Utah quarterback Cam Rising announces he's returning to play for Utes in 2024

Utah quarterback Cam Rising has been dealing with recovering from his serious knee injury all year long. He hasn’t been able to play this season for the Utah Utes and many wondered what his future plans would be.

On Sunday evening, Rising released a video announcing his return to Utah for a final year of football.

In late October of 2023, Rising addressed some questions about his future plans on the football field.

Rising shared a fuzzy answer when it came to the next steps in his career during an appearance on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’. At one point of the interview, Rising answered a question regarding a potential redshirt and the opportunity to “lead the Utes to their first Big 12 Championship.” Instead of a resounding response, Rising’s words were a little more reserved with more of his focus on Utah’s Top-15 game against Oregon.

“Everything is on the table right now,” said Rising. “I’m more so focused on this season making sure we win the big game tomorrow.”

2023 would have been Rising’s sixth collegiate campaign, fifth with Utah. In that time, he has appeared in 27 games as a Ute with 25 starts under his belt. That includes 24 starts in 2021 and 2022 as the program’s starting quarterback.

Over those two seasons, Rising has completed 64.3% of his passes for over 5,500 passing yards, 46 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. That helped Utah win 20 of 28 games, including two straight Pac-12 Championships. He also led to them to a pair of appearances in the Rose Bowl.

Rising has been out for all of this season to this point after tearing his ACL in the Rose Bowl in 2022 against Penn State. That eventually led Kyle Whittingham to announce that he would not be available and would be taking a redshirt.

The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder is one of the best players in all of college football and it’ll be fascinating to watch him in a college uniform for one more season.

With Rising under center, the Utes are expected to return several players from this year’s roster as they transition from the Pac-12 to the Big 12. As the two-time reigning Pac-12 champ, the dynamic quarterback gives Utah the type of player that can help them compete for another conference championship and potentially a run at the College Football Playoff.

It’s important to note that 2024 will be the first year of the 12-team bracket for the College Football Playoff.

On3’s Sam Gillenwater also contributed to this article.