The Utes should be genuine contenders in the division next season with the bulk of Utah’s offense returning and some upheaval in the Pac-12 South.
But it will be a long offseason around here if the Utes are trying to go from worst to first.
The Utes never have finished last in the South, but that possibility is in play as they host Colorado in Saturday night’s regular-season finale at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The winner will become bowl eligible at 6-6 overall; the loser will finish sixth in the division with a 2-7 conference record.
Mix in Colorado’s coming off a bye while the Utes absorbed another emotional hit in a 33-30 loss at Washington last weekend, and this becomes another interesting chapter in the Utah-Colorado series. Maybe nobody’s calling it a rivalry, but the six previous meetings in the Pac-12 era have produced nothing but competitive games, decided by seven points or fewer.
The Buffaloes needed a victory to earn the South championship last November in Boulder. Utah had been eliminated after the previous week’s loss to Oregon. In this decade, the Utes either have had seven-plus wins going into the Colorado game or no shot at bowl eligibility. So this is the first time when both teams have had something significant to play for, and that’s how rivalries develop — if gradually so.
Based on how they’ve played against the Pac-12′s four Top 25 teams — Stanford, USC, Washington State and Washington — the Utes will deserve to feel good about their future if they beat Colorado, and they’ll have a shot at a winning record in a bowl game. But the 2017 season will be tough to live with if they’re 5-7 overall and 2-7 in conference play with seven losses in their last eight games.
Kyle Whittingham faced a similar situation in his first season as Utah’s coach (2005), and the Utes beat BYU in overtime in Provo to earn bowl eligibility.
Saturday’s game comes downs to one basic theme: Utah needs to rise above the level of competition. The Utes did so in the second half against UCLA with Bruins quarterback Josh Rosen injured, but that’s the only instance in Pac-12 play. They played great against USC and Washington, in particular, but performed poorly against two average teams — Arizona State and Oregon.
History shows the Buffaloes will stay close as 10-point underdogs, and Utah will have to make clutch plays to win. That’s a good thing, actually. The Utes don’t deserve any more than this exact opportunity. They’ve played their way into having to win Game 12 to go anywhere in December, and we’ll see how they respond.