The injury status of Utah quarterback Cameron Rising remains one of the mysteries in college football.
Cameron, the 25-year-old, left the Week 2 win over Baylor and hasn’t been seen on the field since. His availability is one of the key questions for Utah.
Here is what the Utah Coach says about him.
“We’ll see what happens this week, but there is a chance. I’ll tell you that. It’s still early in the week, but we’re crossing our fingers and hoping for the best as is Cam. We’ll see how things play out, but again, we follow all the medical recommendations. I’m not a doctor. Cam’s not a doctor. We’re not going to go against that.”
His health has been a concern in Salt Lake City for the last 19 months. It was when he got the devastating knee injury in the 2023 Rose Bowl. At that time, he tore three of four ligaments in the knee which required a lengthy rehab process.
When his knee healed up, he was in another incident against Baylor, Camron was tackled into the drink station on the sidelines and that injured his hand. Ever since then, he has been on the sidelines.
With Rising not playing, Utah got the services of freshman Isaac Wilson, who has started the last three games. Isaac has not been able to impress much as his performance has been up and down during his first college action. He has only completed 55.7% of the attempts for 830 yards with six touchdowns and seven interceptions.
While Rising was one of the top quarterbacks when he was healthy.
But the question is how healthy does he have to be to make a difference and help the team. Well, here is what Coach Whittingham had to say about it.
“Does an 80 percent Cam Rising give us more of an opportunity to win than Isaac Wilson? That’s a coach’s decision and a coach’s call. You’re not going to be right all the time, but that is the exact criteria we use. First of all, you don’t want to expose the kid to furthering the injury, but he wouldn’t get cleared if that was the case. Whoever on that particular week that gives us the best chance to win given the physical circumstances- that will be the guy.”
The coach has been weighing the pros and cons and talking with his doctors as well. The team is quickly progressing through its 2024 season. The coach understands that there may come a time when he is forced to play the hand he’s been dealt.
“There is a point,” Whittingham said on Monday when asked if they would start Wilson for the remainder of the season. “I’m not going to pin ourselves down to an exact, specific time. As things progress and also the conference race — where are we in the conference race — there are other things that go into it, but it certainly could come to that point, but we’re not there yet.”