It’s also funny you say that about SDSU’s defense when they gave ZW absolute fits and are known for having a great defense. SDSU kept trying to blitz Rising and he burned them.
That’s why it’s 100% true that Rising could’ve been the difference in the BYU game. If BYU blitzed him on half the snaps like they did against Brewer, he showed he can make you pay for it. If BYU doesn’t blitz, the run game gets going and Utah plays how they normally do against BYU. Either way, it’s easy to see how that translates to a Utah win. BYU isn’t that good, and it took serious issues from Utah for them to get that win. Rising minimizes a lot of those issues