Three months after freshman quarterback Jack Tuttle left Utah's football program, the Utes have his apparent replacement.
Cameron Rising, who spent the 2018 season as Texas' No. 3 quarterback, announced Thursday that he's signing with Utah.
In a tweet, Rising said, “I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”
Rising visited Utah last weekend, coinciding with the arrival of Andy Ludwig from Vanderbilt as offensive coordinator. He will have three years of eligibility with the Utes, beginning in 2020.
The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Rising has a similar background to Tuttle, who left the team in October and transferred to Indiana in December, having never played for the Utes as their No. 3 QB behind Tyler Huntley and Jason Shelley. Each player is from southern California and was a four-star recruit in the class of 2018. Among pro-style quarterbacks, Tuttle was ranked No. 8 and Rising, from Newbury Park High School, was No. 11.
Rising competed for Texas' starting job in August, but lost out to sophomore Sam Ehlinger, who passed for 3,292 yards and 25 touchdowns during the Longhorns' Sugar Bowl season. In December, Texas coach Tom Herman told the Austin American-Statesman that he didn't expect to lose any of his four quarterbacks, even with Ehlinger seemingly entrenched in the job. “They all think they're good enough to be the starter,” Herman acknowledged. “Quite frankly, they probably all are, at times.”
Rising originally committed to Oklahoma before joining the Longhorns, after turning down offers from the likes of Alabama, Michigan and Oregon. He participated in spring practice last year and completed 6 of 9 passes for 57 yards in the spring game.
The addition of Rising makes it unlikely for the Utes to use any of their remaining scholarships for a quarterback in the class of 2019, with the NCAA's next signing period coming Feb. 6. Carter Robinson, a prep QB from Wisconsin, has committed to Utah as a preferred walk-on. Huntley will be a senior in 2019, so Utah's projected 2020 roster of scholarship quarterbacks includes Shelley (junior), Rising (sophomore) and Drew Lisk (senior), plus a potential 2020 signee. Lisk appeared in one game in 2018, after Huntley's season-injury in early November made Shelley the starter and Lisk was promoted to No. 2.
Mike McCoy thrived at Utah in 1992-94 after Long Beach State dropped football. Otherwise, transfer quarterbacks coming directly from other four-year schools don’t have a distinguished history at Utah, with two players recently having moved from Oklahoma. Tommy Grady was a fill-in starter in September 2007 when Brian Johnson was injured. Grady led an upset of UCLA, but then Utah lost 27-0 at UNLV the following week. Kendal Thompson made intermittent appearances in 2014, before a knee injury ended his season. Thompson also started in a 2015 win at Fresno State, with Travis Wilson injured.
