Is QB2 race really a “dead heat”?

[SalUteopia]

Based on the Spring Game, did anyone think the QB2 battle is actually a “dead heat”? Very small sample size, but Wilson looked better than Rose IMO.
Some questions:
Will Wilson be ready to go behind Rising in 2024 given his pending surgery?
Hypothetically, even if Wilson is ready, will KW use a true freshman as a QB2?
Since the chances of the above 2 happening are low, is Rose practically our QB2, or do we find someone in the portal?

[MDUte]

Agreed. IMO it wasn’t even close between Wilson and Rose. Wilson as a true freshman is way ahead of Rose. IMO the coaches would say dead heat hoping to keep Rose at Utah for QB3 depth. But it wouldn’t surprise me if Rose hits the portal.

[The Miami Ute]

Yeah, that wouldn’t surprise me at all either. If Rose can’t beat out a true freshman for the back-up job, hard to see how he’s ever going to see the field unless some catastrophe strikes. Then again, you never know. Maybe he likes it in Salt Lake City.

[MDUte]

This kind of answered all the questions of why the coaches weren’t going to Rose when like Barnes went down or was struggling and everyone was calling for Rose in the bowl game. If he’s that far behind a true freshman, I don’t think he would’ve been a much better option last year unfortunately even though fans were all up in arms about Whitt not going with him at the end. Just shows me that fans should really trust the coaches are going with the best available options that give the team the best chance to win. As bad as the fans want to win, nobody wants to win more than the player and coaches.

[The Miami Ute]

Yeah, well..don’t want to rehash old arguments but, if you knew Rose was what he is, why not look in the portal for a serviceable replacement?

[MDUte]

Agreed. I think the issue was likely a lack of NIL for a QB that was any better than what already had.

[Roy Rangum]

I have a friend that from time to time gets inside info, and last spring I had heard from him that the coaches were very worried that neither Rose nor Johnson had what it took and they were planning to hit the portal for a QB, but clearly that never happened.

While a lot of people interpret Whitts statement that they didn’t go after a QB in the portal to mean that they felt good about Nate Johnson and Rose, I’m guessing that statement had far more to do with the fact that Utah didn’t have a realistic chance at a good portal QB between lack of additional NIL money and that a potential transfer QB could be benched if Cam came back.

I think this all goes back to the original statement that we should trust our coaches (particularly coach Whitt). While they are not perfect, they know far more than we do, and want to win far more than we do.

And just to put it out there in the same breath: I also think Cam Rising had good intentions as well (in part as evidenced by the fact he left money on the table to come back to Utah this year when he could have gone elsewhere for more), but in hindsight he could have handled it better.

[HATUman]

But did he leave money on the table? Isn’t his NIL up around $2 million? That’s a helluva lot more than a rookie FA contract. He likely knew he wouldn’t be back till late in the season last year, and knew that there was just too much ground to make up to create a large enough sample size to get a decent draft pick. He played it smart, sat out for the year and (if he can stay healthy) will hopefully tear up the big 12 this year, get a playoff spot and significantly improve his draft stock.

[MDUte]

I was told Cam is getting $1.5M this year, up from $1M last year. And he was being offered as much as $2M to transfer elsewhere.

[MDUte]

Great post Roy Rangum…spot on IMO!

[EagleMountainUte]

Well Miami said he didn’t want to rehash the argument. My problem is people use a different set of facts to frame it as “trust the coaches”. Or Rising wasn’t that bad and he could have handled it better.

Don’t cherry pick facts to fit a narrative.

[Ute Dub]

Wilson still has to have surgery, right? If so, Rose will have ample opportunity to be QB2 and preogress in the system. Will Wilson even play this year?

[Uteanooga]

I wonder what is the rough ratio of “serviceable” QBs in the portal to programs who would like to upgrade their QB room. I would guess that at least half of programs would like to upgrade at QB and that the number of such QBs is pretty low. Hence their significant price tag.

Perhaps 1/4, maybe 1/8. For every such QB, 4 or 8 teams would like to bring them in. Does anyone have any data on this issue?

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