What will Cam Rising write in his final chapter at Utah?

On Thursday, for the first time in 605 days, Utah quarterback Cam Rising will take the field at Rice-Eccles Stadium and play in his first action since the Rose Bowl Game on Jan. 2, 2023.

The opening guitar chords of “Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival will blast from the speakers as Rising jogs onto the turf, where he will be greeted with a standing ovation from 51,444 red-clad fans.

“I see the bad moon arising ...”

In Salt Lake City, CCR’s 1969 hit has become synonymous with the 25-year-old quarterback, dating back to a hype video Utah Football released before its 2021 win over No. 3 Oregon, featuring Rising driving Kyle Whittingham’s vintage Ford Ranger truck that was originally owned by Fred Whittingham.

For the record, Rising is a fan of the song.

When it plays Thursday night, it’s going to mark the end of a long, arduous journey to get back onto the field, and the beginning of a new one for the veteran quarterback — one that just might end with Rising’s third conference title.

“Yeah, I’m excited. It’s a special moment to finally get to hear that song being played again and just really excited to say, ‘set, go’ right after that and get the game going. It’s going to be a special moment for sure,” Rising said.

‘He had arrived’

Rising’s competitiveness was instilled at a young age, when he’d play all kinds of sports against his family in Ventura, California.

His dad, Nicko, used to throw the football in the living room, and a young Cam would have to try to make a catch with his older brother Tyson defending him. There were also legendary family basketball games with Nicko, Tyson or eldest brother Jordie, where Cam would get “roughed up,” but he’d always come back for another game.

Rising took to football from a young age as the water boy for Tyson’s Ventura Packers Little League team. When he was 6 years old, during breaks in the action, he’d be throwing the football around with Nicko and running around with Tyson and his teammates.

When he started playing Little League football himself, Rising didn’t start out as a quarterback, playing safety — like Nicko did in college at Cal Lutheran University — and wide receiver, while also handling punt return duties.

Around seventh grade, Rising began to hone solely in on quarterback — though before that, he and former Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral, who were on the same Little League team, would switch off playing the position.

Keith Smith, Arizona’s starting quarterback from 1996-99, first started working with Rising when the future Ute was an eighth grader, and later was his offensive coordinator at Newbury Park High.

His first impression?

Rising, who stood 6-foot-1 at the time, was raw and needed to tighten up his throwing motion a little bit more, but the potential was there. That trademark swagger that fans at Utah would come to love, his toughness and competitiveness, and his insatiable work ethic were qualities that were apparent within minutes of that first meeting between the two.

That work ethic would be needed as Rising put countless hours into improving his game, and after his freshman season, everything started to click.

“He is the leader of our team, the leader of leaders, the alpha dog, and to know that he is your guy, it permeates throughout the program.”

Kyle Whittingham on Cam Rising

“If you were to look at his freshman film to his sophomore film, you’d notice a pretty big improvement on his throwing motion, just tightening up,” Smith said.

His sophomore year, buoyed by his improved mechanics, Rising beat out multiple quarterbacks for the starting job at Newbury Park, and the legend of Cam Rising began in Ventura.

“He kind of just said, ‘Hey, this is my position and my spot,’” Smith said.

During his first season as the starter, in 2015, Rising threw for 3,213 yards and 40 touchdowns, with only one interception — an incredible TD-to-INT ratio for a high school sophomore in his first season of varsity competition. He also added 756 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground, displaying his dual-threat ability.

When asked which game stood out from Rising’s time at Newbury Park, Smith pointed to a 63-49 loss to Oaks Christian during Rising’s junior season.

As fate would have it, future Utah wide receiver Mycah Pittman starred for Oaks Christian and had 205 yards and a touchdown in the win.

But the standout performance belonged to Rising.

“They had some D1 guys and he just made them look silly,” Smith said.

Rising threw for 485 yards and five touchdowns, while adding 141 yards and a score on the ground, setting a Ventura County record for total offense.

“He had arrived,” Smith said. “You could see that he was a potential four-star, five-star kid right there. It’s like, this kid has a chance to potentially make it to the NFL if he’s in the right situation in college.”

Beginning during his sophomore year, the mail was piling up at the Rising household, and it didn’t stop.

Texas, Alabama, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon and Penn State were among the schools to offer him football scholarships.

Even with the recruiting hoopla and attending the elite camps and showcases put on by companies like Rivals and Under Armour, Rising never missed anything at Newbury Park — not a single early-morning lifting session or one offseason practice.

“His No. 1 priority to me was always Newbury Park football, and he was always there,” Smith said. “He was never not present, and that to me was the No. 1 thing … in terms of leadership, putting in the work day after day after day, he was always there.”

With a lengthy list of offers from elite programs throughout the country, Rising had a tough choice to make. He originally committed to Oklahoma in August 2016, then backed off that pledge in April 2017, flipping to Texas, where he would start his college journey.

Reality can often hit hard when highly-touted prospects arrive at college. After years of being the best player on the field and being sweet-talked by coaches who want you to commit to their school, you start over at the ground level in college.

Tyson Rising, who played offensive line at Arizona State, gave his younger brother that advice going into his first season at Texas.

“I told him it was a grind,” he said. “I said, the weirdest thing is going from a superstar at the high school level and then being knocked back down. You’re new. You’re like a rookie. Everyone on the field, they got some type of talent.”

Rising arrived in Austin in 2018 and didn’t make the two-deep coming out of fall camp. The starting job went to sophomore Sam Ehlinger, who led the Longhorns to a Sugar Bowl win over Georgia. Seeing the writing on the wall in terms of future playing time, Rising entered the transfer portal following the season.

“It wasn’t a good fit for me, so I just figured I better move on and just start over, start new. That was pretty much the process,” Rising said in 2019.

During his official visit to Salt Lake City, Rising immediately took a liking to the University of Utah.

“I came here on a visit and it was different than anything I had. I had Brant Kuithe host me and we really kicked it off and it just felt like a good place,” Rising said in 2019.

Five years later, that sentiment hasn’t changed.

‘It for sure helped me grow’

Rising’s time at Utah has been anything but typical.

In 2019, due to NCAA transfer rules (remember those?), Rising had to sit out a year. He wasn’t going to be the starter that year anyway — that belonged to Tyler Huntley — but it forced him to the practice squad, and on game days, up in the coaches’ box with offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig .

That ended up being a blessing in the long term, as Rising was able to gain a great understanding of Ludwig’s offense by the end of the season.

“That was a great year to just kind of learn the process of play calls, what it’s like to be up in the box and watch a game from right there,” Rising said. “It’s such a different thing when you got a TV right there that you can watch the play and then go back to the game. Just seeing Coach Ludwig go through his process of play calling was unreal.”

That knowledge of the offense helped him earn the starting quarterback job in 2020, beating out Jake Bentley. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Utah didn’t start playing until Nov. 21 after positive COVID-19 tests canceled the Utes’ first two contests against Arizona and UCLA, with the Utes beginning an even more truncated schedule against USC.

It was an eerie feeling around Rice-Eccles Stadium that night. No tailgaters grilling in the lot on Guardsman Way, no fans in the stands, no band playing. The only people in the stadium were the players, coaches, referees and media members.

For Rising, an already strange night turned into a nightmare when he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in the second quarter.

The following season, after working hard to finish rehab and get back healthy in time for fall camp, Rising lost the starting quarterback derby to Charlie Brewer. At that moment, he had to dig deep and look within himself.

“My first year wasn’t the easiest, just having the transfer rule, got the job the next year and then got hurt and that’s never easy. And then the next year I didn’t start,” Rising said.

“So it was definitely a test in me and showed me what I really wanted to do and kind of the real me in those standpoints. Because it’s either you just give in or you just keep thinking that the cream’s going to rise to the top and keep believing in yourself. It just taught me perseverance and just really having discipline in all those situations.”

Rising never stopped working or believing in his talents, and after Brewer was benched in the third quarter of the third game of the season against San Diego State, Whittingham inserted Rising into the contest.

Rising led a comeback to force overtime, and though the Utes lost in triple OT, it was clear that this was now Rising’s team.

An emotional 42-26 win over USC — after teammate Aaron Lowe was murdered less than two weeks prior — only confirmed it, with Rising throwing for 306 yards and three touchdowns.

Utah, which was never known for elite quarterback play in the start of the Pac-12 era, started to see an upswing in 2019, when Huntley threw for 3,092 yards, the first time a Utes quarterback had thrown for over 2,900 yards since Brian Johnson in 2008.

Rising continued that momentum and fit Ludwig’s offensive system like a glove. Utah would lose just once in conference play, beating No. 3 Oregon at Rice-Eccles Stadium to send the Utes to the Pac-12 championship game, then defeating the Ducks two weeks later to clinch the Utes’ first-ever Pac-12 title.

With confetti falling at Allegiant Stadium, Rising looked up to the sky and took in the moment.

“Some of the proudest moments of my life ... To see how much the state of Utah, Utah fans have embraced him and how much joy he brings to that state and community is pretty awesome,” Tyson Rising said.

Rising wouldn’t get the Hollywood ending, suffering a concussion in the fourth quarter of the Utes’ 48-45 Rose Bowl loss to Ohio State that knocked him out of the rest of the game, but he had already accomplished something no Utah quarterback had ever done — win a Pac-12 championship.

‘Ice in his veins’

In 2022, Rising picked up where he left off, throwing for 3,034 yards and 25 touchdowns and rushing for 465 yards and six scores. The ride was a little bumpy at times — losses to UCLA and Oregon put the Utes’ Pac-12 repeat hopes in danger — but the Utes punched their ticket to face USC in the Pac-12 championship game.

The two teams had met before during that season.

Back in October, Rising didn’t just go head-to-head with USC’s Heisman-winning quarterback Caleb Williams, he outdueled him — throwing for 415 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 60 yards and three scores.

With Utah trailing USC 42-35 with six minutes left on that October night, Rising was calm.

Ever since he was a kid, that calmness has been a hallmark for Rising. Perhaps it was borne out of enduring the trash talk during those games against his big brother and dad.

“I think the only thing you can do is not let us get into your head because we do talk a lot,” Tyson Rising said. “It’s a part of the game, and he just never let the noise bother him, even when it was coming from us. So I think he’s had that (calmness). I think he developed that from a young age and taken off and ran with it.”

Smith, his Newbury Park offensive coordinator, recalled Rising and him having conversations about non-football topics during games.

“That’s just kind of how relaxed he is to be able to do that and then go onto the field and lead the offense down on a drive,” Smith said. “But it’s in the middle of the game. He’s got ice in his veins.”

A video of Joe Montana, the legendary San Francisco 49ers quarterback, always stuck with Rising. During games, Montana would pick up the sideline phone used to communicate with offensive and defensive coordinators in the booth and call his wife before he’d go on the field for the next series.

“Ever since, I thought of that,” Rising said.

“You could just make that moment just have that much more pressure or you can just be loose and be comfortable and have some fun and yeah, not really worry about anything else, just focus on doing your job and being relaxed doing it. That’s kind of always been my focus.”

Rising’s calmness, and leadership, are some of those intangibles that don’t show up on the stat sheet, but are a big part of the reason why he has been so successful at Utah.

“He is the leader of our team, the leader of leaders, the alpha dog, and to know that he is your guy, it permeates throughout the program,” Whittingham said in 2022.

That leadership was already obvious in high school.

“He has a really good understanding of the offense, which I think keeps him relaxed,” Smith said. “But he also has this aura about him where his teammates feed off of him, and that was in high school that I noticed that they gravitate toward him. They want to be around him, and that’s what you want in a quarterback is the teammates to play for him and get fired up for him, and I can tell that that’s what’s going on in Utah.”

That brings us back to that October 2022 night in Salt Lake City, when Rising strapped on his helmet and jogged out onto the field to lead Utah on a game-deciding drive. It was a high-pressure moment, but Rising wasn’t feeling anxious.

Three key third-down conversions — all to Dalton Kincaid — kept the chains moving and got Utah into the red zone. After Micah Bernard was stuffed at the goal line on third down, Ludwig knew where the ball was going on fourth-and-goal.

Rising took the snap and plowed straight ahead to pull the Utes within a point with 48 seconds left. Whittingham held two fingers up on the sideline.

Utah was going for the win.

Rising dropped back to pass, scanned the field, couldn’t find anybody open, and made a run for it, hitting paydirt to win the game for Utah.

That night, Utah honored Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe, who had passed away the year before, with hand-painted helmets featuring both of their faces and the “22 Forever” logo. Afterwards, Rising and the team dedicated the win to their teammates, giving the game ball to the Jordan and Lowe families.

“It’s hard to find a better moment than wearing that ‘22 Forever’ helmet, scoring the last two-point conversion against USC,” Rising told the Deseret News this week. “That was unreal. You could feel the energy. To be able to do that for Ty and Aaron like that is unreal, just a great moment for sure.

Though Rising and the Utes won the first matchup against USC, they dropped a game at No. 12 Oregon late in the season and found their way back into the Pac-12 championship game by virtue of winning a four-step tiebreaker. Meanwhile, the Trojans’ only loss that season was to the Utes in October.

With a No. 4 ranking, the path was simple for USC — beat Utah and earn a trip to the College Football Playoff.

Despite a 363-yard, three-touchdown performance from Williams, who injured his hamstring in the first quarter, Utah dashed the Trojans’ title hopes with a 47-24 win. Rising threw for 310 yards and three touchdowns in the victory, and basked in the glow of back-to-back Pac-12 championships.

Another trip to Pasadena — back to his home state of California — was in order for Rising and the Utes.

‘Groundhog Day’

Down 21-14 to Penn State in the middle of the third quarter of the 2023 Rose Bowl, Rising was flushed out of the pocket and scrambled, tucking the ball and getting a key first down for the Utes on third-and-7.

But as he made the final cut to get past the marker, he got crushed by multiple Penn State defenders and knew something was wrong. He tried to get back up and immediately collapsed to the ground.

On that play, Rising tore basically everything there is to tear in a knee — ACL, meniscus, MPFL and MCL.

Soon after, he underwent surgery to repair the injured knee, and embarked on what would turn out to be a yearlong rehab journey.

Rising traveled back and forth between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where his surgeon, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, practices. ElAttrache, who also performed Kuithe’s knee surgery, is one of the go-to surgeons for athletes, including Shohei Ohtani, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.

Rising missed all of spring ball while rehabbing, working every day to get back in time for the season.

“It’s definitely kind of like ‘Groundhog Day,’” Rising said.

“You just got to do the same thing over and over and it just takes a lot of discipline. You got to love doing what you don’t want to do in those standpoints and then you kind of just have that discipline to do it over and over and say, forget the rest. Just go out there and handle business. That’s all it’s really about and put your head down and go.”

As Utah’s 2023 opener versus Florida drew near, Whittingham said it would come down to the wire for Rising to play in the opener. The Florida game came and went, with Bryson Barnes quarterbacking Utah to a season-opening win.

Postgame, Whittingham said Rising, who had practiced with limitations in fall camp, would have no limitations in practice starting that next week.

For the next six weeks, Rising would practice and Utah waited to hear if he was cleared for game action by ElAttrache. Each time, the answer was no.

“It was frustrating. Just you keep feeling like you’re getting there and then it kind of just never really comes and never comes to fruition and whenever that happens it just makes it challenging,” Rising said. “It bugged me just not being out there. I pride myself on being out there and just proving that I’m the best guy for the team each and every snap and when you can’t go out there and really do that, it’s never going to be a fun time.”

At times, Whittingham sounded frustrated with how late the decision by ElAttrache was coming in the week, and the decision was moved up to earlier in the week.

With how badly Rising’s knee was damaged, it seemed unrealistic he was going to be back for the nonconference slate, but fans didn’t know just how bad the injury was. On Oct. 5, Rising took to the ESPN 700 airwaves to share the full extent of his injury , saying he was doing everything he possibly could to get back on the field, but that hadn’t been fully cleared for game action.

The team was supportive of Rising doing what was best for his health, and after Utah’s 34-32 win over USC on Oct. 21, Whittingham announced that Rising was out for the season and would medically redshirt.

A month later, Rising announced his return to Utah for the 2024 season.

It was a combination of things — unfinished business, proving to NFL scouts that he’s healthy again and playing at a high level, and a new challenge to face in the Big 12.

The NIL money doesn’t hurt, either.

Rising had offers from other schools, with lucrative NIL deals attached to them, but chose to finish his career in Utah.

“Yeah, there was good opportunities everywhere. I just kind of felt like the best decision was definitely to just stay a Ute and happy with that decision,” Rising said on ESPN 700 last November.

‘Functioning as well as he ever has’

Shortly after Utah’s Las Vegas Bowl loss to Northwestern in December, ElAttrache fully cleared Rising to return to game play, and Rising crossed the finish line of a taxing rehab.

“That’s the type of work ethic that he’s put in to get back and be better for his teammates,” Smith said.

Since the moment he was fully cleared, Rising hasn’t missed a snap of spring or fall camp. He participated in player-led summer practices, and has done everything required of him, including things like cutting and playing 11-on-11 scrimmages.

He’s even dunked a basketball again.

With so much distance from his last game action, nobody can truly know how Rising will look when the lights are on and an opponent is lined up across from him, but watching spring practice and Utah’s spring game, he looked like he was back to his old self.

“He’s right now functioning as well as he ever has. His arm strength is back, the leg feels great and just no limitations. I mean, he’s ready to roll,” Whittingham said.

“His arm strength is back, the leg feels great and just no limitations. I mean, he’s ready to roll.”

Kyle Whittingham on Cam Rising

Rising’s injury rehab led him to take a look at what else he could improve with his body, including his throwing mechanics.

“I have actually worked on a lot of different mechanics and stuff that have been new to me and I think that has ultimately made me more accurate and more stable in a lot of situations, so I get the ball out faster,” Rising said in July. “That’s been the biggest growth, I think.”

There’s just one more hurdle Rising needs to clear — getting tackled. Rising hasn’t been hit in 605 days, and was obviously off limits from being touched through all of spring and fall camp.

Though Ludwig said he’d like to avoid that first hit, it’s a contact sport, and it’s coming. Once Rising absorbs that first tackle and gets up, there’s going to be a sense of relief, and then everything is back to normal.

“You just kind of got to go get hit,” Rising said. “It’s a weird process always in a football game, but you kind of always like to get that first hit out of the way early and just go from there and then you feel good the rest of the way.

“So that’s what I’m looking forward to is just getting hit, pushed or whatever it may be, the first type of contact I experience and yeah, just excited to feel that again.”

With so much riding on Rising being able to stay healthy this year, Utah’s coaches are understandably trying to protect him from unnecessary hits. It’s something that’s been preached by both Whittingham and Ludwig this fall.

Part of the plan is for Ludwig to limit Rising’s designed quarterback runs, especially early in the year, and an added emphasis on getting the ball out early — or on time — to avoid scrambling, and if he does have to run, stepping out of bounds or throwing the ball away at times.

“He is going to be very judicious in his running and we’ve had ad nauseum talks about that and he’s going to be a guy that really picks his spots and is going to be not trying to fight for that extra yard,” Whittingham said.

That’s a big change for Rising, who has rushed for over 800 yards in his career. That dual-threat ability has been an essential aspect of his game in years past. And while he’s going to try and follow his coaches’ advice, there’s going to be times where he does have to run.

“At the end of the day, it’s still football,” Rising said. “Plays happen and you got to get out of the pocket, so whatever comes I’ll be ready for.”

When a game is on the line, all bets are off.

“You got to go out there and do whatever you got to do to win. That’s pretty much the only goal,” Rising said at Big 12 media days.

‘A match made in heaven’

What makes Rising so confident in this year’s Ute offense?

It starts with Ludwig, who has presided over some of the most productive offenses in school history — 2008, 2019, 2021 and 2022 — and has worked closely with Rising since 2019. Add in Utah’s best group of pass-catchers in quite a while, plus a veteran quarterback in Rising, and it’s clear why those around the program are as optimistic as they’ve ever been in a Utah offense prior to a season.

“When you have that level of a play caller and that level of a whole offense that can go out there and play, it’s usually a match made in heaven,” Rising said.

The most intriguing player among those weapons? Dorian Singer, the wide receiver transfer from USC .

Singer had 66 receptions for 1,105 receiving yards and six touchdowns in 2022 for Arizona, then his production fell after transferring to USC last season, where he was on the field for 405 fewer snaps last year and had 289 yards and three touchdowns on 24 receptions.

From what Utah’s coaches have seen this offseason, Singer is not only the Utes’ clear best receiver, but he could be the program’s first 1,000-yard wide receiver since Dres Anderson in 2013.

“He is an exceptional football player,” Whittingham said. “I mean, he does things out on the practice field that you just go, ‘Wow.’ You just look at each other as coaches and say, ‘Yeah, that’s why we brought him here.’ He’s got certainly one of the best sets of hands that we’ve had ever in our program.”

The chemistry that Rising and Singer have built was apparent during the spring, and it’s only improved from there.

“He’s just one of the hardest workers and it just makes sense why he’s so good because of the attention to detail and how good he wants to be because he’s always out there putting his best foot forward and going full speed,” Rising explained. “So when you got a guy like that, it just makes my job just that much easier.”

Money Parks (293 yards on 31 catches and two touchdowns last year; 26 catches for 414 yards in Rising’s last season) and Mycah Pittman (317 yards on 29 catches with three scores in 2022 for Florida State; suffered season-ending injury two games into 2023) round out the starting lineup, and 6-foot-6, 220-pound Syracuse transfer Damien Alford, who had 33 receptions for 610 yards and three touchdowns last season for the Orange, should get opportunities.

Then there’s the tight end room.

Landen King, Caleb Lohner, Dallen Bentley, Carsen Ryan and Miki Suguturaga will all play a role, depending on the situation and play call, but the headliner is Brant Kutihe, who is returning from knee surgery of his own.

In his last fully healthy season, 2021, Kuithe had 611 yards on 50 receptions with six touchdowns, and Rising is looking forward to reigniting that connection.

“It’s going to be surreal. I mean that’s one of my best friends right there. I love him to death and just getting him the ball and watching him go is usually one of my favorite things to do,” Rising said. “I’m just really waiting to do that again and just watch him score a touchdown.”

‘I want to be known as a winner’

Rising has already cemented his legacy as one of the best quarterbacks to come through Salt Lake City. In just two seasons as Utah’s starting quarterback, he’s won two conference championships, and is closing in on some long-standing school records.

He needs nine wins to become Utah’s all-time winningest quarterback, passing Brian Johnson, and 218 completed passes to move past Johnson for all-time career completions. He’s also not completely out of range to break Scott Mitchell’s career passing yards record of 8,981, needing 3,410 yards this year, and needs 24 touchdown passes to break Mitchell’s record of 69 career touchdown tosses.

“Anytime you can be one of the greatest ever at a school like Utah is going to be something that you’d only dream of as a kid,” Rising said. “To be in that position, I’m excited, but that’s not really my focus. I want to be known as a winner. That’s really always been my goal is to just win.”

If Rising is able to lead the Utes to a Big 12 championship — and with it, the school’s first-ever appearance in the College Football Playoff — he’d have a strong argument for the greatest quarterback in Utah history.

While the schedule is favorable for the Utes, the Big 12 is going to be a week-in and week-out grind, with a tough start to conference play at Oklahoma State and vs. Arizona.

Rising’s mindset is to take it a week at a time, but he’s also allowing himself to dream big, to write a storybook ending in the final chapter of his Utah career.

“It’d be everything,” Rising said of a College Football Playoff appearance.

“That’s kind of what we’ve always wanted to accomplish each and every year. To do it is not an easy task and you just got to come ready to go 1-0 each and every week and hopefully we can get there and get it done, but you just got to go one week at a time to get there.”