Gators 2023 season opening opponent dealt tough injury
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Gators are set to travel west to kick off the 2023 season against the Utah Utes. Friday, Utah quarterback Cameron Rising revealed he suffered a torn ACL in the Utes’ Rose Bowl loss to Penn State.
It was the second year in a row that Rising suffered an injury in the Rose Bowl. The Ute star suffered a leg injury midway through the third quarter in the 2022 Rose Bowl. He was replaced by backup Bryson Barnes, similar to what happened last year in a Rose Bowl loss to Ohio State.
“Cam Rising leaving that tent,” ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe said during the broadcast. “He has played with two different knee braces at times this year. I saw them take a knee brace in there but I don’t know that they’re going to be able to put them on him. They are going to the locker room right now with Cam Rising. He has been able to play with a bigger support but they’re going right to the locker room.”
“Yeah, breaks my heart. He’s such a warrior and such a fierce competitor. He’ll be back; I can promise you that, from the injury. Hopefully, he’s back with us. That’s to be determined. But he’ll work his way back,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said after the game. “It almost seemed we lost a little bit of our mojo when that happened. We had a little bit of a deflation on our team, and that’s not the right way to respond. We needed to respond better than we did, and it’s unfortunate that we didn’t — that we had the dropoff that we did.”
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Rising aims to be back for the season
The typical return time from an ACL surgery is nine to twelve months. In the interview, Rising said he was aiming to be able to return to the Utes by fall practice. Depending on when Rising had surgery from the injury a month ago, that would give him roughly nine months to get back on the field and prepare for the Gators.
Florida and Utah still don’t have an official date for their season opener. The game will either be played on Thursday, August 31, or Saturday, September 2. It will be Florida’s first regular season road game outside of the SEC footprint since 1991 when they traveled to Syracuse.
Florida hosted Utah to kick off the 2022 season in a game that turned into an instant classic. The Gators were led by Anthony Richardson‘s 168 rushing yards and three scores to beat No. 7 Utah 29-26.
