Unrivaled Digs Into Utah Football QB Cam Rising’s Game Week Comments
Aug 30, 2023, 12:05 PM
Cameron Rising #7 of the Utah Utes laughs during warmups before their game agaisnt the Stanford Cardinal at Rice Eccles Stadium November 12, 2022 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Chris Gardner/ Getty Images)
(Photo by Chris Gardner/ Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY – All offseason there have been questions about whether or not Utah quarterback Cam Rising will start against the Florida Gators in the season opener.
What we know is that Rising tore his ACL on January, 1, 2023 in the Rose Bowl against Penn State, he missed all of spring practice and he has been taking part in fall camp but not always as a full participant.
It has been 242 days since the injury, about right at the eight-month mark. Even just Rising’s return even practice is pretty impressive, but playing in a real football game is different. Plus, if Rising is able to play how effective will he be?
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham is known to keep these things close to the vest. Last year against Washington State, it wasn’t known until minutes before kickoff that it was Bryson Barnes to start over Rising. It was so secretive, that the radio and TV crews of that game were caught off guard.
or was it the moment right before the game that we found out @bryson_barnes10 would lead us to victory? 🙌 pic.twitter.com/TvC0Mtsktr
— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) June 23, 2023
Whittingham said it has been wait-and-see all fall camp. If Rising doesn’t go it will be between Barnes and Nate Johnson.
“Nate has really closed the gap,” Whittingham said. “You have to weigh everything- you have Barnes who won the Washington State game and performed very well in the Ohio State game when he went in.
“Nate has done well in the limited reps he’s got, but it hasn’t been extensive so there is a lot of- I don’t want to say guess work, but projecting. You’ll see Nate Johnson in this game no matter what happens.”
Cam Rising Comments Before Game
The guys on Unrivaled dug into what Rising said to reporters the week of the game.
“I am excited it’s finally here and Thursday can’t come here fast enough,” Rising said. “We are just confident in the guy that’s first-string or second-string and no matter what happens you will be next man up.”
When asked about his status, it seems like it is a game-time decision, at best.
“It will be about 10 – maybe 7 minutes – you never know, you gotta go out there and prepare like I would for any other game,” he added.
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Unrivaled’s Alex Kirry is trying to read through the lines of these comments. He thinks that while Rising is saying he is prepping for this game like all the games, what he is really saying he has trust in either Barnes or Johnson.
“You can almost hear the tongue firmly in the cheek when asked about the whole thing,” Kirry said. “He is ‘like remember that Wazzu game?’ This is more of a game-time decision than that. You heard him at the beginning [of the clip] saying he is confident in the guy who is first-string and confident in guy who is second-string.”
Rising was likely discussing the depth of the entire Utah team with these comments, but fans are hungry for any hints on whether or not he will play against the Gators.
“He rolled out that sounded like he is confident in those other two guys who may be going into the game.”
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