Knowing what we know now, if you were in Whitt’s shoes

Sick of discussing this.

Cam is our best QB and, when healthy gives the Utes their best chance of winning. Period.

Win now is typically any program’s goal. A coach doesn’t have time and tolerance on his side.

Add to this taking the next step of CFP, the small and fleeting window of P2 opportunity and talent and experience on both sides of the ball, we have been in win now mode ever since that 2nd Rose Bowl.

Cam Rising gave us the best chance to win and maximize our opportunities and he still does.

Cutting bait pre-2023 might have given us enough runway to find and prep a transfer QB to keep us on track. However, it was and is better to dance with the devil you know than the one you don’t know. Successfully finding a good and ready QB is hard to do in any case. Compounding this is Whitt and Lud’s low QB aptitudes and it’s safe to say, we would not have a better option in place today.

Cut bait now and you shut the door on all 2024 opportunities. Maybe 2025 will benefit, assuming Isaac Wilson is the guy and grows accordingly, but would we win the B12 and go to the playoff in 2025 losing all starting skill players on the offense and a few more key players and leaders? Not highly likely.

We didn’t and don’t have the luxury of taking these risks. We have to win now. We have to take advantage of all opportunities to put the program in a positive light and position and Cam has always given us the best chance to do this. After all, when he plays a season, he has always delivered.

I see what you’re saying. Of course you keep Cam, but for every returning starter you bring back you’re missing out on portal transfers.

Hell no. If I’m Whitt, I open practice back up and stop with these injury nonsense.

If we can all watch practice, we know that Cam isn’t ready last year. And Whitt gets questions and has to have accountability as to why he is giving Cam reps when he isn’t ready. And maybe because Whitt has to be accountable, he gives Barnes/Johnson more reps and we have a better QB situation last year.

And same for this year. If we can watch practice, we can see that Cam has no zip on the ball, Whitt has to be accountable for his decision to not give more reps to Wilson, Wilson gets more reps earlier in the week and is hopefully better on Saturdays.

All of this is because Whitt doesn’t want to be accountable for his decisions, so he shuts everything down and tries to be coy and secretive, which leads to all these misunderstandings.

Like I’ve always said, any organization that hides things…that is suspect. Open your books, open your spending, open your decisions. Sure, it leaves you open to criticism, but it also requires you to be your best.

I’ve said this a few times already. Given the current circumstances, Utah’s best move after the 2023 Rose Bowl would have been to part company with Rising. That’s hindsight but, if I was Whitt and I knew the full extent of his injury, and I can’t imagine he didn’t, that’s exactly what I would have done. Doing so would have opened the QB1 spot for any number of QBs available in early 2023 and, yes, Cam’s NIL package would have been diverted to whoever came in.

Last year was a disaster any way you look at it. So at the end of last season our options were:
1. Rose who never took a snap and got beat out by Barnes.
2. Wilson an incoming freshman
3. Find a veteran QB in the portal who doesn’t know Ludwig’s offense (Bentley and Brewer) and want 1.7 million Gabriel unknown$$ Cam Ward. Neither and the other top tranfers would have interest in Whitts conservative offense.
4. Cam at 1-1.5 million has won two CCGs knows the offense and is a local hero. He could have made more $$ elsewhere but chose to stay and get Whitt the CFP he is after.

Decisions were made based on Cams full recovery from knee surgery not if he was going to get hurt again by a freak accident. The season is not over yet with 7 games left. What was a better option?

Miami I’m sure they looked at options at QB. 2023 was a mistake not finding a portal QB. 2023 was a disaster period. 2024 is a different circumstance. Rising was the right choice to give us the best chance to win and mentor Wilson. We are 4-1 which everyone predicted we would be at this point. 7 games left its a little early to judge on results until the results are in. If Rising comes back and leads us to another CC then it would be the right choice. Shoulda coulda woulda only applies when the season is over not 5 games in.

Chingiskhan, YES! 100% YES!

Sticking with Rising got us last season. Sticking with Risng got us a QB who took all the 1st team reps which were wasted and held back Wilson’s progress. Rising waited too long to throw the ball away which led to his injury.

YES!

JJ gone, YES, it hurt our run game. YES, it has taken NIL money which could have lured better players or kept JJ. YES!

Good points. I pointed out over a year ago that keeping Cam around for 20 years is going to end up being a net negative on our team. The dude is permanently injured and no one is coming to Utah to play QB when they can see that we have a pathetic, illogical, pathological obsession with Cam Rising. At this point not only is keeping Cam around looking like a worse and worse decision, but after watching this sad joke of team management, keeping Whitt around is looking like it too.

I’m watching Vandy play right now and the only time we’ve played like that in the last decade is against Ohio State and Oregon. Once apiece. I’m tired of hoping Utah will play with the fire of 15 years ago when everyone knows it’s not coming back.

Dumb question, but do we really think the coaches keep giving Cam #1 reps when he has “no zip” on the ball? Maybe it’s the coaches that are the problem and not Cam?