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LAS VEGAS — As Utah quarterback Cam Rising took his seat on a makeshift couch on the stage of the Zouk Nightclub at the Conrad Las Vegas at Resorts World as part of Pac-12 media day Friday, there was only one question on every media member's mind.
What's Rising's status for the start of the 2023 season?
As one of six returning quarterbacks that threw for over 3,000 yards in the Pac-12 last season, and as the quarterback that orchestrated back-to-back conference titles, Rising is an integral piece to the puzzle — for Utah and for the Pac-12 title race, in which the Utes were picked to finish the season third behind favorite USC and Washington.
Rising suffered an ACL injury midway through Utah's game against Penn State in January that required surgery for the veteran quarterback. And it left a tight recovery window for arguably the team's most important player to accomplish the first three-peat in Pac-12 history.
But if Rising is healthy and able to start the season under center, that potentially changes the landscape of the Pac-12.
"Knee is doing great. I'm doing great," Rising said in his first remarks Friday. "Excited to be out here. Been focused on my rehab. Everything is going the way it's supposed to be. Just excited to see what the future holds."
All is good in Utah then, right?
Well, not so fast.
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, who has remained optimistic about the team's chances to get Rising back as its starter on Aug. 31 against Florida, tempered the expectations of his star player a bit in his remarks.
"Cam is going to come right down to the wire," Whittingham said. "Will he be ready for the opener? We'll have to find out. We've still got, what, a month and a half before that happens."
Rising continues to rehab his knee and will be a full participant in fall camp — he's been on the field throwing over the summer — but will remain questionable until the training staff and the doctors who oversee his rehab give the clearance.
"If they clear him, I've got all the confidence in the world in Cam, but that's not our call," Whittingham said. "That's between Cam and the medical staff to determine when he's ready. We certainly don't want to put him out there prematurely or before he's ready, which I'm sure they won't do. But the point is, when you look at the timetable, when he's going to be cleared or projected to be clear, is going right down to the wire with enough time to prepare him to be able to be ready to play in that game."
Whittingham said the coaching staff has been told that "barring any setbacks between now and camp, he'll be able to to do a bunch of stuff during camp and then continue to add to that as camp goes on if everything goes as planned."
For Rising's part, it's just focusing on the day-to-day improvement to get his knee healthy enough to be back on the field full time in a game setting. He said he'll have a better understanding of where he's at when he's able to go up against a defense and see how his knee will respond to the different movements a quarterback has to make in the pocket.
But Rising isn't concerned or worried about not being ready.
"I think going against the defense is gonna be a big tell, and just feeling how I feel," Rising said. "I'm just ready for that and excited to finally get out there and go against them."
The optimism around Rising's return, in addition to the full recovery of tight end Brant Kuithe, makes Whittingham "cautiously optimistic going into this season." He's added depth to the defense, returns a majority of the starters on offense, and has filled gaps in the roster — namely wide receiver — through the transfer portal.
All of that gives the 63-year-old coach motivation to lift Utah football to an even higher level.
"Nobody has ever three-peated in the Pac-12," Whittingham said. "That's one thing right there that we can accomplish that has not been done. Still not made it to the College Football Playoff; that's something else we're looking at. There's a lot of things that we have yet to accomplish at Utah and are excited about getting another opportunity this year to try to raise the bar even higher."
