The Utah football season would be a lot more fun if Utes fans weren’t constantly playing “will he or won’t he” when it comes to Cam Rising starting at quarterback. For now though, it’s still very much an open question.
Rising injured his throwing hand in a scramble out of bounds and into a Gatorade table against the Baylor Bears. He then missed the entirety of the Battle of the Brothers and was replaced by freshman QB Isaac Wilson.
However, the talk for most of this week has been that Rising would be back for what is officially their Big 12 opener as the game against Baylor was technically a non-conference game. There were some on the Utah football team so certain that the veteran gunslinger would be back that his teammates were telling the media Rising was back.
But now, on Saturday morning, reports are circulating that Rising is still a “gametime decision.” That he might not play in the Utes’ biggest game of the season. The game that could mean they go to the playoffs, or have a disappointing 2024.
Utah football waiting on Cam Rising news
“He’s going to be a game-time decision at Oklahoma State on Saturday,” Thamel said of Cam Rising during ESPN’s College Gameday Live broadcast on Friday. “He injured his throwing hand, had some stitches, they’ve been removed. He’s been practicing with a glove on his throwing hand this week.”
KSL Sports reports this is more than just Kyle Whittingham playing games. Rising did practice in full early in the week, however, the rep distribution started to shift on Wednesday. Wilson assumed a bigger portion of reps from that point on.
It’s possible that the issue with his hand is still problematic enough that it was bothering him the more he played.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that Wilson played very, very well as the game against Utah State went on. His confidence very obviously grow.
If Cam Rising can’t start for Utah football, it wouldn’t be a good thing. But the Utes aren’t in quite the level of trouble people might have thought before last weekend.