Utah quarterback Isaac Wilson played his guts out during Saturday’s college football game against Colorado. However, he quite literally did not have any guts to spill in the first place.
The true freshman signal-caller completed 21-of-40 pass attempts for 236 yards and two touchdowns, with two interceptions, while battling through a nasty bout of the flu. His mother set the record straight after a week of widespread, uninformed speculation about her son and his health status.
Wilson, a four-star recruit in the Class of 2024, chose to play college football at his parents’ alma mater instead of following his three older brothers to BYU. He was never supposed to start this year!
Utah’s quarterback carousel is exhausting.
Seventh-year senior Cam Rising began the season as QB1. Wilson, Brandon Rose, and Sam Huard battled it out for the backup role during fall camp. It was the younger brother of Zach Wilson who won the QB2 job.
Rising missed a few games in late September and early October, and suffered a season-ending leg injury during his return. As a result, Wilson started wins over Utah State and Oklahoma State, and a losses to Arizona, TCU and Houston.
Head coach Kyle Whittingham ultimately went to his bench for the Holy War. Rose got the start but he too suffered a season-ending injury during the loss to BYU. Huard also had season-ending surgery.
Needless to say, Utah has had an unexpectedly difficult year at quarterback.
Isaac Wilson is back!
With Rising, Rose and Huard out, Wilson was thrust back into the spotlight for Saturday’s game against Colorado. Only he and former walk-on Luke Bottari are left.
It seemed as though the Utes were going to be down to just Bottari on the back-end of last week. Rumors started to swirl about Wilson’s health. There was concern that he had mononucleosis.
Even though it is not uncommon for a college kid to get mono, the timing and the optics of the illness would have been absolutely brutal. Especially if Wilson could not play against the Buffs.
Fortunately, the rumors were mostly false. Isaac Wilson was very sick but it was not mono. He played the entire game while running on fumes.
Lisa Wilson, the Wilson family matriarch, clarified what happened with her youngest son.
The result is not what Utah wanted. Isaac Wilson’s three picks were not ideal.
And yet, it is hard to ask more of a guy who could not keep food down and battled through a 102-degree fever. That’s a warrior. He left it all out on the field!