Utah’s Cam up indefinitely with leg injury; HC will ‘consider’ 8th year for QB | News, scores, highlights, statistics and rumors

Utah quarterback Cam Rising’s 2024 campaign came to an unfortunate end, but that doesn’t mean his long college career is over.

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham announced Monday that Rising will be sidelined indefinitely with a leg injury. However, Rising is eligible for an eighth year of college football via a medical redshirt, and Whittingham said, “We’ll have to consider that, I’m not sure Cam has considered that.”

Rising was sidelined with a finger injury earlier this year and played in just three games. After his Week 7 return against Arizona State last Saturday, he looked like a shell of himself as he threw for 209 yards and three interceptions in a 27-19 loss that dropped Utah’s record to 4-2.

In his three starts this season, Rising has completed just 51.5% of his passes for 555 yards, seven touchdowns and three picks. Through 26 games with the Utes during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, he established himself as one of the best quarterbacks in the country by throwing for 5,527 yards, 46 touchdowns and 13 interceptions while completing 64.2% of his passes.

Unfortunately, a serious knee injury in the Rose Bowl late in the 2022 campaign forced him to miss the entire 2023 season. He also redshirted his first collegiate season at Texas in 2018 before transferring to Utah the following year, when he was redshirted once again. He appeared in just one game in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season due to a shoulder injury.

Under NCAA rules, players can play four games in a season and still redshirt, according to Pete Nakos of On3.com. The NCAA handbook states that an athlete “may be granted an additional year of competition by the conference or the Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee for ‘hardship’ reasons.”

Whittingham added that quarterback Isaac Wilson will take over as the Utes’ starter in the Rising’s absence.