Yes, but the fact that we kept him on the roster and repeatedly insisted that he was the guy had a massive impact on our ability to recruit quality players at the QB position, ESPECIALLY experienced transfers. If Rising had simply left, we would have been a lock to pick up an experienced transfer QB wanting to come in and win right away. He stayed, so instead of that, we got a broken QB.
Also, don’t forget that the debacle wasn’t simply the fact that our starting QB was injured, it was WHO the starting QB was that was the problem (part of it anyway). The circus around Rising and whether or not he would start was as much a part of the team’s problems as him being injured was. IF it had been someone else, the noise around it wouldn’t have been nearly as distracting to the team.