Utah fans are frustrated with QB Cam Rising's injury and vague status updates

It's an unfortunate circumstance when a sports hero, especially a college sports hero, becomes a sports goat, and not the best kind ever.

Some disgruntled Utah fans, and perhaps wise fans of other teams, are pulling out the long knives and now chanting “Cam Rising”… “$cam Rising.” They are annoyed or otherwise intrigued on multiple collective levels. First, that the Ute quarterback standing on the sidelines in his baseball cap is raking in $1.5 million in NIL money this year injury-free, and second, that Rising is constantly injured and has suffered enough injuries that he's not in able – some accuse him of not being ready – to play.

That was tolerable in some ways until Utah lost at home to Arizona on Saturday night, a game in which the Ute offense played poorly, struggled to score and surrendered in disgrace.

Beyond that, the problem is that Utah has a really good team, a promising team that many observers, including the team in attendance, and many fans thought, and perhaps still believe, was capable of being the Big To win 12 and/or qualify for the College Football Playoff – if his frontline quarterback plays.

With freshman Isaac Wilson taking center stage in the loss at Arizona, Utah football didn't seem capable of any of that success. It looked like a team confused by its circumstances, a team whose identity is shattered and whose prospects are compromised. It looked exactly the opposite of what was expected. What is the saying? Where much is given, much is expected.

Here are a few notable points.

While the quarterback position wasn't the only one that underperformed in the loss, the blame still lies with Rising as, to his credit, he supports the entire Ute team on the field, both on offense as well as defensively, and both give We give the sides of the ball the confidence they need to persevere and win difficult games. When the defense gives up a score, those defenders – and everyone else dressed in red – know that Rising can bring the offense back to make up for and surpass what was just suffered.

That's why Rising isn't just suffering from pain in his throwing hand now. He is suffering from his own success in recent years, from the precedent he has set, which from today's perspective was a very, very long time ago. He might have gone down as the second-best quarterback in Utah football history if he had continued to repeat what he did in previous seasons – returning from injury and playing exceptionally. Instead… well, the subsequent injuries left him on the bench all year last year and now have him sidelined again.

Should he be accused of being human? No. There is another, more valid criticism that can be fired, but some critics point the finger at him for both the former and the latter.

Kyle Whittingham has done Rising a disservice by shrouding the quarterback's status in mystery game after game, this time no different than a year ago. The out-of-game plays the coach plays because he doesn't want to give his opponents a perceived advantage by telling opponents who will play and who won't before the opening kickoff land squarely on Rising's shoulders, on his knees, on his fingers . The opponents may be unsure and confused by the tactics, but the fans are the ones who are most baffled. And thereby impatient and ultimately angry when the QB stands on the sideline as usual, with his hat on, out of action, out of position to help Utah become what it otherwise could be.

That means the charade backfires and does more damage to Rising than if the fans and everyone else were made aware of the severity of the injury from the jump in order to give the quarterback the space to heal needed. If Whittingham really didn't know and the doctors misdiagnosed the injury, then the blame may lie with them.

This all gets worse when Whittingham says that Rising is about to get started. If he's so close to being ready, why doesn't he give it a try, both literally and figuratively?

False rumors are circulating that the quarterback doesn't want to play and just wants to collect his paycheck.

One final point about zero money. In many ways, college football is becoming more and more like professional football. You can argue about the pros and cons, the pros and cons of this lean solution. But one of the consequences of that professionalism is this: In the past, college players, especially high-level players, have been viewed, rightly or wrongly, as student-athletes, as kids who shouldn't be criticized too harshly. The coaches were the professionals, the targets who were and were to be blamed for mediocre or inferior performance.

When a quarterback or any other player receives a million or two million or three million dollars, he is vulnerable to sometimes unfair professional treatment, to professional fame and to professional criticism. The way Rising was injured in the Baylor game, looking down as he shuffled toward the sideline while a defender charged at him instead of running straight to the sideline, the way coaches talked to him in personal and team meetings had begged hundreds of times. Everything that needs to be done not only for self-protection and self-preservation, but also for the good of the team, can and should be questioned.

In the bad days of social media, it is the combination of these effects that paves the way, the highway, even when it comes to something as human as an injury, and compounded by fans of the frustration of talented and brave and great players like Cam Rising, who goes from hero to goat.

Editor's Note • This story is available only to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers. Thank you for supporting local journalism.