Utes’ season boils down to win and play again, lose and it’s over

This weekend’s game will play a big part in a four-year legacy of the Utah football program.

The Utes must beat Colorado on senior day Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium to become bowl eligible for the fourth consecutive season. Meanwhile Colorado, last year’s South Division champion, also will be fighting to reach bowl eligibility with an addition victory.

“They’ve been involved in a lot of wins over the last four years — 33, 34 wins,” Utes coach Kyle Whittingham said about his senior class. “They’ve made a huge impact in the University of Utah’s transition to the Pac-12 during that transition time.

“That transition time is over now. We feel fully entrenched in the Pac-12, but back when they got here as freshmen, it was still fairly new. I appreciated the efforts they made and the hard work and dedication they gave us for four, five years in some cases. A couple years in some junior college cases.”

The Utes have played in 11 bowls, including the 2004 postseason when the program transitioned from Urban Meyer to Whittingham, during Whittingham’s tenure.

The Utes (5-6, 2-6) will recognized 22 seniors and their families in a pre-game ceremony Saturday night. Twelve of those seniors spent their entire collegiate careers in the program, including senior co-captain and defensive tackle Lowell Lotulelei.

“It would be a big accomplishment, especially coming in four years ago that first year when we made it back to a bowl game after going 5-7,” Lotulelei said about going to a fourth bowl game in four years. “It’d be an accomplishment, but we just got to win the game first.”

The Utes posted back-to-back 5-7 records in 2012 and 2013 and missed out on the postseason both seasons before starting their current streak of three consecutive bowl appearances.

Lotulelei, a Bingham High graduate and the younger brother of former Utes All-American and current Carolina Panthers defensive tackle Star Lotulelei, said he has seen a distinct change in the program in his four seasons with the Utes.

“I definitely think things have changed in terms of what I see, in terms of recruiting especially,” Lotulelei said. “I think this past year when we got Jaylon Johnson, I’d seen things about him being the highest recruit to come here ever. So even though it’s just one player, I feel like it’s a step toward the right direction to getting better and better players in here to eventually win championships.”

Tight end Harrison Handley, an Alta High graduate, is a fifth-year senior who plans to finish his master’s degree this year. He said this weekend will be a bittersweet sendoff.

Handley said he doesn’t think knowing that a win will decide whether the Utes’ season ends this weekend will change the approach.

“From the beginning from when we’re freshmen, coach Whitt ingrains it into our minds that every game is the same,” Handley said. “You don’t treat any game differently no matter who you play. I think going into this we’ll prepare the same.

“Obviously, we’ll have that in the back of our mind that if we don’t do our jobs that this could be the last, but I don’t think anything is really going to change in that aspect. I think we’re going to work hard like we always do. I would argue we have the hardest-working team in the Pac-12.”