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Las Vegas • Kyle Whittingham looked into the late-afternoon sky as he walked across the field at the end of Saturday's Deepest Shade of Royal Purple Heart Turtle Wax On Wax Off Alpo Harley-Davidson Acme Fuddpucker's Up With People Las Vegas Bowl, or whatever it was.

At that particular point, it didn't really matter what the darn thing was called, it was another win against another supposedly strong opponent in a year that ended with more of those than anyone expected.

Yeah, the Utes finished their season at 9-4, which is a couple of floors higher than what anyone with half a brain could have predicted. And this little to-do in the desert against a Mountain West opponent, of all things, slammed the back of the book cover on that success.

Utah beat Colorado State here, 45-10, and took exactly what it should have from it: both bows and heart. It was an imperfect win, but convincing, the Utes' first bowl triumph in three years. More than just that, though, the Utes made certain the last thing they remembered about 2014 was a visit from Dr. Feelgood. And that was earned and apropos, considering wins over Michigan, UCLA, Oregon State, USC, Stanford, Colorado and now CSU.

Utah football took a step forward in a season that could have kicked it in the teeth and laughed at its pain. The Pac-12 was a butcher shop this time around, and the Utes gave better than they got. It wasn't great, but it was good, and good was good enough, after consecutive 5-7 seasons in which the Utes went 5-13 in their league.

The lopsided win in the Vegas Bowl followed a 5-4 mark in the Pac-12.

For the Utes, who had had their fill of close games to their advantage, it was satisfying to flat-out roll.

"After all the close ones," said assistant coach Morgan Scalley, "I didn't expect this."

But he'd take it and like it.

"We executed," Kaelin Clay said. "We were aggressive. We knew we had to score."

And so they did.

Indications that the Utah offense would open things up came on its first play, when the Utes pulled off a double-reverse-with-a-dash-of-a-pass-thing-a-ma-bob — with Clay streaking past Mr. Whipple's parked Oldsmobile and turning left at the fire hydrant in front of the Offenbacher's house — that we all tried when we were 10 years old, scratching out plays on the asphalt while goofing with our buddies in the street, setting up a touchdown that came a couple of plays later, giving the Utes an early lead.

The imaginative play lasted as long as that last sentence.

And it was only the beginning.

Before a third of the first quarter had expired, the Utes were up 14-zip and looking as though Dave Christensen had engineered some sort of mind-meld with Don Coryell. Next thing, Devontae Booker tore off a 60-yard run to go ahead, 21-7 — with more than five minutes left in the first quarter. Utah's three touchdowns were the most points ever scored in the opening quarter of a Vegas Bowl. We all saw that coming, right?

No. We kind of saw what happened in the second quarter, when the entirety of Ute scoring was comprised of one field goal. It was a momentary lull. Utah blew up for 21 second-half points and held CSU to none.

"I'm happy with how we played," Travis Wilson said.

Wilson, named MVP, was happy with how he played, other than missing two certain touchdowns on deep balls that were overthrown. He did collect 158 passing yards, and 91 rushing, for a total of four touchdowns. We'll see if his positive experience in the Royal Purple Michelin Purina Lee-Snap-On Nails Las Vegas Bowl was enough to bring Wilson back for his senior season. The way he's been used this year has brought that prospect under further review.

"This offense has a lot of talent on it," he said. "We're going to get a lot of guys back."

Asked directly if he'd be back, Wilson said: "Yeah. I don't plan on going anywhere else."

With 548 yards of total offense here … he shouldn't.

No Ute, including the quarterback, wanted to think about such heavy matters on this occasion though. They all just wanted to celebrate their progress this season, and that's exactly what they did.

"We're super-happy and excited we went out this way," senior Brian Blechen said. "Everybody played well. It was the way we all wanted to go out."

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.