Utah Football Played Themselves With Cam Rising Injury Charade

The manner in which Utah football dealt with Cam Rising's injury only led to false hope and disappointment for Utes fans

Cam Rising's injury against Penn State back on January 2 was reported as a torn ACL, with optimism he'd be able to return for the opening game against Florida.

However, Week 1 went by with no Rising, as did Weeks 2-5, and now we are about to be halfway through the season and the Utes' star quarterback has simply been used as a pawn in a gamesmanship chess game by head coach Kyle Whittingham. Rising suited up prior to the UCLA game and warmed up, only to be back in street clothes for the game but as time went on, Utah fans kept getting their hopes up due to the fact that Rising always seemed to be a week away.

Well, we learned on Thursday that we didn't know the full extent of Rising's injury as rather than just tearing his ACL, he blew out his knee with multiple other ligaments being damaged as he explained on ESPN 700.

"I wasn't really expecting to do this, but I just want to let everybody know I didn't just tear my ACL," Rising said. "I tore my meniscus, MPFL, and MCL. It was a big surgery and it's not an easy comeback. I've been working my tail off."

 An injury that realistically was never likely to be recovered from in time to open the season despite him being listed as a starter for the Week 1 game, but one that is clearly hurting Rising more than just physically. 

Not only did these depth chart mirages give false hope to fans, but they also put a ton of pressure on reserves like Nate Johson and Bryson Barnes because they knew all along fans expected the proven veteran to play. It is one thing that Whittingham always plays the game of "will he, won't he" but for the head coach to either know this was going to go down like this and say things like this is his best team ever and Rising would be ready, or just simply buy into something on a whim, he just had unrealistic expectations himself or didn't actually have the information he needed as indicated by his comments about the doctor who hasn't cleared Rising.

"You have to ask his doctor," Whittingham said Tuesday. "We hope to know early next week rather than later in the week what the situation is. I think one of the problems is we've been waiting until the end of the week, but we're going to get an answer early next week as to who's going to go."

Utah is on a bye week this week with a game against Cal looming the following week, but after the meeting with the Golden Bears, their schedule ramps up, and their season will ultimately be decided with matchups against No. 9 USC, No. 8 Oregon, and No. 7 Washington all coming the span of four weeks.

Fans are furious with the lack of transparency, and this season is very close to becoming a letdown due to all of the injuries, but more importantly; the deceitfulness.