Rising Back for Utes, While Bowman Earns Walter Camp Offensive Player Honor

STILLWATER – Two quarterbacks that are coming into this game from different perspectives will battle on Saturday inside Boone Pickens Stadium. Utah is expected to have quarterback Cam Rising in the line-up. Oklahoma State’s Alan Bowman is coming off a 24-for-31 passing performance that in one half saw him throw for four touchdowns and over 300-yards. His lighting up the skies over H.A. Chapman Stadium in Tulsa in a 45-10 Oklahoma State win earned him Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week from the Walter Camp Foundation. Both Rising and Bowman are seven-year college quarterbacking veterans.

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Bowman launches the ball at Tulsa.

“We’re just going to take what the defense gives us each and every week,” Bowman said of he and his teammates combining for 396-yards and five touchdowns through the air. “If they want to load the box and give us favoarble match-ups outside or if they want to put a cloud over the top then we’ll take the yards and space in front of them. We want to playa great game of what the defense gives us.”

Bowman established some national and Oklahoma State marks for this season and all-time in his performance last Saturday.

Five passing touchdowns tied the most in the FBS this season against an FBS opponent.

Five passing touchdowns is tied for the fourth most in a game in Oklahoma State history.

Five passing touchdowns is the third most in an away game in program history and most by an OSU quarterback in an away game since Mason Rudolph threw five against Pittsburgh on September 16, 2017.

Five passing touchdowns are Bowman's most as a Cowboy and most in a game since September 26, 2020, against Texas while playing for Texas Tech, when he also threw five.

Four first-half passing touchdowns were his most in an opening half since September 15, 2018, vs. Houston, while playing for Texas Tech.

Ironically, while Bowman began his career at Texas Tech, another Texas native Cam Rising began his college career in 2018 at the University of Texas. He suited up while a red-shirt freshman that fall in the Texas loss to Oklahoma State on the Cowboys homecoming. OSU was quarterbacked to that win by Taylor Cornelius. These two quarterbacks are old.

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Rising’s hand photographed before the Utah at Utah State game.

Rising is coming back from an unspecified injury against Baylor on Sept. 7 when he was run into the Baylor Gatorade cart out-of-bounds. Rising injured his throwing hand, believed to be a laceration on his finger. He missed the 38-21 win over Utah State.

“That is all you ever dreamed of as a kid is playing in big time football games and this is a great Oklahoma State team, so chomping at the bit to get out there and get this thing going finally. They are a damned good football team. I have a lot of respect for Coach Gundy. I’m excited for the opportunity to play them and excited to be in Stillwater.”

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Rising (7) standing with Luke Bottari during warm-ups last week at Utah State.

Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham does nothing but gush over his quarterback. Honestly, he believes he is one of the best players he has ever coached or had in his program. Whittingham makes it clear.

“When he is on his game then he is typically in the top 10 in the country in QBR, which is the barometer that I personally feel is the most accurate and best way to access quarterback play.”

The Utes missed Rising all 2023 while he continued to move past and recover from an ACL tear and surgery. They had the scare this season and Whittingham insists his quarterback stay healthy and take all precautions to do so.

“What have we talked about as far as getting out of harm’s way and just doing a better job of that,” Whittingham said of his conversation with Rising. “It goes against his grain because he is a tough, competitive guy like I’ve said dozens of time. He’s got to do it, he has to.”

He’ll be there for the start on Saturday and now with Bowman on a roll, this game features two of the better quarterbacks in the Big 12, certainly two of the older quarterbacks in the nation.