Utah will be without quarterback Cam Rising for the rest of the year.
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham announced Monday that Rising will miss the rest of the season after he sustained a lower-leg injury in their 27-19 loss to Arizona State on Friday night. The injury is just the latest that the seventh-year quarterback has been hit with throughout his career.
Freshman Isaac Wilson will start in Rising’s place moving forward.
“Upon further evaluation by our medical staff, Cameron Rising’s injury has unfortunately been deemed season-ending,” Whittingham said in a statement on Monday night, via KSL.com’s Josh Furlong. “During his time at Utah, Cam has been both a great player and a leader for our program, and he will obviously be missed.”
Rising returned to the field for the Utes on Friday night after missing three games with a hand injury. He took a hard hit early in the pocket and had his right leg rolled up on as he was brought down.
Though he stayed in the game, he struggled the rest of the way. Rising finished 16-of-37 for 209 yards and he threw three interceptions.
Rising first started at Texas in 2018, though he redshirted that season and then sat out all of 2019 after transferring to Utah. He went down with a season-ending shoulder injury in his first game in 2020, and he sustained first a concussion and then a knee injury in back-to-back Rose Bowls in 2021 and 2022. The knee injury kept Rising out of the entire 2023 season.
Though he’s in his seventh season, Rising could return for an eighth year next fall if he wants to. While Whittingham said they are open to that idea, he’s not sure if Rising would want to.
“Now that we’re in the situation that we’re in, that’s a possibility,” he said, via ESPN. “We’ll have to explore that in detail with the compliance department. And I’m not even sure Cam would be interested in going that route. He’s got a lot to think about, and so [he needs] to just take a step back right now and let them get this most recent injury thoroughly diagnosed. … That would be something we’re talking about sooner rather than later.”
Rising, however, wasn’t too interested in coming back for an eighth season back in July. Undoubtedly, the situation now is different than it was three months ago.
“Seven is good enough for me,” he told The Athletic. “But you never know. The cards are always on the table.”
With Rising out, Wilson will start in his place. Wilson, who is the younger brother of Denver Broncos quarterback Zach Wilson, has made three starts this season in Rising’s absence. He went 20-of-40 for 280 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions in their loss to Arizona on Sept. 28, though he led the Utes past both Utah State and then-No. 14 Oklahoma State.
Utah, which sits at 4-2 on the season, will host TCU next on Saturday.
