Six crazy facts about the career of Utah QB Cameron Rising

The career of Utah quarterback Cameron Rising has been nothing short of fascinating to watch and follow.

After suffering an injury and being ruled out for the remainder of the season, Rising has been given an EIGHTH year of eligibility for the 2025 campaign if he feels inclined to come back for one last college run. Here’s five facts from Rising’s career that illustrate how crazy it has been.

Age

Right out of the gate, Rising’s age is one of the many crazy facts about him. While the signal-caller is 25 years old, that isn’t even good for the oldest player in the country. Rising is the ninth-oldest player in college football, with Virginia punter Matt Ganyard the oldest at 35 years old.

Fellow recruits

Rising was a member of the 2018 high school recruiting class. The same recruiting class that was headlined by Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields, who both have been in the NFL since the 2021-22 season. 

Unlike Lawrence and Fields, though, Rising was not a highly rated recruit, landing as a three-star prospect on the 247Sports composite board for the 2018 cycle. His still being a college quarterback while Lawrence and Fields are established quarterbacks in the pros is astonishing. 

Games played

This may be one of the stranger stats on the list. In six seasons at Utah, Rising has only played 30 games out of a potential 69 games.

Injuries have certainly been an unfortunate part of Rising’s career and playing in less than 50% of his team’s games played shows how big of a problem the injuries have been for the quarterback.

Conference changes

In Rising’s time in college football, there have been conference realignments that specifically impacted Utah. Rising has played games for Utah as a member of both the Pac 12 Conference as well as the Big 12 Conference. 

Presidents

Rising enrolled at the University of Texas in February 2018 — he transferred to Utah after one season — while Donald Trump was the President of the United States. He would go on to play college football through the end of Trump’s term in office (2020) and for all four years of President Joe Biden’s term. 

Should he decide to fulfill his eighth season in 2025, there is a chance that Rising could play college football during three different presidential terms with three different presidents, something that would be absolutely unheard of.

Teammates in the NFL

Since arriving at Utah in 2019, Rising has seen a total of 19 former teammates selected in the NFL Draft and additional teammates that have gone on to sign as undrafted free agents. 

With the way the transfer portal has blown up over the past several years, it’s hard to imagine the total number of teammates Rising has played with during his collegiate career.

Rising has not yet made a public decision on returning for his eighth season and that is something he will have to think about once he’s healthy and cleared to play again. Whatever his decision may be, the seasoned veteran has certainly had one of the most interesting careers in the history of college football.