Cam Rising Named Starting Quarterback For Utah Football

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Kyle Whittingham and the Utah football team has named Cam Rising the starting quarterback for the 2020 season.

Rising will be the next signal caller to lead the Utes after Tyler Huntley’s successful tenure at Utah led him to the Baltimore Ravens.

It was revealed during warmups that Rising was the starting QB for the Utes as they were getting ready to face the USC Trojans in the season opener.

Cam Rising will be Utah's starting quarterback. Jake Bentley No. 2 and Drew Lisk at No. 3.#GoUtes @kslsports

— Trevor Allen (@TrevorASports) November 22, 2020

Rising beat out South Carolina transfer Jake Bentley and senior Drew Lisk for the starting QB job.

Rising’s Time At Utah

After arriving at Utah as a transfer from Texas, Rising was on the scout team and impressed the coaches and players during that time. During home games, Rising observed offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Andy Ludwig in the booth.

During fall camp, Kyle Whittingham was asked where Rising made the biggest leap from last year on the scout team to now.

“He has really become a much better decision maker and taking care of the ball quarterback,” Whittingham said. “He was a little bit of a loose cannon last year and thinking to force the ball in when there was really no play there to be made. He has become the type of quarterback now that he is outstanding with his decision, goes right through his progression, goes through his progression pretty quickly. It goes from one to two to three in the blink of an eye and gets the ball out quick. That’s probably the biggest difference is he’s much more decisive in his read progression, in his decision making and taking much better care of the ball. He threw a lot more interceptions last year than he did this year (in fall camp). He has been great this year not turning the ball over. That’s one of the top things you’re looking for in a quarterback. I mentioned all of the attributes, but not turning the ball over is right there at the top.”

Rising has climbed the ranks after facing one of the best defenses in school history every week in practice last season. He was facing defensive linemen Bradlee Anae, Leki Fotu, John Penisini and Mika Tafua. Linebackers Francis Bernard and Devin Lloyd. The young QB also had to throw to his receivers while make sure defensive backs Julian Blackmon, Jaylon Johnson, Josh Nurse, Terrell Burgess and Javelin Guidry didn’t pick it off.

“Well, it’ll make him progress or it will make him quit the game, one of the two because our defense last year was phenomenal,” Whittingham stated. “He’s still with us so he obviously didn’t quit. So he learned a ton. It was good for him to be the scout team quarterback last year. He did a great job running that scout team and it couldn’t be a better training ground for a QB than going against that defense.”

Texas Transfer

The Newbury Park, California native joined Utah in 2018 after transferring to the Utah program from Texas but had to sit out most of the 2019 campaign due to NCAA rules. Rising was eligible for Utah’s Alamo Bowl game against Texas last season.

Coming out of high school, Rising was a four-star pro-style prospect that was ranked No. 33 in the state of California and No. 11 pro-style QB in the country. Originally a verbal commit of Oklahoma, Rising decommitted from the Sooners in April of 2017 and committed to Texas on the same day.

During his recruitment, Rising never received an offer from Utah but did receive offers from Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Arizona, Arizona State, California, Fresno State, Houston, Louisville, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Oregon, Oregon State, Penn State, San Diego State, Syracuse, TCU, UCLA, Washington State and West Virginia.

Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.