Patrick Kinahan: Handling of Rising's situation falls short

SALT LAKE CITY — Week after week, the college football world eagerly anticipated the star quarterback's return that would infuse a badly needed jolt into a slumbering offense.

If not the upcoming game, all of us surmised based on the words of the coach and player, then for sure the next one. Yet here we are, halfway through the season, fools for believing any of it.

As one game drags on to the next, the Hollywood ending has Cam Rising finally getting on the field to transform Utah into serious contention for a third consecutive Pac-12 championship and maybe even a serious run at the four-team playoff. Instead, we wait ... and wait.

How about this week's game against Cal? Fool us once ... well, you know the ending.

The season-long saga of Rising's return has become akin to a soap opera drama, complete with enough falsehoods and frustration that leads to nothing but confusion. The handling of it all leaves something to be desired.

The timeline of Rising's serious knee injury, which he suffered in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 2, and subsequent surgery two weeks later likely meant the necessary recovery would make it difficult to return for the season-opener on Aug. 31. All along the offseason, coach Kyle Whittingham said Rising's availability to play in the first game would go down to the wire.

But it went off the rails beginning at Pac-12 media day in late July and then again in the week leading up to the first game. Rising spun it positive during interviews in Las Vegas and then a few days before the opener by saying he "felt pretty damn good," which indicated a return was possible.

Lightheartedly, Whittingham said a decision on Rising's status could come 10 minutes before the first game against Florida. Short of accusing anybody of lying, which isn't the case here, all the statements fell flat.

Rising never was playing in the first game and may not be ready soon. The cat-and-mouse game the coach and quarterback played, even though their intentions weren't to deliberately deceive, hasn't served anybody well.

Never wanting to give an opponent an advantage, Whittingham likely believed Rising was close to playing. Even this week, with Rising's rehabilitation continuing to linger, the coach won't publicly announce the starting quarterback.

At his weekly press conference, Whittingham sidestepped changing the messaging on the Rising situation. "That's a tough question," he said. "I don't know if I have a good answer for that. Yeah, I probably don't have a good enough answer to waste your time with."

In an exclusive interview with The Athletic, Rising's doctor, Neal ElAttrache, said the quarterback's rehab has gone well and he's on track to return. ElAttrache, who had Rising's permission to conduct the interview, is considered one of the premier orthopedic knee surgeons in the country.

"I don't know if it's going to be a week or two weeks," the doctor said. "Cam is close, but there's a few things that we really need to still see before we can have him go back as safe as possible at this point. We're not even going to be nine months from the surgery until the 16th of this month. Until he gets some of his power and mechanics refined, this last phase of the return to competition — or what I call return to performance — happens at different paces in different people."

With a healthy enough Rising, who desperately wants to play, the Utes are most likely a top-10 team. Without him, considering the remaining schedule and an offense that scored a total of 14 points in the last two games, four losses are possible.

In retrospect, having Rising and redshirt freshman Nate Johnson split practice reps for multiple weeks seems like a bad decision. Johnson, who took over for former walk-on Bryson Barnes in the second game, needs every snap possible for his development.

A dynamic runner, Johnson has yet to show consistent ability to lead a productive offense. He was benched in the loss to Oregon State on Sept. 22 only to return after a vicious hit sent Barnes to the hospital.

Believing Rising was on target, Whittingham said the Utes did not pursue a transfer quarterback in the offseason. He also thought Rising's presence would hamper any attempts to land a quality transfer.

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