Florida Football: Utah’s offense is more than just Cam Rising

Tomorrow, Florida football takes on Utah in Salt Lake City on national television to kick off the 2023 season. The entire narrative surrounding the game is whether or not Utah QB Cam Rising will take the field and, if he does, if he will be anywhere near 100%.

And while we here at Hail Florida Hail, along with everyone else who writes about the Gators, have also spent a lot of web space on Rising, it turns out they do have other players on offense to help them move the ball.

Florida Football: Look in the mirror

As we have noted throughout the offseason, the pathway for Florida to move the ball this season will be handing the ball to Montrell Johnson and Trevor Etienne and letting them do work, followed by splicing in Ricky Pearsall and Eugene Wilson to get yards after the catch.

Utah, in many ways, looks to follow a similar formula.

Gone is Tavion Thomas, who tore up the Gators last season for 115 yards rushing, and in his place are running backs Micah Bernard and Ja’Quinden Jackson. Both returning backs saw significant action last season, and as a group Utah was 7th best in the country in yards per rushing attempt with 5.4 yards per attempt.

Bernard and Jackson tend to stay between the tackles and are very patient running backs, waiting for the hole to open up before barging forward. Jackson is the much larger back at 6’2″ and 228 pounds, but Bernard is no slouch at 6’0″ and 201 pounds.

Bernard did enter the transfer portal in the offseason, but ultimately removed his name and is still with the Utes.

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While Utah and Florida football are similar in this matchup for both having two capable running backs, one area Utah should have an edge is at tight end.

Dalton Kincaid is off to the NFL, but he wasn’t a factor in last year’s matchup.
Brant Kuithe, on the other hand, is back after racking up 105 yards receiving on nine catches last season.

Kuithe, like Rising, is coming off a torn ACL. But Kuithe tore his last September, and with a three-month head start on his recovery, appears to be ready to go. But Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham isn’t sharing too much.

Whereas Florida will look to dump off to some of their smaller receivers to make plays after the fact, Utah will look towards their 6’2″, 229 pounds matchup nightmare. Depending on the formations Utah opts to use, whether it’s in tight or spread out, we could see Florida freshman safety Jordan Castell, listed at 6’2″ and 220 pounds himself, given some reps to see how he matches up.

Obviously, the health of Cam Rising will have a trickle-down impact on the effectiveness of these other moving parts. If Rising plays but can’t really run, it will encourage Florida to double up on Kuithe, or whoever plays tight end, while loading up the box and daring Utah to find someone else who can beat them.

If Rising is healthy and can run, it adds a massive wrinkle into the offense that will cause problems of its own.

Consider Utah’s offense: Patrick Toney held them to 26 points last season, their third-lowest total of the regular season. It is possible to slow them down, but they are guys to account for no matter who is under center.