The quarterback, the king is back.
And he has maybe a million reasons why.
When Cam Rising announced that he would return for one more season at Utah, it was plainly fantastic news for the Ute football program. With a talented team returning for Utah’s inaugural run into the Big 12, and with the most important position on the field properly accounted for, the Utes will be considered one of the favorites to conquer their new league and to qualify for a spot in an expanded playoff.
The attendant question then arrives with all the velocity of a Rising spiral, leaving a mark straight into and onto the chest: What’s bringing the quarterback back? What’s bringing him back to Utah?
There are answers to that question and then there is the answer.
College football is fun. And Rising has enjoyed his time playing it, despite injuries that have exacted from him major pain and major rehab and major effort. Despite his age — he’s 24 years old and will be 25 before he takes another live collegiate snap — the ultra-competitive quarterback has not only gotten his kicks out of being Utah football’s centerpiece in the seasons when he’s had good health, he’s also been extremely good at it. From this corner, at least, he’s evaluated and ranked as the second-best QB in the school’s history. Others might argue the point.
Either way, Rising, like most college players, believes he has a shot at playing in the NFL, whether he actually does or doesn’t. A season, though, when he played not a single down isn’t exactly the most direct off-ramp from school ball to the pros. He needs to provide more evidence not just that he can play at that higher level, he needs to reestablish that he can avoid injury, that his body is sound.
But there’s a whole lot more to this than just that.
A whole lot of money.
Sources have told The Salt Lake Tribune that Rising will be paid at least $500,000 and likely more — into seven figures — to play one more year at Utah. And that he was offered in excess of that number by collectives at other programs, but he preferred to finish up his work with the Utes.
Knock that look of disgust off your face.
These clearly are not your grandpa’s college sports, back when payments like that had to be done under the table in dark, smoke-filled backrooms. No, these deals are done in the light of day, even bragged about, seen as a lucrative point of attraction.
Yeah, NIL payments have altered the games.
And while that might be troubling to purists and codgers, champions of amateurism who liked it better when coaches, administrators and institutions were the ones pocketing suitcases loaded with cash, not the players, it’s now the norm.
Which is to say, get used to it. Get used to it if you want your school, your team to win.
That’s what the Utes aim to do.
And that’s why retaining the services of Rising was so significant, beyond even the immediate effect he could have on the win-loss record, straight to the message his retention sends talented players — high school and transfer recruits — and their parents whose interest now perks up when Utah coaches schedule recruiting visits.
Hey, Little Jimmy, what do you say we listen to what Morgan Scalley and Andy Ludwig have to offer us … err, tell us … about the wonderful academics at the University of Utah.
Love it or hate it, that’s the way it works now in the college game.
Mark it down. If Rising stays healthy, plays the way Rising has played in the past, if he leads the way he’s led in the past, and the Utes do what they might in the Big 12 next year, remember the quarterback’s announcement this weekend, and all the work — the money — that went into making it real.
It’s the cost of doing business these days. It’s the cost of winning. And winning, with the additional avalanche of financial rewards it brings, is worth it.
