The Utes pulled away late in the fourth quarter against Cal Saturday afternoon, behind a typically-staunch defensive effort and a balanced offensive one heavily featuring two-way contributor Sione Vaki. The win allowed Utah to rebound from a frustrating Oregon State loss before their bye and improve to 5-1 on their season, but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the men in black and red.
As the Utes poured out of their tunnel for their warmups minutes ahead of kickoff, one long-haired competitor wasn’t draped in his Under Armour game day attire. This player, as most Utah fans could likely guess, was their star QB, Cam Rising.
Rising was donning a pair of sweats and a ballcap on the turf at Rice-Eccles, in what’s becoming a weekly sighting for Utes fans. He has long been awaiting the go-ahead from Los Angeles surgeon Dr. Neal S. ElAttrache to return to game action. Dr. ElAttrache, who has worked on athletes such as Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers among others, gave Rising and the Utah staff the green light to return full speed to practice following their contest against Florida on Aug. 31.
Now, with five games having passed since Rising’s complete return to the practice facilities, the Utes face some difficulties. Staring them directly in the face is their brutal schedule over the next month, which features three ranked games out of their next four.
This arduous stretch begins this week, when Utah travels to Los Angeles to face Caleb Williams and his high-scoring, yet flawed USC Trojans team. The Utes will get no reprieve before returning to Salt Lake to face Dan Lanning’s Oregon Ducks squad the very next week, which will be looking to put themselves back on the CFP map, following their defeat Saturday at Washington. Finally, Utah will hit the road once more on Nov. 11 to take on Heisman-frontrunner Michael Penix Jr. and his high-flying Washington Huskies offense.
While the Utes moved the ball 445 yards on the ground and through the air against the Golden Bears Saturday, it is unlikely they can do that against stiffer competition. Without Rising, Utah has slowly plowed along to 115th in the nation in total offense, out of 130 FBS teams.
It’s also becoming increasingly possible that Rising, the Utes staff or both will decide to take a medical redshirt season. While they both still have everything left to play for this season, according to NCAA rules Rising would have to play in four games or less to be able to preserve his final season of eligibility. While such a decision would spell pain for Utah fans this year, there would be the bright spot of their star returning for the 2024 season, the team’s first in the Big 12 Conference.
Head Coach Kyle Whittingham, who was largely upbeat about his team’s performance Saturday, didn’t offer any real updates about Rising’s status in his pressers Saturday or Monday, which has been typical.
“It’s just a situation where we’re waiting week after week for a thumbs up (from Dr. ElAttrache),” Whittingham said. “Here we are at the midpoint (of the season), so I don’t want to say the clock is ticking, but we would love to (get) either or both those guys back as soon as possible.”
With Whittingham having set the precedent last week that his staff won’t reveal Rising’s status before each game, there’s always a possible appearance of No. 7 as the Utes take the field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday night. The game versus the Trojans will kick off at 6 p.m., and will be broadcast across the country on FOX.