Someone mentioned to me last night

[ProudUte]

That Rising was a good, but not great QB.  He said that Rising is not an NFL prospect.  My response:

Look at where Johnson and Huntley were as Sophomores with little game experience.  Rising is much further along than each of them was.  I would also contend Rising is right there with Alex Smith’s sophomore season.  As a junior – Alex was a complete stud.  However, his sophomore performance, although good was not outstanding.  Scott Mitchell’s Sophomore performance was amazing, but that is clear back in 1988.  

So, I would say that Rising is the best Sophomore QB we have had since Mitchell.  He is looking at least as good as Alex and against better teams.

I am not predicting that Rising will be our best QB in a generation or play in the NFL.  I am just saying that he is playing in games for the first time since 2017 when he was a senior in high school.  I doubt he has reached his ceiling.  The more playing time he gets, he will improve with his timing and become more confident.  I admit that I was not overly impressed with Rising’s first start this season against WSU.  But, he is improving each week.  

 

[Wes]

Does it feel like his passing is getting worse? On short routes he seems to do fine, but earlier it felt like he couldn’t miss on those long passes.

[ProudUte]

Fair question.  I think for the most part – receivers have not been as open.  One more foot on the flea-flicker pass and that would have been a TD.  The other deep shots were well covered IMO.

 

[UtesRule]

If the Johnson you are referring to is Brian Johnson, them I respectfully disagree. I love some Cam Rising and think that the future at QB looks SUPER bright with cam, but Brian Johnson was very good prior to the shoulder injury he suffered early in his Sophomore season at Oregon State. Had that injury not happened, I think BJ has an even more stellar career at Utah than he ended up having (that shoulder injury set him back quite a lot).

[ProudUte]

I too liked BJ a lot.  He was a dynamic 18-year-old.  His sophomore year we were 6-6 if I remember right and against lesser competition.  He had a problem fumbling as a sophomore. I really liked how cool BJ was.  He didn’t let his emotions get the best of him. 

It probably isn’t fair to either of these guys to make comparisons.  I just wanted to point out that Cam is early in his career and I think he will continue to improve.  Will he be a super-star and an NFL player?  I am not predicting that.  Just saying …