Cam Rising was seen on the sideline of Rice-Eccles Stadium for the first time since he suffered a season-ending ankle injury on Oct. 11.
After the game, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham spoke to the seventh-year quarterback. According to the Ute head coach, he has no “inside scoop” as to where Rising is at in the decision-making process for a return to Salt Lake City on an eighth year of college eligibility.
But, with one last game remaining on the schedule, a decision will be coming soon.
“I have no inside scoop or anything right now as to what he’s thinking,” Whittingham said. “(I’ll) try to give him some space and let him sort things out and decide which direction he wants to go.
“That’s on Cam’s timeline and obviously we’ve got to at some point make our own decisions on what’s going to happen if there is still indecisiveness, but I think that should be cleared up in the next week to 10 days.”
If Rising opts to enter the transfer portal or the 2025 NFL Draft, he will have ended his Utah career with 6, 127 passing yards, 53 passing touchdowns and 17 interceptions. During his five seasons with the Utes, Rising helped lead Utah to two Pac-12 championships and a pair of marquee wins over former conference rival USC.
Rising’s last two seasons have been marred with season-ending injuries, however. Since 2022, the seventh-year quarterback has appeared in only three games due to several injuries.
Finding a starting quarterback — if it’s not Rising or true freshman Isaac Wilson — remains atop the list of Utah’s needs heading into the offseason.
“We’ve got to solve our quarterback problems,” Whittingham said. “I can tell you that that that has been a difficult thing this year, and we’re now on our fifth QB, and we got one left after that.
“You better be good there if you want to have a chance to win. So we’ve got to evaluate, just like I’ve got to evaluate my situation, we’ve got to evaluate the quarterback situation and and to make sure we have ourselves covered for next year.”
