SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Sports) - Cam Rising will go down as one of the most successful quarterbacks in Utah history.
Rising won 21 games, threw for 6,127 yards, 53 touchdowns, and led the Utes to back-to-back Pac-12 Championships and Rose Bowl appearances. But his legacy will always be marred by injuries.
Rising missed the entire 2023 season recovering from knee surgery. He injured his finger in the third game of the 2024 season against Baylor that forced him to miss three games, before suffering a lower leg injury at Arizona State on Friday that ended his season and most likely ended his Utah career.
"Cam was a great football player, and we just tried to do everything we could to give him the best opportunities," Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "Everyone is going to miss Cam, and he's one of the elite quarterbacks in the country. But they'll rally behind Isaac, and that's what we need to do."
Freshman Isaac Wilson will make his fourth career start Saturday against TCU, and be the starter the rest of the season. As Wilson gets more comfortable with the playbook, offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig will be able to call more plays.
"As he continues to grow and mature into the position that the book will continue to expand with his knowledge and his confidence level," Ludwig said. "It's his show, so we're going to let him roll with it."
The Utes held a team meeting in the wake of the Rising news, and they expressed confidence in their freshman quarterback.
"The team meeting we had, we were high on Isaac," leading rusher Micah Bernard said. "He came up there, he said a few words and he got us motivated. So we better go out there this week and just put it on and put it on tape.
"Losing is no fun for anybody, and it hurts," said defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley. "But you got to control what you can control and focus on deficiencies and where we can get better."
One of those deficiencies is on defense, where there were too many missed tackles against Arizona State. Sun Devils running back Bo Scattabo rushed for 159 yards and two long touchdowns against the Utes.
"The past couple of weeks, we're just missing too many tackles," said linebacker Jonathan Hall. "It was an emphasis this week. Make sure we wrap up, make sure we tackle we can do it. We've shown it before, so we're just going to go out and do it."
"There are critical situations where you've got to get a stop," Scalley said. "That's stuff that elite defenses do, and we're not doing quite yet. We're a very good defense. We're not elite."
Utah and TCU will kick off at 8:30 p.m. Saturday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium.