Cameron Rising’s week-to-week health status has officially become “a thing” — which is even a stretch to begin with. Anything “official” regarding the Utah quarterback’s availability should come with a disclaimer.
Believe at your own risk.
The amount of speculation, innuendo, projection and (increasing) annoyance from fans surrounding Rising’s health status deserves its own pregame show.
Will he play? Won’t he? Street clothes or dressed out? Forget Waldo, where’s Cam? Now let’s take this commercial break to catch our breath.
In case you missed him — and at some point you probably have — Rising is Utah’s 25-year-old fire-starter in his seventh season of eligibility who is Utah’s best player. He led the Utes to consecutive Pac-12 titles and back-to-back Rose Bowl appearances. But the last time we saw him complete an entire season was 2021.
Nothing wrong with that. Injuries happen. Rising played hurt in 2022 and was eventually knocked out in the final game of that season in the Rose Bowl against Penn State with a shredded knee. He next surfaced 606 days later in the 2024 season opener … but was injured again a week later against Baylor. More on that below.
What has emerged amid the weekly Rising Watch sits between typical injury reporting cageyness at best and conspiracy at worst. Someone, somewhere should have been more forthright.
Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t normal, even in a sport that sometimes makes a game of charades out of injury information.
It has gotten so weird that Utah message board geniuses suddenly have meaningful perspective.
From utefan2:
“Time to move on from an injury-prone starter.
Yes. Thank you for your heart and grit, but I believe at this point he’s doing more harm than good.
Cam went all fall getting QB1 reps and now he stands on the sidelines watching again.
For the second year in a row, Cam is the highest-paid NIL player on the team. Not much return on that investment.”
From utefan78:
“I’ve been a big fan of Rising, but I’m tired of the circus surrounding if he plays or not.”
From csarge523:
“It’s not Cam’s fault. The distraction is solely on Whitt’s [coach Kyle Whittingham] handling of the injury. Just tell us the … truth.”
All valid observations. Now mix in …
- NIL: Rising makes at least $1 million this season. In this confounding world of player compensation, is it crass to ask if Utah if getting a return on investment?
- Recruiting: Does Rising’s continued presence — or not — impact Utah’s future recruiting of quarterbacks?
- Isaac Wilson: The younger brother of former BYU QB Zach Wilson could begin to answer that question. Wilson is 1-1 in his two starts with four interceptions and two touchdowns in Rising’s absence.
Or does Rising simply deserve to rehab at his own pace with the most honest of intentions no matter how clumsily his availability is communicated?
And while the loss to Arizona on Saturday was crippling, the Utes, picked to win the Big 12 in the preseason, still have all their goals in front of them. This Utah bye week allows us to relax, reconsider and … rehab.
This started because Rising’s availability in 2023 while rehabbing his injured knee became a weekly exercise in speculation. There was God, country and game-time decision regarding the quarterback in 2023.
It wasn’t until Week 6 last season that the quarterback confirmed what many had suspected the whole time: That injury against Penn State was no trifle. It was devastating. He was out for the season. Torn MCL, ACL, MPFL and meniscus.
With all that going on, somehow Rising had been given clearance to practice in early September.
“I was going to play as early as I could,” Rising told CBS Sports before the season. “It was a time it was really looking likely for me at Florida [in the season opener]. During fall camp I didn’t manage it as well as I possibly could. It set me back.”
The weekly dance around the injury report campfire continues. Rising missed his third game Saturday since cutting his fingers after being shoved out of bounds against the Bears on Sept. 7.
“We’re not trying for any gamesmanship or any of that stuff,” Whittingham said of Rising last week.
Except … that’s sort of what it looked like. Or worse. That’s what comes with at least the perception of not being direct with injury information.
Again, csarge523:
[This] goes back to the handling of the how the injury is communicated to the media and fan base. They should’ve just said, “This will take 3-4 weeks to heal.” End of story.
Utah wouldn’t be the first to obfuscate. A certain sign-stealing scandal last season reminded us of the lengths teams will go to win.
Let’s be clear — this isn’t that. Weekly game-time decision notifications sometimes become a fine art unto themselves. They’ve also become tedious at times. Bill Belichick famously listed Tom Brady on the injury report for three years. During part of that time, Brady was in the process of playing 127 straight games.
But Utah also has to understand how this looks to the outside world. In keeping the opponent ill-informed, the fans, the media and even the gambling community deserve better.
All the Power Four conferences use Matt Holt, founder of US Integrity in Las Vegas, as a gambling integrity monitor. They have to since the Supreme Court allowed state-sponsored sports betting in 2018.
Holt has urged across-the-board, full transparency injury reports to keep sketchy information impacting point spreads. That’s a good thing. If we don’t know or trust who knows the vital information, we can’t have faith in whether the games themselves are legit.
The SEC and Big Ten get it. They have listened this season, each requiring their teams to issue injury reports listing availability two hours before game time.
“We constantly tell colleges, ‘If you continue to hide information for gamesmanship or competitive advantage purposes, you are putting your student-athletes, trainers, equipment managers and assistant coaches in a heightened-risk category,’ Holt told CBS Sports. “When betting groups start to figure out, ‘Hey, this coach won’t disclose injury information,’ … now there is real value to getting that inside information.”
Mandating injury reports would solve this problem. The Big 12 and ACC don’t require them at the moment, but like all the other conferences, they soon will. The last thing college football needs is a gambling scandal.
It’s probably unfair to fade Rising on this because he definitely has an injury history. But he’s certainly not going to hide anything from the NFL, which knows what you’re going to have for breakfast before you wake up.
Who can blame Rising for trying to stretch the college experience as far as it will go? If that’s really what this is. Rising apparently has an eighth year of eligibility if he can get a medical waiver from the NCAA.
The average NFL career is 2 ½ years. Rising has tripled that in college.
“Absolutely,” Rising said of looking forward to the NFL. “That’s definitely been a dream of mine. I just took the long route to get there.”
If only that route would become a bit clearer in terms of injuries and how they are reported.
