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LOS ANGELES — Whether or not Cam Rising or Brant Kuithe will play this season for the University of Utah became a closed topic Saturday evening, but their respective availability for 2024 are now up in the air.
Discussing either athlete playing in 2024 is now possible because after the 14th-ranked Utes defeated No. 18 USC 34-32 at the LA Coliseum, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham used part of his postgame press conference to announce that Rising and Kuithe will be shut down for the remainder of the season.
Rising has not played a down in 2023 as he recovers from torn ACL, MCL, MPFL ligaments, and a torn meniscus suffered in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 2. Like Rising, Kuithe has not played at all this fall as he works his way back from a season-ending knee injury suffered on Sept. 24, 2022 at Arizona State.
With Rising and Kuithe shut down for 2023 without playing, they are eligible to receive a medical redshirt from the NCAA, which would give them both an extra year of eligibility in 2024. The NCAA issuing the medical redshirt cannot be called a 100% guarantee, but the prevailing notion from Whittingham, and by extension the Utah athletic department, is that their respective circumstances would easily qualify for one.
"Cam and Kuithe are shut down for the year, the rest of the season, so that hopefulness each week is no longer," Whittingham said. "It's a medical decision to just shut them down. We don't know what the future holds exactly for each of them, but when they're ready to talk about that, they'll be the ones that do that."
Getting a medical redshirt is one thing, but Utah's star quarterback and tight end actually using them is a much different story. Whittingham admitted as much Saturday evening.
Playing next season would mean a seventh year of college football, not to mention a seventh of college for both Rising and Kuithe, whose respective careers began in 2018. As Whittingham noted, both players have options.
They could use that medical redshirt to return to Utah for a seventh season, they could take a crack at the NFL, which Kuithe has seriously flirted with twice before during the offseasons after 2021 and 2022, or, in more of a radical scenario, they could decide to return in 2024 but hit the NCAA transfer portal. There is no rule saying the medical redshirt has to be used at their current school.
Age, health, whatever NFL draft or undrafted free agent possibilities remain, and even NIL opportunities will all have a voice as a decision on the 2024 season now looms for each player.
"That decision is not made right now, so that's the next thing to happen now, to determine what they want to do," Whittingham said. "They can get a lot of options and as far as I'm aware, and my knowledge of the NCAA, and waivers and such, they should both get the extra year. We don't make that decision at the University of Utah, it's an NCAA decision, but it should preserve the year because they're both season-ending injuries, so they both fall into the medical category."
In the short term, specifically in regards to Rising, the weekly questions to Whittingham about whether or not he will play can now cease. That comes at a time when Bryson Barnes had solidified himself as the unquestioned starter until Rising was ready, a fact that was only strengthened Saturday night as he went 14-for-23 for 235 yards and three touchdown passes, plus another 57 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
If anyone, even Whittingham, was holding out hope that Rising would return and Barnes was just keeping his seat warm, that is now over with Rising ruled out.
In the long term, Utah's projected 2024 roster, on paper, could challenge in the athletic department's first season in the Big 12, a notion that does not take into account potential transfer portal happenings.
If Rising and Kuithe both return for a seventh season, there will be a case to be made that Utah can win the Big 12 next fall.
"We're six games in, they're not ready to play," Whittingham said. "We've been hoping for them each week, but the medical staff are the ones that make those calls and we're not going to question them at all. That's just how we operate. It was a medical decision to shut them down for the rest of the year. That's the safest thing to do for them; it gives them the best chance to get back to 100%, so I'm 100% on board with that."
Lander Barton out for the season
Whittingham also announced that sophomore linebacker Lander Barton, last season's Pac-12 Freshman Defensive Player of the Year was injured against USC and is out for the season.
Whittingham did not disclose the injury, but the former Brighton High star could be seen on the sideline late in the fourth quarter with crutches and a boot on his right foot.
"Big part of our defense, terrific player, and he's out," Whittingham said of Barton, who has a team-high 43 tackles after registering nine against the Trojans. "We'll just keep moving forward with the guys that we have healthy."
Per Whittingham, Levani Damuni, a Stanford transfer who has 27 tackles while seeing action in all seven games, will step into Barton's starting role opposite Karene Reid.
Aside from Rising, Kuithe, and now Barton, Utah has been beset by injuries. Micah Bernard, Chris Curry, Ja'Quinden Jackson, Thomas Yassmin, Connor O'Toole, Junior Tafuna, Simote Pepa, and Van Fillinger are among the players who are either out for the season, or have missed significant time through seven games.
