STILLWATER, Okla. — With veteran quarterback Cam Rising sidelined for a second straight week, No. 12 Utah turned to backup quarterback Isaac Wilson at Boone Pickens Stadium on Saturday and then leaned on the true freshman quarterback to pull out a blowout win in the program's Big 12 opener.
In his second career start, Wilson completed 17 of 29 passes for 207 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions, providing a number of key moments and lifting the Utes to a 22-19 victory over No. 14 Oklahoma State to become the first true freshman starting quarterback to beat an AP Top 25 opponent in program history.
“I like that he's stuck with it and never gotten discouraged,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “He threw a couple of interceptions. He didn't flinch. You could see his running ability. He had a 40- or 50-yard run. That was huge at the time. He put his shoulder down and made another tough run in the red zone that allowed us to get a first down. He's a competitor.”
Ahead of one of the most anticipated games on the 2024 Big 12 schedule, ESPN reported Saturday that Rising would be a late decision against Oklahoma State. The seventh-year quarterback hasn’t played since injuring his throwing hand against Baylor on Sept. 7. Wilson made his first career start against Utah State in Week 3, completing 20 of his 33 passes for 239 yards and three touchdowns in place of Rising during a 38-21 road win.
Whittingham told reporters the two quarterbacks split practice reps during Utah’s preparation for Week 3 against Oklahoma State. On Saturday, Rising wore a protective glove on his throwing hand and took starting reps in pregame warmups before the Utes made the decision to go with Wilson in a matchup of top-15 Big 12 College Football Playoff contenders.
“When he's ready, he'll be ready,” Whittingham said of Rising's status. “That's all I can say. We were hoping he'd be ready this week.”
“It was literally a last-minute decision,” Whittingham continued. “It wasn't game day; it was game time. We went into the locker room after all the warmups, had a little conference and decided the guy who gave us the best chance to win was Isaac. Cam agreed. That's what we did and that's the direction we went.”
Whittingham said Utah was “without a doubt” the more physical team Saturday after the Utes outscored Oklahoma State 249-48 on the ground and held the ball for 42:26 of game time. Sixth-year running back Micah Bernard led the rushing attack, totaling a career-high 182 yards to become the first Utah running back to eclipse 150 yards since Zack Moss gained 160 yards against Stanford in 2018.
But the play of Wilson, brother of former BYU quarterback and current Denver Broncos quarterback Zach Wilson, was pivotal to a win that further cemented the Utes as the Big 12's top seed this fall.
Isaac Wilson, a Utah high school state champion and ESPN’s 13th-ranked pocket passer in the class of 2024, began his second career start for the Utes with a pair of incomplete passes before Oklahoma State safety Trey Rucker intercepted Wilson’s first pass on the field of the day to end Utah’s second offensive drive.
The shaky start offered a window into Wilson’s composure and maturity. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound quarterback followed the interception with completions on 11 of his next 14 passes, including five of 15-plus yards. Wilson’s confident read in the fourth quarter was the difference in a 45-yard touchdown pass to tight end Brant Kuithe on what proved to be the deciding score before the Utes fended off a late Oklahoma State comeback attempt.
But Wilson's best moments came when the young quarterback used his legs. Facing a fourth-and-short in the second quarter, Wilson ran through Cowboys cornerback Korie Black, keeping alive an 11-play, 62-yard touchdown drive that consumed 6:28 of play time.
Wilson showed off his speed minutes after halftime when he broke out of the pocket and outran the Oklahoma State defense for a 48-yard run. He turned to his legs again for a fourth-down conversion in the fourth quarter, another in a series of critical plays Wilson executed on a day when Utah converted four of its five fourth-down attempts to defeat its first top-15 opponent since 2018.
“The team trusts me, so I have to make a play,” Wilson said when asked where he gets his confidence in pressure situations. “They didn't give us any coverage pretty much the whole game. Nobody was guarding me. So when I broke that protection zone, I knew I was going to be there.”
Utah's smooth transition at quarterback was a stark contrast to the quarterback debacle that unfolded on the opposite sideline on Saturday.
Oklahoma State seventh-year quarterback Alan Bowman opened the game with completions on four of his first 10 throws and then completed just two of his next 12 attempts before halftime, finishing the first half 8 of 22 passing for 89 yards and an interception. With the Cowboys trailing 10-3 at halftime, coach Mike Gundy opened the second half with sophomore quarterback Garret Rangel under center.
On the four drives Rangel directed, the Cowboys gained 32 yards and a first down in 15 plays as Utah built a 22-3 lead during the early stages of the fourth quarter. Bowman then re-entered the game with 9:26 remaining and was intercepted on his second drive before completing his final eight passes with a pair of touchdowns as Oklahoma State mounted a late comeback, gaining 127 yards on its final two drives.
The Cowboys' offense exploding in the late stages only made the unit that struggled so much through the first 55 minutes all the more puzzling. Despite Bowman's inconsistent performance and temporary suspension, Gundy committed to the veteran quarterback as Oklahoma State's starter going forward as the Cowboys face No. 13 Kansas State in Week 5.
“Sometimes, you have to take a guy out and calm him down a little bit,” Gundy said. “I felt like we weren't having a good game and we needed a relief pitcher. Put somebody else in there. And Garrett had a rough day. So, we switched spots.”
