This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
They may not want to think of it as a team effort, but the state's three Football Bowl Subdivision schools gave Utah a sweep of California in 2014.
The University of Utah downed Fresno State, UCLA, USC and Stanford. Utah State beat San Jose State. And BYU completed the state's perfect record with Saturday's 42-35 victory at Cal.
None of the Utah teams is likely to face a California school in a bowl game, but the 2015 schedule offers opportunities to extend the state's domination. Fresno State will meet all three Utah schools, giving the Bulldogs an unofficial shot at the Beehive Boot — although there will be two in-state games, USU at Utah in September and BYU at USU in late November.
Other observations about the 2014 regular season, and what's ahead in December:
• USU (9-4), Utah (8-4) and BYU (8-4) have combined for 25 wins, but that total is not as impressive as it appears. No. 16 UCLA is the highest-ranked opponent that any of them beat, and the Bruins looked bad last week against Stanford. Then again, Stanford's performance validated Utah's recent victory over the Cardinal, and the same was true of USC's pounding of Notre Dame.
Otherwise, the best teams that lost to Utah schools were probably Texas (BYU) and Air Force (USU).
Even with a No. 24 ranking, Utah should not complain about the quality of its bowl opponent. The fact is the Utes tied for sixth place overall in the Pac-12 with a 5-4 record, finishing fifth in the South division, so they're not going to face an elite team.
But the Utes stand to gain the most of any Utah school with their bowl performance, because they can finish the season with a Top 25 ranking for the first time since 2009, Jordan Wynn's freshman year. USU can earn a third straight bowl victory, and BYU can finish with a five-game winning streak.
• Nobody should begrudge BYU's celebration of a victory over Cal, considering how much work Utah had to do against the Pac-12's other non-bowl teams. The Utes beat Oregon State in double overtime, edged Colorado by four points and lost to Washington State.
• BYU shouldn't claim much distinction in finishing the regular season with the best record among independents, ahead of 7-5 Notre Dame. But when the Cougars were 4-4 and Notre Dame was 6-1, nobody would have liked BYU's chances in that competition.
• Utah and USU can look back at November and say they essentially played for division championships. The problem is they lost those games by a combined 63 points, with Arizona beating Utah 42-10 and Boise State defeating USU 50-19.
• Last year, Utah beat Stanford and lost by one point to Arizona State, and those teams played for the Pac-12 title. The Utes didn't fare as well against the 2014 contestants, losing 51-27 to Oregon and 42-10 to Arizona — although a would-be touchdown by Kaelin Clay in each game may have made those scores much closer.
• Utah ended up with a 44-8 victory over BYU in my scoring system, based on Athlon's preseason rankings of opponents. The Utes got big boosts from beating UCLA, USC and Stanford, all ranked in the top 14. BYU took big hits by losing at home to Utah State and Nevada.
• Just having Matt Wells' name mentioned in connection with Nebraska's coaching vacancy is remarkable for USU. Imagine having consecutive coaches go from Logan to two of the top 25 jobs in the country, after Gary Andersen's move to Wisconsin. Prior to Andersen's departure, the biggest advancement in nearly a half-century for a former USU coach was Charlie Weatherbie's move to Navy in 1997.
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