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Gordon Monson: Should Utah QB Cam Rising return for an 8th year of college football? Here’s what I think.

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Gordon Monson: Should Utah QB Cam Rising return for an 8th year of college football? Here’s what I think.


There comes a time in a bruised, battered and broken quarterback’s life when it’s time to say the word that is so hard to say.

Goodbye.

Cam Rising … that time has come.

Say it any which way you want. Make it brief or elongate the thing, say it loud, say it proud, say it in hushed tones, say it with a whisper and a tear, say it with a smile, say it the way Truman Burbank so famously did … Good morning, and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.

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The show is over.

Come on, say it with us now … goodbye … farewell … so long … adios … au revoir … sayonara … auf Wiedersehen … adieu … arrivederci …cheerio … toodle-oo.

Too many ows and ouches, and all the expletives that go with them, have already been said.

Cam, you’ve done enough, won enough, hurt enough, rehabbed enough, stood on the sideline enough, made enough, strung your teammates and coaches along enough. Enough is enough. Sometimes enough is too much.

(Rick Scuteri | AP) Utah quarterback Cameron Rising (7) grabs his knee in front of offensive lineman Michael Mokofisi in the first half during an NCAA college football game against Arizona State, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Tempe, Ariz.

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For seven years now you’ve been on and at and engaged in this college quarterbacking pursuit. At least five injuries — we’ve lost count — some of them serious have hampered you, the latest one occurring just the other night, when after sitting out three games with damage to your throwing hand, you attempted a comeback and suffered again. Kyle Whittingham told us this injury means the end of your season.

This most recent news, which comes as no surprise to anybody who watched Friday night’s loss to Arizona State, when you were heaving the ball around like a 100-pound bag of peat moss, must be killing you. We get it. Pain, for you, is an enemy that you’ve been forced to befriend. Rehab is taken for granted by so many of us, but for you, it’s been real and real hard, a constant uphill climb.

Here’s the thing: Now that the lower extremity of your leg is dinged, putting you on the shelf again at this juncture of what was presumed to be your final college season, the upper extremity, the dog ear of your personal page is ready to be turned.

Turn that page, Cam.

Ah, ah, ah … don’t even think about coming back for an eighth year. You heard what your coach said on Monday, that that could be a possibility. His exact words: “We’ll have to explore that in detail with the compliance department. And I’m not even sure Cam would be interested in going that route. He’s got a lot to think about, and so [he needs] to just take a step back and let them get this most recent injury thoroughly diagnosed. … But that would be something we’re talking about sooner rather than later.”

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No, no, no, no. You can’t take a step back because your right leg hurts like hell. You can’t think about an eighth year of college football because that would make a serious situation laughable. And you don’t want to become the punchline to anyone’s joke. What does Cam Rising’s college career have in common with the lifespan of the average opossum? Yeah, eight years. You don’t want to play college ball for twice the amount of time it takes for a “normal” student to graduate.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Utes quarterback Cameron Rising (7) on the sidelines as Utah State hosts the University of Utah during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Logan, Utah.

I know, you’re bagging a cool million in NIL money this season, and anybody’s collective would be out of its mind to fork over a fraction of that amount for one more year, given the history.

Sometimes it’s better just to move on. Better for you, better for Utah football. Where one door shuts, a window opens for the both of you. It looks like Isaac Wilson will grab the wheel moving forward. He’s 18, ready to be developed, you’re turning 26 in May, ready to be as old as or older than NFL quarterbacks Jordan Love, Justin Fields, Will Levis, Trevor Lawrence, Brock Purdy, Bo Nix, CJ Stroud, and others. You’re within shouting distance of similar rings around the trunk — yes, a mixed metaphor — as Justin Herbert, Tua Tagovailoa, and Jalen Hurts.

At this point, it looks as though your dreams of playing and lasting in the NFL are as dim as your chances are slim. Do you really want to hang around these college kids through the 2025 season, whatever the NIL bennies might be?

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To each his own. It’s your decision, and maybe if pro football looks like a bridge too far, college ball might continue to scratch any itch that’s left. But it’s just as likely to hammer you back into the sick bay. And nobody wants to see that.

(Marcio Jose Sanchez | AP) Utah quarterback Cameron Rising (7) is helped off the field during the second half in the Rose Bowl NCAA college football game against Penn State Monday, Jan. 2, 2023, in Pasadena, Calif.

Your college achievements will be remembered. You’ll always have 2021 and 2022, when you passed for 2,493 yards and 3,034 yards, when you threw for 20 touchdowns the one year and just five interceptions, and the other year when you threw 26 touchdown passes against just eight picks. You won Pac-12 championships and led your team to Rose Bowls, although we know how those turned out.

It would’ve been nice for you to finish off your push at Utah with a stellar season this time. You’re a talented, swashbuckling dude who is, as Whittingham has said many times, “a great quarterback and a great leader.” What he didn’t say, because he didn’t have to, is you’re also China in a bull shop. And in a brutal game you’ve mastered when healthy, an athlete who plays the most important position on the field has to be counted on to actually play.

The football gods have cheated you by making you too human to be counted on. Perhaps now you can be valuable china in a different shop, a shop where your shoulders and knees and fingers and legs won’t get busted up through no fault of your own.

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Say it, Cam. Say what Truman said with such conviction, such dignity, such freedom. Say your goodbye and be good with it.

Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.



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22-year-old arrested in Utah in connection to Las Vegas double-homicide

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22-year-old arrested in Utah in connection to Las Vegas double-homicide


LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Officials have identified a 22-year-old man as the suspect in a Las Vegas homicide case that killed two people in a Southern Highlands neighborhood.

Detectives say 22-year-old Ziaire Ham was the suspect in the case. According to officials, Ham was located on Tuesday, March 3, by the Ogden City Police Department and the Utah Highway Patrol.

Ham was taken into custody and booked into the Weber County Jail. Las Vegas authorities said he will be charged with open murder with the use of a deadly weapon and will be extradited back to the valley.

MORE ON FOX5: LVMPD corrections officer arrested on multiple felony charges

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The shooting occurred Monday night at the 11000 block of Victoria Medici Street, near Starr Ave and Dean Martin Drive.

According to police, officers were conducting a vehicle stop in the area when they heard gunfire. After searching nearby neighborhoods they found a car with bullet impacts with a woman and a toddler inside suffering from gunshot wounds.

The pair were transported to hospital where they later died. The Clark County Coroner’s Office identified them as Danaijha Robinson, 20, and 1-year-old Nhalani Hiner.



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Utah nonprofit creates events, experiences for disadvantaged children

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Utah nonprofit creates events, experiences for disadvantaged children


A simple moment watching a child laugh changed everything for Ivan Gonzalez.

Eight years ago, Gonzalez was working at the Ronald McDonald House when he had an idea to throw a birthday carnival for the kids staying there.

“Let’s do a carnival, birthday carnival for the kids,” he said.

MORE | Pay It Forward

What happened during that event stuck with him.

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“There I was watching this kid play whack-a-mole, just having a blast, laughing,” Gonzalez said. “And then I see his mom kind of with happy tears because he’s enjoying himself.”

That moment led to something bigger.

Gonzalez realized the experience shouldn’t stop with just one event or just one group of kids.

“I said, wait, we can do this not just for kids in the hospital,” he said with excitement.

So he started a nonprofit called Best Seat in the House, which creates events and experiences for children who often face difficult circumstances.

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“We provide events and experiences for disadvantaged kids,” Gonzalez said.

The organization serves children battling cancer and other medical conditions, refugee children, kids living in poverty, those in foster care and children with special needs.

“These kids grow up too fast,” Gonzalez said.

For Gonzalez, the mission is deeply personal.

“I grew up very poor,” he said.

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He remembers the people who stepped in for his family when they needed it most.

“The local church, we weren’t even a part of it,” he described. “My parents couldn’t afford Christmas gifts and I still remember the gifts they gave me. They didn’t even know me.”

Today, he hopes to create that same feeling for other children through his nonprofit.

“Kids live in poverty and they don’t know where the next meal is coming from, let alone going to a play or to a game,” Gonzalez said.

But for Gonzalez, the reward isn’t the events themselves, it’s the joy they create.

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“You can give me a billion dollars, all the money in the world,” he says as tears roll down his face. “I won’t trade these opportunitieskids just enjoying life.”

Because of his work giving back, KUTV and Mountain America Credit Union surprised Gonzalez with a Pay it Forward gift to help him continue creating those moments for kids across Utah.

For more information on supporting Best Seat in the House, click here.

_____



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‘Don’t release him ever. Please.’ Family of slain Utah teen calls for justice at parole hearing

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‘Don’t release him ever. Please.’ Family of slain Utah teen calls for justice at parole hearing


SALT LAKE CITY — Francisco Daniel Aguilar says he’s sorry for shooting and killing his girlfriend, 16-year-old Jacqueline “Jacky” Nunez-Millan, a Piute High School sophomore, in 2023.

But just as he did when he was sentenced, he didn’t have much of an explanation on Tuesday as to why he shot her not once, but twice.

“It just kinda happened. I was mad. And I stepped out (of my truck) and started shooting,” he said. “When I saw her fall, I just kind of panicked, I just went and shot her again.”

But Jacky’s friends and family members say even before she was killed, Aguilar already had a history of violence, and they now want justice to be served.

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“You don’t accidentally take a gun, you don’t accidentally grab a knife … you don’t accidentally shoot someone, those are all choices,” a tearful Rosa Nunez, Jacky’s sister, said at Tuesday’s hearing. “Keep him where he needs to be.

“Don’t release him ever. Please.”

On Jan. 7, 2023, Aguilar, who was 17 at the time, got into a fight with his girlfriend, Jacky, shot her twice and left her body near a dirt road outside of Circleville, Piute County. He was convicted as an adult of aggravated murder and sentenced to a term of 25 years to up to life in prison.

Because of Aguilar’s age at the time of the offense, board member Greg Johnson explained Tuesday that the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole is required to hold a hearing much earlier than the 25-year mark, mainly to check on Aguilar and “see how things are going.” Aguilar, now 20, is currently being held in a juvenile secure care facility and will be transferred to the Utah State Prison when he turns 25 or earlier if he has discipline violations and is kicked out of the youth facility.

According to Aguilar’s sentencing guidelines, he will likely remain in custody until at least the year 2051.

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During Tuesday’s hearing, Aguilar told the board that he was feeling “stressed out” during his senior year of high school. He said he and Jacky would often have little arguments. But their bigger fight happened when he failed to get her a “promise ring” around Christmastime, he said.

On the night of the killing, the two were arguing about the promise ring and other items, Aguilar recalled. At one point, he grabbed a knife and then a gun because, he said, he wanted to “irritate” and “scare” Jacky. According to evidence presented in the preliminary hearing, Aguilar and his girlfriend had been “trying to make each other angry” when Aguilar took ammunition and a 9mm gun from his father’s room and then drove to the Black Hill area in his truck with Jacky.

Jacky’s friend, McKall Taylor, went looking for her that night and found her. But after Aguilar shot Jacky in the leg, he began shooting at Taylor, who had no choice but to run to her car to get away. Her car was hit multiple times by bullets. Aguilar then shot Jacky a second time as she lay on the ground and Taylor drove away.

On Tuesday, Taylor’s mother, Lori Taylor, read a statement to the board on her daughter’s behalf.

“My innocence and freedom was taken from me,” she said.

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McKall Taylor says the “horrifying events of that night will forever play in my head,” and the sounds of Jacky screaming and the gunshots as well as the sight of Jacky falling to the ground, will never go away.

“Francisco is a murderer who has zero remorse,” her letter states.

Likewise, Rosa Nunez told the board that for her and her family, “nothing in our world has felt safe since” that night as they all “continue to relive this horrific moment.”

After shooting Jacky and driving off, Aguilar says he called his father and “told him I was sorry for not being better, for not making good choices, I told him that I loved him. I was just planning on probably shooting myself, too.”

His father told him that although what he did wasn’t right, “he’d rather see me behind bars than in a casket,” and then told his son to “be a man about it. … This is where you have to change.”

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Aguilar was arrested after his tires were spiked by police.

“An apology won’t fix what I did. I’ll never be able to fix what I did. But I want to say I’m sorry,” he said Tuesday. “I don’t even know how to fix what I did. I’m hoping I’m on the right track now.”

Johnson noted that Aguilar has done well during his short time being incarcerated. But that doesn’t change the fact “the crime was horrific,” he said.

The full five-member board will now take a vote. The board could decide to schedule another parole hearing for sometime in the future or could order that Aguilar serve his entire life sentence. But even if that were to happen, Johnson says Aguilar could petition every so often for a redetermination hearing.

The board’s decision is expected in several weeks.

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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.



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