The norm for college football players to go pro is usually after 4, or maybe 5, years of proper game time. NFL teams want to pick out athletes young so that they can mold them to their requirements. The oldest NFL player drafted was Chris Weinke, who was 28 years old. College football players tend to go back to the arena to up their stocks. But stretching a college career out for eight years? That’s a bit much. But Utah‘s Cam Rising, once stood a chance of seeing that happen.

Rising will, unfortunately, never get to go pro. Rising is 25 years old at the moment. He was looking to go as the oldest player in the 2026 draft. He would join fellow Utes player Devaughn Vele, who was the oldest player in the 2024 draft. But skill and talent fell victim to a career-ending injury, which forced him to draw the curtains on his dreams for good after seven long years. The quarterback had a great chance at the draft with his numbers, but they are all that make up his playing career.

In his tenured career, the QB saw three redshirt years, replete with injuries. It is a career-ending finger injury he suffered early last season against Baylor that is now forcing him to medically retire. “I’ve been advised by two orthopedic physicians that I will never be able to return to playing football,” Rising wrote in a statement. He is also seeking further medical opinion to treat the injury. But for now, it’s the end of the road for him. “In the meantime, I will unfortunately be forced to medically retire from the game I love,” he added.

Too many injuries forced him to take a backseat repeatedly in his career. His reliability proved to be an issue, but his skill quickly made up for that. His 2022 win over USC will go down as his most memorable one. This is also one of the only two losses that Lincoln Riley noted in the 2022 season. Rising’s playing career was further interrupted by transfers and COVID-19. He was still awaiting clearance on his 8th year, but he will have to end it at seven, on a sad note.

How Cam Rising got to play for such a long time

Rising faced some unique situations in his career, enabling him to stay twice as long compared to his younger batchmates. He redshirted in 2018 as a Texas freshman and then transferred to Utah, where he sat out for one more year. Then, Rising and all other Division I players got an extra year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Then came another free year by way of the NCAA, which Rising used as well. In essence, Rising has only 3 years of proper game time.

But in his 7 years, he has a total of 6,127 yards, 53 TDs, and a pass completion rating of 63%. A key reason for his additional years is the NCAA lawsuit against the Justice Department, which would return a year of college eligibility to players mandated to sit out a season because of the transfer eligibility rule during or since the 2019-20 academic year. As lawsuits against rules continue coming forward, players are getting back their lost years of game action.

Rising, in his long career, led Utah to a Big 12 championship appearance. He will go down as an important chapter in program history, even though his future dreams in football ended abruptly.