‘I’m playing this time’: Cam Rising’s return to football inches closer as Utes open fall camp

Once you cross the red line on the sidelines of Utah’s practice field, quarterback Cam Rising says, you have to be moving around.

On Monday, Utah crossed the “red line,” and fall camp commenced.

The 25-year-old Rising paused for a moment and took it all in, took a deep breath and crossed the line, embarking on his sixth — and final — fall camp at the University of Utah.

In 31 days, he’ll take the field at Rice-Eccles Stadium and play in his first action since the Rose Bowl Game on Jan. 2, 2023 — a 605-day wait that will all be worth it when he leads the Utes out of the south end zone tunnel.

Last year, Rising practiced in fall camp —and practiced during the first half of the season — but didn’t play in a game while continuing post-surgery rehab for a torn ACL, meniscus, MPFL and MCL suffered in the Rose Bowl loss to Penn State.

This year, fall camp feels different.

“It feels good to be back out there and (knowing) that I’m playing this time,” Rising said.

Rising says he feels 100% — he’s working on cuts at high speed as camp opened Monday. Barring some unforeseen setback, he’ll be under center for the Utes as they open the 2024 season.

Though media isn’t allowed to view fall camp, Rising almost assuredly threw some passes Monday to senior tight end Brant Kuithe, who also missed the entirety of the 2023 season with knee surgery rehab. It was just like old times for the duo.

“I mean, kind of just go out there and just run with my eyes closed and catch the ball, but it’s great just being able to be out there with him again, especially our last season,” Kuithe said of his connection with Rising. “It’s just exciting and just have to take advantage of it.”

Rising will have plenty of other targets to throw to — tight ends coach Freddie Whittingham said the tight end and wide receiver group is as deep and talented as he’s seen since he starting coaching in 2016 — including USC transfer Dorian Singer, Syracuse transfer Damien Alford and returnees Money Parks, Mycah Pittman and tight end Landen King.

“I definitely think we have a top 10 receiver room in the country. It may not look like that on paper, but if you come out here and watch the guys work, you can definitely see that in the way we work and the way we play ball,” Singer said.

The connection between Singer and Rising was on display during the spring, and especially the spring game in April, when Singer led all receivers with 92 yards on five receptions during Rising’s three series.

“Chemistry’s great. We hang out outside of football, do fun activities, stuff like that. I feel like I can do anything with him because he’s been in a system like this, a pro style offense, and he knows the ins and outs,” Singer said.

Rising is even throwing to former BYU and Baylor basketball player Caleb Lohner, who transferred to Utah and is making the switch to football.

“He’s just big, prototype guy and I’m just excited to see what he does over fall camp. Just long, he can go up and get the ball and just excited to see how he can help us win games,” Kuithe said.

One of the biggest questions Whittingham and staff have to solve in the weeks ahead of Utah’s opener is selecting the main backup behind Rising among sophomore Brandon Rose, true freshman Isaac Wilson and Washington and Cal Poly transfer Sam Huard.

Once a quarterback starts showing separation later down the line, offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig said, that player will get more reps, but that will come later as the pads come on and the Utes do more scrimmage work.

As of right now, the quarterbacks are all looking good, head coach Kyle Whittingham said.

“Really good. Really good. It was a good day for the QBs and probably the biggest reason for that is the things we put in today were the things they’ve been doing all summer, so that’s what’s going to be the first three or four days of stuff that we’ve worked all summer on,” he said.

“You start getting into practice 5, 6, 7, now you start introducing new concepts and that’s where you really start to see separation.”

The Utes will slowly ramp up during fall camp to avoid injuries, practicing two days and taking a day off, practicing three days and taking a day off, practicing four days and taking a day off.

While the pads don’t come on until later, Whittingham likes what he’s seen one Day 1, partly due to the work the players did in the offseason.

“Well, we had a great summer, first of all, and players had the opportunity to do a lot of player-run practices and that showed up today and it was pretty smooth the first day out,” he said.

“Execution was pretty good. ... No pads. It’ll be the same situation (Tuesday), so it’s just mainly assignment football but about what we expected for the first day. It was good, it was solid, good.”

While Kuithe acknowledged the team’s goal of winning the Big 12 in its first season in the conference, the Utes are trying to block out outside expectations and concentrate on fall camp.

“We have to focus on what’s happening right now,” Kuithe said. “First practice is done. We have to go in, review the plays and look at the film and just get better from it.”