Utah quarterback Cam Rising shared an update on his health on “The Bill Riley Show” on ESPN 700 Thursday afternoon, revealing that the extent of his injury suffered in the 2023 Rose Bowl was more than an ACL tear.
“I think it’s important that I just kind of let everybody know I didn’t just tear my ACL, I tore my ACL, meniscus, MPFL and MCL. It was a big surgery and it’s not an easy comeback and I’ve been working my tail off,” Rising said.
I fear we may have seen the last of both Rising and Kuithe in a Utah jersey
Yikes indeed. No wonder he has such a massive brace. Interesting that the team’s medical team has cleared him but the surgeon has not. Are they biased? Do they have a mentality, “we’ll take what we can get”? Or is the surgeon overly cautious or the only real voice of reason saying, “don’t rush this”?
Kudos for him working hard to get healed and healthy. But maybe others get the snaps until he is cleared by his surgeon and/or he defies the orders and commits to playing.
“Best surgeon in the world” - same guy that just did Aaron Rodgers’ Achilles.
Major reconstruction of a knee is a 12-18 month recovery (Unless you are using “the needle”). Even at that, there is no guarantee on what the recovery will end up limiting.
I had a friend who was a rugby player who went down with his knee messed up like Cam’s. He never got well enough to play rugby again. Granted, that was 35 years ago, and procedures have come a long way since, but yikes doesn’t aptly describe the situation.
I hope he gets better enough to play again; but based on that report, I would say the chances are minimal.
I’m glad it’s out in the open - takes some pressure off Cam, and maybe Nate & Whitt, too.
No point in splitting the reps in practice, it seems to me, if we really have no idea when his status may change.
Hopefully more of the play book is coming to Nate over the BYE and the offense can get more cohesive. It’s time to rally around a new leader, a new QB. Expecting the former hero to come running in from the sideline is unproductive thought.
Oregon State was a bad look, but that team was highly motivated and kept the pressure coming. When our defense fell apart in the 3rd, there was no chance of mounting a comeback win, up there.
The “Medical Team” includes the surgeon. What activities get cleared for the person to participate in are based on the medical evaluations of the surgeon, diagnostic physician, radiologist, and physical therapists. Wherever he is right now in his recovery is where he is. Where he “isn’t” is cleared to go full contact, full speed on a football field in competition. Based on the earlier comments, I would be surprised if he can get a green light this season.
One thing we all forget is BJ sat a season to recover from that knee injury he sustained. Luckily, “Rat” filled in and did an admirable job. We all know what happened when BJ came back. #SugerBowlWIN#SugarBowlMVP
Just throwing this out there. I’m not being critical at all. But maybe Cam should have just called it a career after the Rose Bowl. That would have freed up a scholarship/roster spot, and coaches could have hit the transfer portal. Clearly Johnson and Barnes aren’t ready or capable to guiding a decent offense consistently. Of course, maybe Cam didn’t realize just how long and hard of a recovery this would be. I guess he was confident he’d be able to be back on the field by now. Such a shame.
I know he’s already redshirted but is it possible the NCAA could grant a medical redshirt so he could return next year?
I’m guessing he was hoping to heal enough to play this season, plus he probably got himself a nice NIL deal by coming back. He was smart to try to make a comeback, he made himself a lot of money.
I suppose my only gripe, and it’s rather mundane in the grand scheme of things, I wish we’d known this long ago. The angst we as fans went through would have been lessened, and perhaps the same could be said for Cam and Whit.
Did Kuithe have the same knee injury? We know that there was ligament damage, but to the same extent as Cam?
I suppose it’s possible for Cam to get a medical redshirt. It’d help the team, but would it help him?
My take…fans worry and speculate too much. It’s ok to criticize the coaches and the team as a collective. When fan(atics)s don’t know anything, it’s fine to speculate; however, starting rumors and criticizing individual players when facts are unknown, that’s over the line, IMO.
My criticism… Utah’s offense stinks and it’s on the coaches.
Maybe. Whitt said they are waiting on ‘uno doctor’. One. His surgeon. Sounded frustrated when he said it. But he says he’s full practice since the week after Florida. I’m sure that probably means red jersey/no contact.
But after Rose got hurt Whitt mentioned Nate had made a lot of strides with the 1s.
The part that doesn’t make sense to me is how Cam was splitting reps with Nate before the OSU game. Normally the starter gets about 70% of the first team snaps in practice prepping for an opponent.
So, a young QB is getting fewer snaps than he otherwise would get, cuts down on the turnovers like I’m sure was emphasized, and the offense looks lethargic. His pass accuracy was poor, of course, and Bryson looked worse with zero first team reps before getting hurt.
It’s a mess, I’m glad they have an extra week to get things going in a better direction, but I’m still not understanding the Cam aspect. My gut says this interview is part of coming clean…but that’s a hunch from the outside.
Feels a little like they were just trying to hold down the fort, but with these 2 weeks, they need to treat it like roster 2.0. Let’s see who is healthy, open up the playbook, and be all in on tailoring the gameplan to thay qb’s strengths. Just a total reset. Then, if, when someone gets healthy, incorporate them back in (Jackson, Bernard, our Center, etc.). Have to start passing to open up the run whether that’s short slants, screens, TE curls, chucking it down the field with a 20% chance of a completion. We have some ‘easier’ defenses coming up, but also some potent offenses our defense can contain but will lose some battles so we have to score points on offense and sustain multiple drives.
I thought last year was the end of Cam (and Kuithe) and they’d have gone to the league. Their injuries and staying around have created a problem that has been mismanaged (ok, more just Cam). Love him, but i also expected Rose or NJ to be this year’s qb amyway (I don’t buy that they should have or would have gotten anyone betrer from the portal - why recruit at all then?). Rose injury was really unfortunate. But so was Bernard and Jackson.
We just need to gameplan with what we have, play to those strengths and not count on anyone unless they have a defined re-entry timeline.
The throw game will be interesting to see unfold. Need to find a rhythm, but playing the odds got us 4 wins, beat UCLA’s 5 star FR QB, who did make errors, enabling us to win.
More than anything, we need player leadership on offense. Ideally that’s the QB over all the offense, but it might have to be Jackson in the backfield, Vele among the wideouts, Bills or somebody up front, and let Nate develop just a little swagger with some success. Kid deserves it, he’s done as much as they’ve asked.
Realistically, a three peat is an unreasonable expectation, so go rediscover your joy of the game and see how much we can improve. Rediscover “team” and support each other.
Mine too. I’m reserving judgment, but like a lot of us I have lots of questions. I fear that I may not like the answers. I’m not prepared to blame anyone. I just find this disturbing.
All the stuff of the last few years has kinda burned me out. Watching Cam practice and seeing that brace didn’t make me confident we would ever see him back for long regardless. My concern was they push him to come back and he gets wrecked permanently within 3 games. But this does seem to clear that up.
My sad concern now is that the new mantra of any coach is “they’re coming back soon” will be motivated by money. NIL deals for the team and booster support like trucks comes when people are excited by the team winning (or belief it’s going to). What $$ wasn’t going to come in if the team had announced Cam and Kuithe probably weren’t going to play this year?
Want motivation for the puppet theater? It’s not hope or PHI it’s $$. More so now than ever before. I wish Cam all the success in the world but I suspect it’s probably a bad health idea to suit up and play again this year. It may have been very beneficial $$ to act like it would happen though.