The rise of Cam Rising

[Great1Ute]

I have to admit that I have been really pleasantly surprised at how well Cam has played over the past three weeks (and in particular–the last two weeks).  He keeps making great decision and has been remarkably accurate. I’ve noticed some people on twitter wondering how the coaching staff could have been so wrong in giving the original start to CB coming out fall camp, when Cam has looked so much better.  It makes me wonder if in addition to Cam playing well, he is also benefiting from: (1) the offensive line starting to come together as a unit, (2) the newer receivers (Howard, Parks, Vele) starting to come into their own, (3) the new running backs playing better (including newcomers TJ and Thomas), which has opened up the passing game.

This is not to take away from Cam’s play–he deserves all the credit in the world. Some of the throws he made in the ASU game were just dimes. Just wondering how to explain how he has gotten so good so fast. 

[ProudUte]

We will never know if Brewer was the wrong decision because the Oline has improved and so have the RBs.  Norm Chow once said that 80% of an effective passing game is on the Oline.  I like what Rising is doing and am happy, but I am not sure if the entire blame should go on Brewer.

What happens next year when we will have five 4-start QBs in the QB room?  I know one of the incoming freshmen believes he will be the starter.  Something has to give.

[Hellhound152]

There was no sample size to project from on Cam.  The staff had no indication that Brewer was going to wilt when the live rounds started coming.  It is pretty clear that Cam was the “teams guy” all along and not seeing that or responding to it is the only real head scratcher but at this point who cares.

[Uphoric]

I take issue with saying the coaching staff made a bad decision or was wrong by not starting Cam at the beginning.  They knew from the very beginning Cam had the “it” factor but, coming off of major shoulder surgery is very complicated if not almost impossible (think Jordan Wynn).  Once Wynn was hit and damaged his shoulder he was never the same.  My guess is Cam wasn’t physically quite ready, it only been about 11-month since his injury.  As former coach and having gone through similar surgery, Cam’s recovery has been remarkable.

Brewer was insurance for Cam to get stronger as well gave the team the best chance to win at the time.  Once Cam proved he could do the job in the San Diego State game and do it so effectvely, he was the man and Brewer knew he’d never see the field again at Utah and subsequently quit.

Yes, I know Cam can throw, but have you noticed the end of his throw?  It’s a little abrupt and this could mean he’s not up to full strength just yet.  Often times we as fans can’t understand the staff’s decision.  We have to remember we only see about 1/1000 of what is really going on.  The same is true for recruiting. . . so much stuff we can’t see.

I am a massive Cam Rising fan!  In a word he is Amazing! I love watching him play

[SkinyUte]

“It makes me wonder if in addition to Cam playing well, he is also benefiting from: (1) the offensive line starting to come together as a unit”

 

I remember thinking after Brewer’s much-lauded perfect showing during the Spring Game that he would have been utterly destroyed multiple times if that were an actual game. He looked good because he wasn’t really allowed to be hit or even really pressured. Once that went live, things fell apart.

I do think Rising is benefiting tremendously from improved line play, but I also think that Brewer simply wasn’t very good when faced with pressure. The decision-making required in those situations is tough to simulate when your QB never gets touched in practice or scrimmages.

[Central Coast Ute]

I’m not going to buy that Cam is benefitting from a better O line. Take a look at the SDSU game. Exact same O line playing in the exact same game. Did the O line suddenly get better in the 4th quarter? No, they didn’t.
I can’t tell you about how a QB can help the O line out because I’ve never played either position. I can tell you a little about how corners are supposed to play but even that would be limited when it comes to FBS level football. However, I’ve heard people who do know, like Hans Olsen, say that Rising is a big reason why the O line looks better. He said Brewer did them no favors, although he did not put all of the blame on Brewer. If you look at Brewer when he played for Baylor, he had the same protection issues. This all makes me believe that the O line issues were at least partly Brewers fault. Also, Utedub said the same thing while Brewer was still here and as soon as Cam plays, Utedub looks like he knows a thing or two about O line and QB play.

As far as why they went with Brewer over Rising I can only think of a couple of reasons. 1. Practice is not the same as game time. Reports out of camp said they were pretty even and it seems apparent that Whitt wants to win this year so they went with experience. 2. Rising’s injury is one that can easily be re-injured. Most QB’s that come back from that injury a d struggle for the first year directly following the injury. They could have been wanting to give him a year to heal but didn’t think Brewer would be that bad. That’s all I can think of but unless the coaches tell us why, we might not ever know.

[younglurch]

Plenty of other examples of coaches getting the QB decision wrong this year. Lincoln Riley apparently did, Sark at Texas did. It sucks to think about what could’ve been but I’m not too concerned the coaches missed on this one.

[2008 National Champ]

Did the staff make a bad decision or did their plan just not work out? I would argue the latter. In Rising they had a kid coming off a major injury who had thrown the ball live 6 times since graduating high school in 2018. In Brewer, they had an experienced QB who had been through every imaginable situation before.

My belief, and it is based only on what I think I would have done in the same spot, was that the staff’s plan was to start Brewer for all of the OOC games but still keep Rising involved so that they could continue to evaluate who gave the team the best chance to win. We saw that in the Weber game where Rising was given a chance with the starters and a comfortable lead. I have every expectation that they would have followed the same plan against the parochial school but when the whole team underperformed so badly, they stuck with Brewer to see if he could lead them out of the hole. Once the team kept underperforming against SDSU, the staff’s hand was forced and they had to see if Rising could get it done.

Rising may still have started the WSU game or it would have continued to be a job share but based on what we’ve seen so far, it feels like the staff wanted to get their QB of the future experience without having to carry the team. As we all know, the plan didn’t work out. I’m sure the staff was well aware of Rising’s upside but didn’t want to rush him with what they thought was the luxury of 3 games to audition while still winning.