wilson will now be the starter for the remainder of the season as Rising has suffered a season-ending injury. In his three starts, Wilson helped Utah to two victories, both of which came on the road, taking Utah State down, 38-21 and beating the Cowboys, 22-19.

As Brant Kuithe stated to the media on Monday, ‘It’s no longer freshman, it’s QB1,’ Wilson has taken on the mantle of starting quarterback for the Utes. Kuithe’s comment was short and to the point but it tells two different stories.

First, that there is belief in him and that he needs to carry himself as the guy. And second, that there is a responsibility to everyone else on the team and that time- given he’s a true freshman, is no longer a luxury.

“QB1” is the most important role on a football team. It’s the position that makes the biggest impact on a team’s performance. He has shown flashes of potential but his performance has been a mixed bag, marked by both encouraging moments and areas needing improvement.

However, now that Utah’s QB situation is settled and everyone knows Wilson will be the guy, there is reason to be optimistic about his immediate future.

One Game Plan Should Help Utah’s Offense

Moving forward Wilson will no longer be subject to the ‘will he, won’t he play’ drama. It’s now obvious that affected him and the team’s preparation. However, this is now his team and everything revolves around him.

“In those weeks that we didn’t know who was going to be starting, Isaac was taking a good amount of reps and he didn’t know if he was going to start,” Brant Kutihe said. “I think for him, knowing that he’s going to start and preparing the right way, I think it will help him a lot.”

Offensive coordinator, Andy Ludwig, also noted that without the back and forth, he will be able to better prepare for Wilson. This will allow coaches to build a foundational game plan around him, which can be tweaked and increased over time.

“We make the adjustments to fit the player, the individual players, and we’re just going to game plan to Isaac’s strengths and the team’s strengths moving forward,” he said. “As he continues to grow and mature in the position, the playbook will continue to expand with his knowledge and confidence level. It’s his show and we’re going to let him roll with it.”

Running back Micah Bernard believes that knowing Wilson is the guy will be a big help for the offense moving forward. Working with one quarterback and within one game plan, should help Wilson and the guys around him build the chemistry that’s been missing this season.

“I think it will help a lot because we’ve had different plays going in for different guys, depending on who’s in,” Bernard said. “Now, we ain’t gotta worry about that. So, I think it will help a lot, just building around the guy we got at quarterback, rather than two different game plans.”

Areas for improvement: Increase completion rate

Wilson so far has faired okay this season. He’s completed 68-of-122 passes for a 55.7% completion rate. That’s led to 830 yards, 6 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions. That’s led to efficiency numbers of 166.0 yards per game, 12.2 yards per completion, and 6.8 yards per attempt.

On Monday, coach Whittingham talked about the need to improve his completion percentage, as well as cut down on interceptions. Wilson is making a huge adjustment at this level. There’s a lot to process in a short amount of time.

He has the arm talent to execute just about every throw but learning to process the action in seconds is something that takes time and repetition. Something that can help significantly in this regard is increasing his options in the short, immediate areas of the field.

Give Wilson ‘easy buttons’

Currently, Wilson is attempting nearly 46% of his throws beyond 10 yards, with 19% of that number coming from attempts over 20 yards. He has attempted 43.4% of his throws between 1-9 yards, while only 7.4% of his throws behind the line of scrimmage or 50.8% total in the immediate areas of the field.

For comparison, as a redshirt freshman last season, quarterback Noah Fifita managed the Arizona offense brilliantly. That was due in large part to 40.3% of throws to the short area and 24.2% of throws behind the line of scrimmage for 64.5% total to the immediate areas of the field.

There were options to utilize underneath and that allowed Fifita to maintain high-efficiency levels in the passing attack. That complemented and even enhanced a strong run game, which dramatically improved Arizona’s 2023 offense.

That also minimized opposing pass rushes as he averaged just 2.55 seconds to throw. He was under pressure on just 27.8% of all his dropbacks. He still completed 55.7% of his passes for 7.9 yards-per-attempt average. Compare that to Wilson’s 2.80 seconds to throw and 34.1% pressure rate on all dropbacks. That has led to just a 37.1% completion rate and 5.4 yards per attempt.

It seems providing Wilson with more ‘easy buttons’ or options in the immediate areas of the passing attack is a no-brainer.