Whittingham says Utes quarterback decision is drawing near

SALT LAKE CITY  – Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham is getting closer to making a decision about his starting quarterback. But he may not announce it until game day November 7th against Arizona.

“The quarterback competition is coming to a head,” Whittingham said, “We think we’re about ready to make that decision and get a 1-2-3 in place. We’ve already got a 3, just get the 1 and 2 sorted out.”

South Carolina transfer Jake Bentley and Texas transfer Cam Rising are believed to be the two quarterbacks vying for the job, with senior Drew List as the third quarterback.

“The quarterback situation, we’re going to be behind whoever gets that starting position,” he said. “We just need to be in a position as tight ends to be able to help that quarterback out.”

They came in with a great mindset, they’re very competitive, all three of them,” said wide receiver Solomon Enis. “There isn’t any break in any of them, because when we all got back to camp everything was just clicking. I love it so far, and I love all three of those guys. “It’s going to be interesting how this all plays out.”

There was no practice on Monday for the Utes, and coaches are still reviewing the film from Saturday’s scrimmage. The quarterback battle is not their only focus.

“The defense continues to be a work in progress,” said Whittingham. “A lot of work to be done there, and we don’t have a lot of time to work with. We only have 12, 13 days before we play.”

“Just getting these two to three weeks of fall camp is really helping the guys get in rhythm,” added tight end Brant Kuithe. “Just getting these scrimmages going so we can have live reps because the defense hasn’t been able to tackle much. So it’s been pretty good work for the offense and defense so far.”

But Whittingham still doesn’t know how good his team is yet.

“It’s always hard to tell exactly where you are when you’re working against yourself and you don’t have any opponent to gauge where you’re at,” he said. “If you’re playing well on offense, you don’t know if it’s because you’re a good offense or not very good on defense. So we’re in that mode right now as far as trying to figuring out exactly where we’re at.”

The Utes will kick off the 2020 season November 7th at home against Arizona at 2:00 p.m.