Isaac Wilson, told 20 minutes before the game he was starting, helps Utes to 22-19 win at Oklahoma State

STILLWATER, Okla. — It was a true game-time decision for quarterback Cam Rising ahead of Utah’s 22-19 win over Oklahoma State Saturday.
The expectation heading into the game was that Rising, who suffered a ring finger injury in the Utes’ Sept. 7 win over Baylor, would return to play after missing the Utah State game last week.
Rising took the field for early warmups about 90 minutes before the game Saturday wearing a glove on his throwing hand and looked relatively good, throwing the ball at distances of 30 and 40 yards.
As he did against Utah State, Rising came out for Utah’s final warmups dressed in the team’s uniform, with the glove on his throwing hand and his normal knee brace. He took snaps from Utah starting center Jaren Kump and was out there for the coin toss.
But after the Utes won the toss, deferred to the second half and forced a quick Oklahoma State three-and-out, instead of Rising’s return, it was Isaac WIlson running out onto the field for his second straight start.
“We came into the locker room after all the warmups, had a little conference and decided that who gave us the best chance to win was Isaac. Cam agreed, and that’s the direction we went,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said.
Wilson split first-team reps with Rising in practice this week, with Wilson getting the majority of the reps in the latter part of the week. Even with some first-team reps under his belt, what a spot for Wilson’s second-ever college start — a top 15 matchup on the road in front of a sold-out crowd and playing in scorching temperatures that were reaching over 130 degrees on the field.
That would be tough enough by itself, but when you’re told that you’re starting just 20 minutes before the game, the degree of difficulty goes up that much more.
As expected for a true freshman in that situation, Wilson had his fair share of mistakes.
His first interception was a decent ball on a wheel route to Dijon Stanley, but Oklahoma State had scouted that play and safety Trey Rucker made an incredible interception.
The second pick came in a frenzied close to the first half that featured three turnovers in the span of less than a minute.
Utah had pretty much controlled the game during the second quarter, holding OSU to just 48 total yards of offense, but couldn’t capitalize enough to open up a lead larger than seven.
With the Utes up 10-3 and nearing the red zone, Wilson threw a screen pass to Micah Bernard, but Bernard fumbled the ball and the Cowboys recovered.
Two plays later, OSU quarterback Alan Bowman was picked off by Alaka’i Gilman, setting the Utes up at the OSU 37-yard line.
It was a huge gift for the Utes, who still had the chance to put points on the board going into halftime, but Wilson threw as he was getting hit, and Rucker broke in front of Brant Kuithe’s route for his second interception of the game.
Postgame, Bernard apologized for not only his fumble, but for missing the block that allowed the OSU defender to get home on Wilson.
In a nutshell, that summed up Saturday — sloppy offense, some great defensive performances and missed opportunities to put up points.
“There’s some really statistical imbalances that say we should have won that game by a lot more,” Whittingham said.
Wilson almost threw his third pick of the game on the first drive of the second half after underthrowing an end-zone ball to Dorian Singer, but the freshman got away with it.
The response after those mistakes is what impressed Whittingham.
“I liked that he just kept hanging in there and never got down on himself. Threw a couple picks, didn’t flinch. … He’s just a competitor. He’s a competitor just like Cam is. They’re both just complete, competitive guys that want to win and very confident guys,” Whittingham said.
Yes, there were certainly freshman moments in Wilson’s second-ever start, but there were some positives as well.
Wilson settled in near the end of the first quarter, completing 9 of 10 passes through the second quarter until the second interception. The true freshman also converted three times on fourth down — once through the air to Money Parks and two times with his legs.
“Team’s trusting me, so I got to go make a play,” Wilson said of the fourth-down rushing conversions. “They were giving us zero coverage pretty much the whole game. No one was manned up on me, so when I broke that pocket I knew I was going to be there.”
Wilson’s best play of the game came on third-and-11 early in the third quarter when he tucked the ball and ran 48 yards for a first down. He also had a good connection with Singer, who led Utah’s receivers with 95 yards on seven catches.
“It felt really great being out there with the guys driving up and down the field and just moving the ball really well,” Singer said.
Wilson also threw a touchdown pass to Kuithe with 6:21 left in the game — something that would prove to be crucial as OSU scored twice.
There were plenty of points left on the board from the Utah offense, something that will need to be cleaned up next week, but Wilson did get the Utes into field-goal range three times (Cole Becker converted two of three, which was the difference in the game).
The former Corner Canyon quarterback finished the game 17 of 29 with one touchdown and two interceptions. It was an ugly win, but considering the situation Wilson was placed in, it’s a victory that he — and the Utes — will take.
“I got to be prepared and I felt like I did some good, did some bad, but defense and this guy right here (Bernard) really pulled it out for us,” Wilson said.
Saturday had all of the fixing of a classic Utah win.
Dominant defense, a healthy dose of the run game and just enough missed scoring opportunities to make Utah fans want to pull their hair out.
Up until about six minutes left in the game, Utah had held OSU to just three points, 143 total yards and forced Cowboy coach Mike Gundy to make a quarterback change (and then make another one).
Just two times in 13 drives did the Cowboys get within scoring distance — making one field goal and missing another — and the Utes forced two interceptions.
Some of that was poor play by Oklahoma State — a Cowboy quarterback had an open receiver more than a few times but just missed the throw — but a lot was due to Morgan Scalley’s defense causing havoc.
Last year’s Doak Walker Award winner, Ollie Gordon, was neutralized by Utah’s rush defense, even without starting defensive end Connor O’Toole and linebacker Karene Reid.
Gordon had just 42 yards on 11 carries, and Oklahoma State had a total of 48 rushing yards.
The burden of offensive production was on Oklahoma State’s quarterbacks, and they couldn’t deliver. Utah had both quarterbacks rattled, and through the third quarter, both Cowboy signal callers (Alan Bowman and Garret Rangel) were a combined 11 of 30 with an interception.
“Proud of the defense. Defense played lights out up until the midpoint of that fourth quarter,” Whittingham said.
On the road, in scorching conditions, it was as good of a performance as you could hope for by the Utes’ defense, which dominated the time of possession — Oklahoma State had the ball for just 17:34.
Even after Oklahoma State inserted Bowman back into the game, he threw an interception with 6:31 left that appeared to extinguish any hope Oklahoma State had to win, especially when Wilson hit Kuithe for a 45-yard touchdown to put Utah up 22-3.
The game was seemingly in hand for the Utes, but some poor defensive play put the result in doubt.
Bowman marched down the field on two consecutive drives, picking apart the Utes’ defense on a three-play, 58-yard drive that was set up by a 38-yard kick return — and finding the end zone for the two-point conversion.
After OSU forced a Ute punt on the next possession, Bowman overcame a first-down sack and completed four straight passes — plus got an assist from Gordon, who had his only good run of the day on an 18-yard gain — to pull the Cowboys within three points with 1:46 left.
Bernard iced the game with a 4-yard run on third-and-3, but it was too close for comfort when the Utes looked to have the game in hand.
“They made some plays and we didn’t play as well as we needed to,” Whittingham said of OSU’s last two drives.
Make that the third consecutive 100-plus-yard game for Bernard, who has established himself as Utah’s premier running back.
Bernard was the one who looked like a Doak Walker Award winner on Saturday, rushing for 182 yards on 25 carries (7.3 yards per carry).
“Huge for us. He’s been instrumental to our success this whole season,” Whittingham said.
Credit Utah’s offensive line, who put together its best game of the year, for generating plenty of push for Utah’s backs — though they needed to be better on third down, where the Utes were just 5 of 18.
Like he did against Utah State, Bernard had a long run, this time a 62-yard gain, that once again featured stiff arms and broken tackles.
In a game where Utah’s other running backs didn’t do much, Bernard came through in a huge way for the Utes.
“It feels pretty good. Honestly, just, I’ve been trying to work for a long time to get, this is the most carries I’ve ever had,” Bernard said. “I’ve been trying, I’ve been working for the last five, six years to try to get to this level to where coaches trusted me and believe in me to have 25 carries, so it is been a long time coming and I’m finally glad that I got everybody’s trust in order to give me the ball.”