Know Your Foe: Cameron Rising leads Utah into The Swamp

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — There is a new era beginning for the Florida Gators‘ football program. The Billy Napier era will officially begin on September 3, as the Gators host the No. 7 Utah Utes.

Utah finished the 2021 campaign as the Pac-12 Champions. Kyle Whittingham’s team finished the regular season with a 9-3 record. They beat Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship game and fell just three points short of beating Ohio State in the Rose Bowl to finish 10-4.

Whittingham has a small connection to UF. He took over the head coaching job at Utah in 2005, replacing Urban Meyer. Meyer, of course, left Utah to accept the head coaching job at Florida and went on to win two National Championships in Gainesville.

The Gators don’t have a coach entering his 18th season at the helm, like Whittingham at Utah. Billy Napier was hired 276 days before the game will kick off. There are much easier ways to begin your tenure, something Napier jokingly acknowledged at SEC Media Days.

“I really believe that having a formidable opponent in the opener is healthy for your team. As much as you want to think our team is not going to be affected by who they play or where they play, I do think we got a little bit of that human nature in it and I think our staff and team has so much respect for coach Wittingham and that Utah program and the consistency with which they perform,” Napier said at SEC Media Days. “They certainly had a heck of a team last year. They got a good group coming back and we’re excited about the thing that comes with it and I think it’s healthy for our team to have that out there that we have a top-10 team and the Pac-12 Champion coming into the Swamp so I think it’s healthy for our team.”

With that in mind, Gators Online reached out to Josh Newman of The Salt Lake Tribune. Newman has covered the Utes since 2019 and knows the team inside and out. He graciously answered our questions so that Gator fans can better know their opponent on September 3.

Part 1: Utah’s age and experience

For Utah, it starts with Cameron Rising

Q: Cam Rising had a shoulder injury that he played through some. How healthy is he now and how will that change or help the Utes’ passing attack?

Josh Newman: Rising won a quarterback competition ahead of the weirdo 2020 COVID season beginning for Utah in November. He blew out his throwing shoulder while getting strip-sacked on the 14th offensive snap of the opener against USC. He had surgery, rehabbed, and was deemed 100% for another camp competition in 2021, which he lost to Charlie Brewer.

Brewer didn’t work out, so Rising entered in the third quarter of the third game at San Diego State. Utah went 9-2 with Rising as the starter, and he was excellent for three months. Rising was healthy enough to play, but it was revealed at Pac-12 media day last month that the shoulder was never 100%, more like 80%. That limited his ability to throw the ball deep. A major theme early in camp this month was Rising’s shoulder being all the way back now. Kyle Whittingham wants to take more shots down the field, which Utah really did not do last season. 

Our Take

Last year, Rising was the Utes’ fourth-leading rusher. He carried the ball 74 times for 499 yards and six touchdowns. He’s not a run-first quarterback or a runner like Anthony Richardson but he will extend plays and drives with his feet if the Gators’ defense doesn’t keep contain. Florida has struggled to set the edge in recent years. Rising will quickly reveal if they’ve improved in that area.