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SALT LAKE CITY â The bad moon is rising ... for one more season.
Senior quarterback Cam Rising announced Sunday afternoon that he was returning to Utah for "one more year," his seventh season as a collegiate athlete.
The veteran signal caller attempted a return to play for the 2023 season on a shortened timeline coming off an ACL tear, but after several weeks of a will he or won't he return to action situation lingering over the program, Utah and Rising made the decision to preserve his year through a medical redshirt instead of trying to force a return when his knee wasn't fully ready.
With Rising back under center in 2024, Utah is expected to return several players from this season as the program makes its transition from the Pac-12 to the Big 12. Rising, who threw for 3,034 yards and 26 touchdowns last season, gives Utah a veteran player to help the team compete for another conference championship and a potential College Football Playoff run.
One more year pic.twitter.com/LnFU1t5JCd
— Cameron Rising (@crising7) November 19, 2023
Ahead of the 2023 season, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, and even Rising, said there was a possibility he could return to play for the team's season-opener against Florida based on his recovery. The team operated as if Rising would return, but the Ventura, California, native was never cleared to play in a game.
Fighting off rumors about his recovery, Rising candidly detailed the severity of his injury on ESPN 700.
"I wasn't really expecting to do this, but I just want to let everybody know I didn't just tear my ACL," Rising said. "I tore my meniscus, MPFL, and MCL. It was a big surgery and it's not an easy comeback. I've been working my tail off.
"I'm grinding and doing everything I possibly can, and even the fact I'm going out there and practicing, I'm ahead of schedule," he added. "I'm trying to make sure I can be out there because nobody wants to be out there on the field grinding with those guys more than me, but at the end of the day, it's my body. My body has to recover, and there's not really anyone that can say much besides the best doctor in the world, Dr. ElAttrache, down in LA can say."
In October, after Utah beat USC at the LA Memorial Coliseum, Whittingham said Rising's season was over and that the team would pursue a medical redshirt, with hopes that Rising wanted to return to college.
But there was no guarantee the two-time reigning Pac-12 champion quarterback would return. Rising, however, stayed engaged with the program, practiced and traveled with the team, and even went on ESPN's "College GameDay" when it came to Salt Lake City to represent the university as fans chanted "one more year."
As Utah enters the last week of the regular season, where the university will honor its seniors Saturday, several players with remaining eligibility may use Rising's return to stay with the program for one more season. The biggest name, tight end Brant Kuithe, who also missed the 2023 season due to an ACL injury, has yet to make a decision about his future.
