What Kyle Whittingham said about Cam Rising's injury situation – Deseret News

The way the last few weeks have gone, it's easy to wonder if we've all jumped into a time machine that transported us back to 2023.

With Utah in the midst of the 2024 season, star quarterback Cam Rising is once again on the sidelines, this time with a finger injury that has kept him out of Utah's 3.5 games this season.

Like last year, coach Kyle Whittingham didn't provide much information about the injury. In 2023, Rising took matters into his own hands, describing in an ESPN 700 radio interview the full extent of his devastating injury, which basically tore everything there is to tear in his knee – ACL tear, meniscus, MPFL and MCL.

The lack of publicly available information about Rising's finger injury, which he suffered in Week 2 against Baylor, has led some fans to question the veteran quarterback's toughness and question whether Rising is the one who made the call. to suspend to continue healing.

One fan even showed up to Saturday's game with a “missing” sign with the quarterback's picture and recognizable characteristics on the poster.

There was a lot of opacity throughout the process, but one thing was crystal clear: Rising wants to play. There are signs that the coaches made the decision to use true freshman Isaac Wilson because Rising was less than healthy in the last two games at Oklahoma State and against Arizona.

“Cam Rising wants to play worse than everyone else and if he is able to do it, he will. “It's not like he could just play and then not go, I mean that's not the case,” Whittingham said Tuesday.

“I'm not sure what you mean when you say he's suffering from heat exposure. I haven't been on social media and I don't know what's going on out there. So I don’t know where that comes from, but I can tell you for sure that he wants to play and as soon as he gets the green light he will play and we hope that’s the next game.”

As for the last part of that quote, it's unclear whether the “clearance” comes from Utah's medical staff or coaching staff. On September 23, after the win at Oklahoma State, Whittingham said: “He was cleared for last week, yes, you can use him, but it's up to you what decision you make.” So I think we get the point exceeded, at which point you have to worry about another injury or something similar. Hopefully. Knock on wood.”

Here's what we know: On September 7, Rising was pushed off the field by Baylor defensive lineman Trevan Ma'ae and into a large table containing Baylor's Gatorade coolers. Rising immediately grabbed his throwing hand and then went to the medical tent and then to the locker room to further examine and test his right hand.

He later returned to the Utah sideline in street clothes and with his middle and ring fingers taped together.

It was never likely that Rising would play Utah State – it was too soon after the injury and the Utes could beat the Aggies with Wilson – but attention soon turned to Rising's status for Oklahoma State.

The early indications were that Rising could play in this game – after the USU win, Whittingham said “the plan” was to have Rising back at OSU – and practice reflected that, as the senior took the lead early on Most of the first team representatives got it in the week. But as the week progressed, problems continued to arise for Rising – particularly the ability to pass the ball at sufficient speed.

The ring finger is incredibly important when throwing a football, and Rising was unable to throw the ball the way the coaching staff wanted, so the Utes turned the majority of reps to Wilson in the second half of the week heading into OSU's game .

On game day, Rising warmed up, but during the final warm-ups the “zip” on the ball was not there, and the coaches made the decision about 20 minutes before the game to use Wilson in place of a not-too-healthy Rising.

Against Arizona last week, the decision to play Wilson instead of Rising apparently came much earlier. When Utah came out for its final warmups Saturday night, Wilson was taking first-team reps and Brandon Rose was taking second-team reps, with Rising throwing the ball significantly less than those two.

For each of the last three weeks, Rising has taken the field and warmed up in full uniform, with a glove on his throwing hand and his usual knee brace. He even took part in the coin toss, but Wilson came on the Utes' first offensive series.

It didn't matter whether it was really a game decision for Rising against Arizona or whether Whittingham wanted to keep the Wildcats guessing about who would start at quarterback. The Wildcats handed Utah its first loss of the season and shut down Wilson and the Utes' offense for much of the second half.

This begs the question: How much does concealing injury information really help a team?

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said his team is preparing for both quarterbacks, but especially Wilson. Arizona certainly wasn't surprised when Utah put Wilson on the market on Saturday. Maybe a team spends a little more time during the week preparing for both Rising and Wilson, but that didn't seem to be a clear advantage for Utah.

The lack of transparency about injuries has also frustrated parts of Utah's fan base.

Throughout his 20-year career at the helm of the Utah football program, Whittingham has been reticent about injury updates. Although he occasionally provides nuggets, his rule is that he doesn't release information beyond season-ending injuries.

“We don't provide updates on injuries unless the season ends, so we won't say who will play quarterback even if we know,” Whittingham said.

Here's the thing: It's not Whittingham's job to make sure the fan base – or even the media – has information about injuries. It's his job to win, and he needs to believe that not being completely transparent and specific about injuries gives Utah an advantage – or at least that being completely open would put his program at a disadvantage.

“Why should you take it as long as it’s not mandatory? It just doesn't make sense. You need to do everything you can to gain a competitive advantage and file an injury report that doesn't have to be filed. “Why would you say that to your opponent?” Whittingham said last year.

Injury reports are already mandatory in the Big Ten and SEC, and one has to imagine that will be the case in the Big 12 sooner rather than later. Until that day comes, however, Whittingham doesn't have to provide any details about his injury at all – and for the most part, he won't.

While it looks like Rising will try to play against Arizona State in a little less than two weeks, there is no certainty until he actually takes snaps in a live game.

“Very close. Really close,” Whittingham said Saturday when asked if Rising was close to playing. “So if there’s a silver lining here, it’s that we have a week off and hopefully he’ll be ready to go by then.”

One thing is clear about everything. While Wilson has helped Utah to two wins — and proved useful, if not good, in a difficult situation as a true freshman — for the Utes to achieve their preseason goal of winning the Big 12, they need an upgrade.

Utah begins the seven-game series next Friday in Tempe. If Rising isn't back, the road to Arlington for the conference title game – already considerably closer after the Utes lost last week's game – will be that much more difficult.

“He’s one of the best quarterbacks in the country. It's a quarterback-driven game. It's the most important position on the field, it's not even close, and so when you have an elite quarterback like Cam Rising, that definitely helps get him back on the field and gives us a big boost Whittingham said.