Utah’s Isaac Wilson (11) tackles Oklahoma State’s Iman Oates (99) in the second half of the college football game between the Oklahoma State University Cowboys and the Utah Utes at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024 . Standout quarterback Cameron Rising has experienced more bad luck and Utah’s season is on a downward spiral.
The Utes will have Isaac Wilson behind center for the long haul. They will try to stop a two-game skid Saturday night when they host TCU in Big 12 play in Salt Lake City.
Reesing suffered a season-ending injury to his right leg during last weekend’s 27-19 loss to Arizona State. Rising’s loss comes as the Utes (4-2, 1-2) face little chance of being in the postseason playoff mix.
“They have to be warriors and want to fight through some adversity,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “It’s not like we’re 1-5 and we’re sitting here with a horrible season. We’ve lost a couple games in a row and we’re not used to losing two in a row here.”
Reesing missed all of last season with a major left knee injury suffered in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 2, 2023. This season, the seventh baseman missed three games with a hand injury before going down against the Sun Devils.
“During his time at Utah, Cam has been a great player and leader for our program and will obviously be missed,” Whittingham said.
Wilson has passed for 830 yards and six touchdowns this season. However, the freshman has been intercepted seven times and has completed just 55.7 percent of his attempts.
Micah Bernard is coming off a 129-yard rushing performance that marks his fourth 100-yard outing of the season. Bernard has 676 yards and a healthy 6.6 per carry average.
The Horned Frogs (3-3, 1-2) are coming off a bye. Two weeks ago, they lost 30-19 to visiting Houston, a team that had been shut out in their previous two games.
TCU coach Sonny Dykes said his program went back to basics during the break.
“We’ve tried to focus a lot on the fundamentals,” he said Tuesday. “Playing lower up front, obviously better ball security and tackling, all that is important. We had a lot of opportunities last week to do some work and I thought we had really good practices and improved.”
The Horned Frogs feature an elite receiver in Jack Bech, who is tied for fifth nationally with 702 receiving yards. He also has seven scores on 39 receptions.
Bech has four 100-yard outings this season, with a game-high 200-yard effort against UCF on Sept. 14.
Quarterback Josh Hoover has completed 68.6 percent of his passes for 2,007 yards and 16 touchdowns, with six interceptions. The yardage ranks fifth nationally.
Utah leads 5-3 in the series. The programs previously faced each other in the Western Athletic and Mountain West conferences.
–Within field level
