We’re now a week away from kickoff and it’s time to talk about one of the stars of the University of Utah’s fall camp, no. 7 Cam Rising. Unfortunately, there’s only one quarterback who can take the field at a time and the Utah coaches chose to go with Baylor transfer Charlie Brewer’s big-game experience. However, make no mistake, Rising made the decision extremely difficult.
Not only did Rising make the decision difficult, he floored his coaches and teammates with his resiliency and fight to get back to full strength after a shoulder injury ended his 2020 starting campaign in the first quarter of the first game.
Rising is an unquestioned leader and an ace for the Utes when it comes to hosting recruits. His time will come as he should still see plenty of reps in 2021. It’s very likely that had Utah known he’d be back this fast that they never would have hit the grad transfer quarterback market.
Utah is blessed with a ridiculously good situation at quarterback. It’s no consolation prize for him, but Rising will be viewed nationally as one of the top backups throughout college football.
UteNation take
Rising matched Brewer step for step throughout all of fall camp, even putting the offense in the end zone more than Brewer in the first scrimmage. However as good and as intriguing as Rising’s potential may be, Brewer’s successful big-game experience is tough to ignore.
The reality is that most P5 teams rarely make it through a season with a healthy quarterback, so the odds that Rising gets his shot are more than likely, particularly with Brewer’s concussion risk that Baylor media talks about it, and they recently pointed out that it was a surprise no one in the Utah market really has discussed it. Of course, no one likes talking about injury risk, but that’s the unfortunate reality in college football.
If the need arises and Rising gets extended action, all bets are off on who would be the guy out of those two from there on out. That’s honestly how close this competition has been.
Alex remembers Risings recruitment
A former four-star recruit, Rising was rated as the no. 8 best pro-style quarterback and no. 149 overall ranked recruit in the class of 2018. He held 25 offers from the likes of Alabama, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma (and was a one-time Sooners commit), Oregon, Penn State—basically, everyone wanted him.
Due to the Utes landing Jack Tuttle early on, they didn’t pursue Cam, initially. When Rising entered the transfer portal, the Longhorns did everything they could to keep him, as they firmly believed he has NFL talent. However, Rising was off visiting Salt Lake City and falling in love with the place, before Texas could convince him otherwise.
