Invite back: Utes’ Increasing shines in 5-TD return
Aug 30, 2024, 02:11 AM ET
SALT LAKE CITY– Cameron Rising made his return with a career-high 5 touchdown passes– 3 to Brant Kuithe– to power No. 12 Utah to a 49-0 win over Southern Utah on Thursday night.Rising, a seventh-year senior quarterback, shined in his very first game action because tearing multiple knee ligaments in the Utes’Rose Bowl loss to Penn State on Jan. 2, 2023, going 10-of-15 for 254 backyards and 25 rushing backyards as the 84th consecutive sellout crowd at Rice-Eccles Arena held its cumulative breath on each rush. He left the game in the 2nd quarter with Utah up 35-0 after leading five successive scoring drives.” I just kept an eye out into the sort of stands and took a second to just take it in and breathe, but that feeling sort of heads out of the way once the coin toss actually occurs, and after that you’re simply concentrated on winning the game,”said Rising, who missed out on the whole 2023 season.Kuithe, who also missed last season and most of the 2022 campaign, caught three touchdown passes– all in
the 2nd quarter. He captured a 29-yard toss for a rating on the very first play of the quarter before an 18-yarder 3 minutes later on. With 1:08 to play in the half, Kuithe eradicated 3 defenders on his method into completion zone on an 11-yard grab.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated “It’s great and easy when you got a guy like this,”Rising stated, nodding to Kuithe.”Grown man.
“Rising’s barrage marked the first time Utah had five passing TDs in a half considering that Brian Johnson versus San Diego State in 2008, the last season Utah went undefeated.In their very first game as a member of the Huge 12 Conference, the Utes churned 513 yards of total offense in their 15th straight win over FCS opponents. Utah reached the 500-yard mark only as soon as in 2023, against Arizona State.”I hope we didn’t do [Increasing] an injustice. We didn’t cover anybody, “Southern Utah coach DeLane Fitzgerald said.”We didn’t make the windows really tight.
We didn’t make him have to be extremely precise on the tosses. “Kuithe wrote his method into the Big 12 record book as the very first tight end to ever have 3 touchdown receptions in a half.” Been getting ready for two years, and simply feels good to understand I can still do it,” Kuithe said.The Utes have actually opened the year in the house 15 times under coach Kyle Whittingham and are 14-1 in those games. They didn’t leave any doubt
in this one as Increasing discovered Dijon Stanley on a wheel route for a 64-yard
rating on Utah’s first possession.Stanley outran the defense on a comparable play for a 79-yard TD catch in the 2nd quarter and ended up with 150 backyards on three receptions while leading the team in rushing with 34 yards.” Anywhere that they might use me, I seem like I have an unique skill set,”
Stanley said.” That TD resembled the biggest minute of my life, practically.”Starting cornerback Kenan Johnson, a transfer from Georgia Tech, left in the very first quarter with an obvious leg injury. Cornerback is Utah’s
thinnest position, according to coaches coming into the season.