OnlyU-Kenobi

[Anfernee]

So, I’m going to have to tell my son here pretty soon the truth about Santa Claus, Easter Bunny etc. Is 2023 Cam Rising going to fall in that category? Mythical entities we believed existed that actually didn’t. 🎅 🐰 🦵

[22Ute22]

Lmao the leg emoji is killing me.

[SalUteopia]

Well done, sir. Well done! 🤣

[Onlyu]

There have been a lot of rumors out there…for the past two weeks there was sincere optimism within the program early in the week that Cam would take the field only to watch that evaporate as they got closer to kick. That included live reps with contact.

IMO if he doesn’t take the field against Cal in 2 weeks there is something else at play.

Not gonna speculate until I see what happens but as my mother used to say “it’s time to s**t or get off the pot” for Cam.

[The Miami Ute]

Until I’m proven wrong, I don’t think we’ll see either Cam or Kuithe this season. It’s been discussed ad-nauseum on this site, but the fact of the matter is that coming back for another season was a sound business decision on both of their parts. That is something that is completely undeniable.

Now, I’m not saying that was the only factor or even the primary factor, but you have to think that it had played a significant role in their return.

The real question, at least for me, is if not seeing them this season signals both of them applying for a medical redshirt and coming back for a seventh college football season next year.

[EMUte#2]

I agree. It is time to make Rose the starter. Then you give Mack Howard some reps in practice. We have to give the freshmen Rb’s ready. Rose looked good in the spring game and has a strong arm. Jaquinden can’t stay healthy. This bye came at a great time. Whitt needs to take full advantage of it.

[Utah5410]

That’s exactly what I have been saying ONLYU.. I can excuse nah understand him not playing up until this point. But CAL. No excuse two weeks from now. Plenty of time to get prepared mentally.

[22Ute22]

How can there be so much optimism when his knee brace is the size of California? Also, I see that you haven’t mentioned Kuithe, which doesn’t look like a good sign given all the rumors.

[RoboUte]

Wow. If Cam has even OnlyU fed up then you know the team is feeling it too. This kind of cements it for me, Cam is losing the locker room.

[22Ute22]

Funny how me, you, and Miami have been saying this for a while now, but we’ve been downvoted all the way. When OnlyU says it, all of a sudden not downvoted.

[The Miami Ute]

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer

[Utah5410]

Saying what ? If Cam plays v CAL all of your bitching has been pointless and incorrect.

[The Miami Ute]

Are you directing that comment to me?

In case you haven’t been keeping score, the Utes are statistically and literally one of the worst offenses in college football.

The main reason for that is because the Utah brain trust made the conscious decision to place their faith on the quick recovery of Cam Rising or the development of in house QB talent. Both of those decisions have been epic failures.

So, no, even if Cam plays against Cal, something I sincerely doubt will happen, everything we’ve been pointing out as odd in this situation will remain valid.

[22Ute22]

1) I’m correct no matter what. Having your QB miss 5 games is unacceptable when he could have done something about it. Whitt didn’t know we’d be 4-1. Frankly, we are lucky we aren’t 2-3.

2) If he doesn’t play, gets injured again, or plays poorly due to not be 100%, then I was extremely on point. What would you say in those cases?

[MotherJabubu]

If Rising doesn’t play for reasons other than that he literally cannot because health.. he’s going to become the most hated Ute of all time overnight. Dude won’t be able to show his face around town

[Itacoatiara22]

Totally agree. It will essentially ruin multiple years of the QB position at Utah. I can already feel myself slipping that way.

[EMUte#2]

A healthy Rose, in my honest opinion, would be better in the long run than a 70 % cam. We need to think future. We are an 8-4 at best with Cam and no Kuithe. Time to prepare for the future.

[dleto]

I agree with you. Cam has been a great QB for us but it’s definitely time to s**t or get off the pot. And it’s definitely on the coaches for not having a better Plan B when it was always iffy that Cam would be ready to play, even if he wanted to. Which is really too bad because we have so many other pieces this year that we haven’t in the past.

[22Ute22]

Except OnlyU and other insiders have said that Rose really wasn’t that good in fall camp. I doubt he’s the answer, but apparently he has good arm talent. It’s most likely that the starting QB for 2024 is not on this roster. Rose, Howard, and NJ can improve, but I feel like they should be better. NJ’s bad overthrows on slants are concerning. I understand bad reads and not understanding when to take off or keep your eyes downfield, but simple slants and our routes being overthrown/underthrown?

[RoboUte]

I think the reasoning on how people feel about Cam is more nuanced. He is out because of his health, I have little doubt that if he wasn’t injured he would be playing. So at the basest level the reason is his health.

The reason he’s losing people is that there is a sense that we’re being strung along. Cam has made a mistake and put himself in an almost lose-lose situation.

If he doesn’t play, we know that he was completely game planned around and is vacuuming up our practice time so we feel like that time was wasted. And it was. But it’s deeper, we feel that he could’ve been more forthcoming about his actual condition from the get go AND he could’ve been honest with the program at any point thus far and said hey I can’t be the guy right now.

If he does play and he doesn’t absolutely ball out he’s still going to get turned on because we’ve sacrificed everything for him only for him to take a step back. And you’d STILL get the sense that he wasn’t being forthcoming about his condition in this case because obviously the internal expectation within the team was that he’d return to form and we were willing to sacrifice conference wins for that possibility. To be clear I’ve never even contemplated that a single player I’ve ever watched play for Utah was worth more than the program, but that’s the implication we’re dealing with in Cam’s situation.

If you’re Cam knowing that in the last week or two even your most staunch supporters are turning the corner on you you’re out of time. You come play and ball out or you do what you should’ve more than a month ago and be honest. OR, and this is a very important or, you completely bow out of the situation knowing that you want to make a run at your dream, the NFL. Playing injured only threatens his dream.So if you’re Cam and you don’t think you’re going to turn it all around and make the scouts drool it’s probably better to not show your face at all.

There actually isn’t a scenario left where Cam wasn’t valuing his recovery and NFL shot over the Utah Utes, that’s a given at this point. And both of those are a very big deal, neither is a silly thing to want, but we’re a football program not a waiting room. There’s only a scenario left where he comes back and plays well enough for people to forgive him for it.

To be clear it’s Cam’s prerogative to value his health more than the Utah Utes. But he needs to be honest about it. And it was the responsibility of our coaches 10 months ago to say “alright Cam we want you back but we have to prepare with personnel we know are going to make the season. We will give you every resource we can for you to be that guy, but we have a responsibility to the program and that means covering our bases. Worst case we get you to the draft healthy.”

We know for certain that both Cam and the coaching staff failed to do this. Neither is forgivable at this point.

[AlohaUte]

I think you are wrong about our reaction if he plays but doesn’t do well. He won’t lose most fans. We’ll understand, frustrated, yes, but we’ll still love him.

But if it turns out he can play and is choosing not to on order to not risk his NFL future or just to get NIL money, he’ll become enemy #1. I have no sympathy for people selfishly abandon their teammates. I’m ok with it for meaningless bowl games but not for a whole season.

[RoboUte]

That’s certainly possible but he better hope he puts Ws up because a losing fanbase and program is an angry one and I have my doubts that if he sees us through a dumpster fire of a November that people are going to be entirely willing to look the other way on him prioritizing his personal recovery at the expense of his team.

[2008 National Champ]

I’m not sure how you can say that “When Cam is cleared by the doctor’s, he’s our starter” means that he was, is, and always will be the only plan the staff came up with.

from Whitt’s post-game presser:

On split of practice reps potentially hurting Nate’s performance tonight…

No, no, Nate got plenty of reps. What it would have cost is Bryson Barnes, who didn’t get any reps. He was the guy that would’ve suffered in that situation. But Cam and Nate split reps exactly in half, so no, that was not a factor in what we did out there performance wise offensively.

[ORute]

This is delusional, why have Cam split reps if he knew he wasnt playing (didnt even dress) and had a 2 week bye coming up. Sorry, to not fully prep the 2 healthy QBs and instead give half reps to one who clearly wouldn’t play is poor management

[RoboUte]

If you believe that we had QBs 2-4 were adequately prepared for the season and game planned for then there is absolutely nothing I can say (or seemingly nothing that could transpire in reality) that can convince you otherwise. I can only wish you godspeed in your journey on a plane of understanding I will clearly never reach… sober.

Also this is not a great quote for your case. Barnes was completely choked of practice and Johnson was hindered for a guy that won’t play until the season’s more than half over in the very best case. I don’t know why you’d think illustrating with proof that we very clearly have no intention of preparing Bryson Barnes is somehow at odds with my case that we have failed to prepare our underclassmen in favor of Cam. If anything, it absolutely supports it.

[2008 National Champ]

I need a sarcasm font. Tony get on that will ya!

The first statement was hyperbole. The Whitt quote was to back up your post. I thought it might not have been obvious but went with it anyway

[RoboUte]

Oh boy I didn’t even pick up on it at all. my bad

[22Ute22]

Same s**t we’ve been saying for a while, and I agree. Cam is losing this lockeroom and fanbase. Hope this is a good case study and learning opportunity for Whitt and just CFB in general. You don’t gamble your season on an 8-month ACL recovery, and you certainly don’t give them 500k+ in NIL money guaranteed. If they don’t like that and try to threaten you with the portal, tell them to open the door and leave it open for a transfer to come in. Let’s see if any other team will pay a guy 500k+ to potentially not play. Of course we don’t know about the specifics, but this also falls on Whitt. The medical staff has to know how severe his injury, and should be able to give a timeline. Whitt’s also been around the game for 40 years. He know how severe ACL injuries are. He should’ve just gotten a portal QB and told cam that he can’t gamble the season. If cam would have been p**sed, tell him that the team is more important than him.

[2008 National Champ]

I’m not disagreeing with your overall point but we do need to stop blaming the NIL money. The school has nothing to do with it. Whit has nothing to do with it. That is endorsement money that the players are now eligible to earn from anyone that wants to pay him for allowing his Name, Image or Likeness to be used promoting their business. When Patrick Mahomes does one of his 387 commercials each day, the Kansas City Chiefs aren’t footing the bill.

That being said, Rising and Kuithe are on scholarship this year. If the reports of ~ 0.5MM are true for Rising, he could easily have come back as a preferred-walk on this season and had most, if not all, of the same access to the program as he does now. That would have freed up a spot for someone else, potentially a transfer that the team didn’t have room for based on scholarship limits. I remember Jake Locker doing that at Washington his last two years after he got drafted by the Angels.

[22Ute22]

Damn, that’s pretty damn smart. Never thought of that. Make him a walk on, free up a scholarship, and bring in a portal QB. If Cam somehow feels ready by game 6, he takes over. Of course Whitt never would have done that.

[2008 National Champ]

It wasn’t common but there were athletes who either signed pro contracts in other sports (John Elway, Locker) or had endorsement deals because of their marketability (Jeremy Bloom(?), the pro skier who played football at Colorado) or started their own business while in school (Greg Anthony, UNLV basketball). The rules used to prevent a player on scholarship from making any money outside of a part-time job and there were even restrictions on that. So those guys kept their money and paid their own way.

[ORute]

“alright Cam we want you back but we have to prepare with personnel we know are going to make the season. We will give you every resource we can for you to be that guy, but we have a responsibility to the program and that means covering our bases. Worst case we get you to the draft healthy.”

This is the key. Staff should have planned assuming Cam wouldn’t be back, they assumed the opposite and planned for a season around Cam. The staff really mismanaged this–Cam/med maybe led them along, but still they needed to know if he did come back it might not be until mid-season and not 100%. No excuse for not developing an Offense around players we actually knew would be playing. To have on your opening day depth chart Cam as QB1-when he wasnt even back practicing, tells me the staff mismanaged this and didn’t prepare for reality.

[RoboUte]

It’s weird to me that people don’t get this either

[Charlie]

I think we can assume with confidence that the coaches approach every day of practice making the best prep they can with the information known at the moment. Also the information known by those at practice is much greater than that observed by fans. Coaches plan for what promises the best outcome. Unfortunately, that does not always work out. They really don’t want to repeat what will not work. I also get the frustration from being so close on a key component but not quite there. The very little I know about football players is they lean into thinking they are ready before healthy not the other way around. I am wondering if Cam has practiced without a brace and if not how that plays into making him feel he has all his options. Sadly, our quality opponents will hunt any QB we have until they are convinced they must respect run and pass options. If Cam is to come back and if like last year he needs a warm up game, the Cal game is the time to get off the pot.

[Red Rhino]

We should start a Rising chant at the Cal game. Let’s put a little pressure on him.

[2008 National Champ]

I know you’re being funny but that would be a metaphorical kick to the junk for the guy you want him to replace.

[22Ute22]

Yeah, this is so dumb lol. Would probably destroy any shred of confidence NJ has left.

[2008 National Champ]

I suppose timing matters. If the fans were yelling that during the 4th quarter of Weber, it would have been funny. If they are yelling it during the 1st quarter of the Cal game while TQWSNBN is still in street clothes.,,

[Ute Dub]

A Cam Rising Chant would make NJ play worse than 8 of 23 passing?

[2008 National Champ]

It would definitely make him feel worse which is the point. After UCLA, people on this board said the booing about the playcalling was disrespectful to the players that were giving it their all. Calling out individual players, even indirectly, feels worse.

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