Utah's quarterback is older than six starting NFL QBs
With the transfer portal, NIL money and the extra COVID-19 year granted by the NCAA, college football rosters are lined with more veteran players than ever before.
That experience will be on full display Friday night on national television when No. 16 Utah (4-1) faces Arizona State (4-1) in a Big 12 matchup in the desert (7:30 p.m. MST, ESPN).
Utah has 29 seniors on its roster, including seventh-year starting quarterback Cam Rising and sixth-year starting running back Micah Bernard. Rising is expected to start for the first time since injuring his throwing hand against Baylor on Sept. 7.
Rising, who last played a full college season in 2022, graduated from Newbury Park High School in Southern California in 2018. He started his college career at Texas as a redshirt, then transferred to Utah in 2019 where he redshirted again. Rising played in one game in 2020, then earned the starting job in 2021. In 2022 he threw for 3,034 yards and 26 touchdowns, to go along with 465 yards and 6 touchdowns on the ground. He led Utah to a 10-4 record and a Pac-12 championship - and he outplayed then-USC quarterback Caleb Williams in the conference championship game.
In Utah's Jan. 2, 2023 Rose Bowl game vs. Penn State, Rising tore multiple knee ligaments. He sat out the entire 2023 season with a medical redshirt. In the Utes' 2024 season opener, he threw a career-high 5 touchdown passes in a 49-0 win over Southern Utah.
Nearly seven years of college experience gives Rising a significant advantage over 19 and 20-year-old defensive backs and linebackers. As one example, Arizona State's leading tackler, defensive back Myles Rowser, will be locked into a chess match with Rising on Friday, trying to determine where he's going with the ball. Rowser graduated from high school in 2022 and recently turned 20.
Now 25, Rising is older than six current starting quarterbacks in the NFL, including 2023 NFL Rookie of the Year C.J. Stroud. He is widely considered one of the best quarterbacks in college football and is projected as a Day 3 (rounds 4-7) pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Here are the six current NFL starting quarterbacks younger than Rising:
San Francisco 49ers QB Brock Purdy (24)
Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix (24)
Washington Commanders QB Jayden Daniels (23)
Houston Texas QB C.J. Stroud (23)
Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams (22)
New England Patriots QB Drake Maye (22) *
* Maye will make his first NFL start on Sunday, Oct. 13.
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Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. One of his favorite memories was covering the 1999 Fiesta Bowl - the first BCS National Championship Game - at Sun Devil Stadium.