Utah QB Cam Rising medically retiring from football after 7-year NCAA career due to hand injury
'Seven is good enough for me,' he said. 'But you never know. The cards are always on the table.'
At Big 12 Conference Media Day in Las Vegas last summer, the Utes were hyped as the favorite of the newly restructured 16-team conference. They had Rising returning after missing nearly two years of football following a gruesome knee injury in the 2023 Rose Bowl, they had their seasoned head coach in Kyle Whittingham and a roster believed at the time to be among the best in the league.
But Rising, known as one of the most fearless quarterbacks in college who took on linebackers and safeties alike in the open field, would see yet another series of unfortunate events derail a promising season. After suffering hand and lower leg injuries last fall, the 25-year-old quarterback who led Utah to back-to-back Pac-12 titles in 2021 and 2022 announced Wednesday he was medically retiring from football.
Bad Moon Out. pic.twitter.com/hfn5n5WtKB
— Cameron Rising (@crising7) May 7, 2025
'Due to a hand injury I suffered during the Baylor game, I've been advised by two orthopedic physicians that I will never be able to return to playing football,' Rising wrote in his posts on social media.
Rising said he will obtain a third opinion before undergoing surgery on his right hand that was injured in Utah's Week 2 win over Baylor last year when he was shoved out of bounds and into a Gatorade station on the Baylor sideline. The injury forced him to miss the next three games. Rising returned to start Utah's game at Arizona State, but he suffered a season-ending lower leg injury in the game. He played injured throughout the 27-19 loss to the Sun Devils.
The long and brutal road back from the injury suffered against Penn State in the Rose Bowl looked to be worth it in Utah's season-opening 49-0 win over Southern Utah last fall. Rising started for the first time in 606 days and threw a career-high five touchdowns in one half. That elation was short-lived.
Rising suffered a major knee injury in the 2023 Rose Bowl, tearing his ACL, MCL, meniscus and MPFL, the ligament that stabilizes the kneecap. While Rising was rehabbing his injury in the fall of 2023, he faced mounting pressure from the Utah fan base, which wondered exactly where he was in his process of returning from the serious injury. That October, he gave The Athletic permission to speak to his surgeon, renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache, about the severity of his injury.
As he noted in his farewell note on social media, Rising now has to step away from the game he loves for good. Rising's best statistical season came in 2022 when he earned All-Pac-12 honors for a second year in a row, throwing for 3,034 yards, 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He added another six rushing touchdowns.
Rising transferred to Utah from Texas in 2019 and won the starting quarterback job in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, but suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in the first quarter of Utah's season-opener that fall against USC.
When healthy, Rising was respected by NFL scouts for his competitive nature and leadership qualities. The Athletic's scouting expert Dane Brugler said prior to the 2024 season, Rising was projected by scouts to be a priority free agent in the draft process. Brugler added that had Rising recorded a highly productive senior season, he could be a late-round pick.
(Photo: Chris Gardner / Getty Images)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
4 hours ago
Jen Pawol will be MLB's first female umpire. Here are other women who broke officiating barriers
This weekend, Jen Pawol will make history by becoming the first woman to umpire a Major League Baseball game. She's set to work the series between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves. The 48-year-old from New Jersey has worked spring training games over the last two years and in the minors since 2016. Here's a look at other female officials who were the first on the floor, court or the field in prominent men's leagues. Shannon Eastin became the first female official in NFL history when she was a line judge during a preseason game in August 2012 between the Green Bay Packers and the Chargers, who were then in San Diego. A month later, she became the first woman to be an official in an NFL regular-season game when she worked as the line judge in the Rams-Lions game. Eastin was among the replacement officials hired by the league during a lockout of the regular officials. The first woman to get a full-season job was Sarah Thomas, who was a line judge in 2015. Thomas also became the first woman to work a Super Bowl when she was part of the seven-person crew on Feb. 7, 2021, when Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, 31-9. Thomas was already the first woman to officiate a major college football game — and to work a bowl game. Violet Palmer and Dee Kantner were hired by the National Basketball Association for the 1997 season. Palmer made her NBA debut on Oct. 31, 1997, when she was on the floor for the season opener between the Vancouver Grizzlies and the Dallas Mavericks. Palmer worked that night with Bill Oakes and Mark Wunderlich. Kantner's first game was Nov. 5, 1997, when Atlanta beat Philadelphia 93-88. Kantner worked alongside Ron Garretson and Ed Middleton. Palmer retired in 2016, and Kantner is still officiating women's NCAA basketball. The NHL has yet to have a female on-ice official for a regular season or Stanley Cup playoff game. In the mid-1990s, Heather McDaniel received some national attention for officiating men's minor league games for the Central Hockey League and West Coast Hockey League. Two decades later, the NHL selected four female officials to work on the ice at the 2019 prospect tournaments. Katie Guay and Kelly Cooke served as referees, while Kirsten Welsh and Kendall Hanley worked as linesmen. It marked the first time women have officiated at the pre-training camp prospects tournament level. There was a subtle change made before the 2023-24 season when 'linesmen' became 'linespersons,' with women in the American Hockey League working their way up. French referee Stéphanie Frappart made history in 2022 by becoming the first woman to be in charge of a men's World Cup match. The game between Germany at Costa Rica was held in Al Khor, Qatar. Working the game with Frappart were two female assistants — Neuza Back of Brazil and Karen Diaz Medina of Mexico. Melanie Davis was the first woman to officiate a Division I NCAA men's tournament game when she was on the floor for a first-round matchup between San Diego State and Illinois on March 15, 2002. ___
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
'What an unbelievable playmaker': New Texas A&M WR praised ahead of fall camp
Texas A&M's 2025 passing offense is expected to make a significant jump compared to last season, mainly due to the offseason addition of NC State wide receiver KC Concepcion, who is considered one of the fastest and best route runners in the country. On Tuesday, during the Aggies' press conference to open fall camp, which officially begins on Wednesday, head coach Mike Elko and starting quarterback Marcel Reed heaped plenty of praise on the junior receiver, noting that Texas A&M's offense in on track to be much more consistent through the air, as Concepcion provides Reed a true No. 1 option. After junior Noah Thomas transferred to Georgia, landing Concepcion became a mandatory objective, knowing that Marcel Reed would become the full-time starter after Conner Weigman transferred to Houston. So far, so good, as Elko and Reed couldn't hold back their excitement regarding Concepcion's likely impact this season. "What an unbelievable playmaker" Elko stated. "He was a guy that we paid a lot of attention to when we played him, and he has absolutely lived up to it. … He's ready to go on and have a really, really big year for us." During Elko's two-year head coaching stint at Duke, he became well aware of Concepcion, who faced Elko's tough defense twice during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. One of the main reasons the North Carolina native chose Texas A&M was Marcel Reed's dual-threat ability, especially making plays out of structure, which Reed recounted during their first practice session together. "I remember that practice. I saw KC there and was like, 'Yeah, I got to get this guy.' There was one period where I threw three or four balls that were at least 25 or 30 yards downfield." "KC has done a tremendous job this spring, this summer. He's a tremendously hard worker. … He'll give 110 percent every time. He has really strong hands." This not only provides more context of what Concepcion brings to the offense, but confirms that the future NFL draft selection is already putting the work in to help take Texas A&M's passing game to the next level this fall. Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Cameron on X: @CameronOhnysty. This article originally appeared on Aggies Wire: New Texas A&M WR KC Concepcion has been 'tremendous' this summer
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Team Ontario Should Welcome The Best, But Some Girls Remain Excluded
In men's hockey, Hockey Canada will always come calling for the best and brightest. On the women's side, even if a player is registered under Hockey Canada's umbrella in Ontario, some remain ineligible for Team Ontario's Program of Excellent provincial camps. It's a delay that could cost players an opportunity to make Canada's U-18 national team, and delay exposure to NCAA programs.
