Utes season reaches a ‘crossroads’ after loss at Oregon

A season that started out with tempered optimism has taken an abrupt turn for the worse. The Utes could find themselves fighting through the final week of the regular season just to become bowl eligible.

Uncertainty surrounded Utah after the program put 16 players in NFL camps from last year’s roster. However, a crop of talented recruits, a newly-minted starting quarterback with impressive dual-threat capabilities and four straight wins had Utah poised to compete for a Pac-12 Conference South Division title.

Now after Saturday’s 41-20 loss at Oregon, the Utes find themselves in the midst of a four-game losing streak with four games remaining to define their season.

“We’re 4-4, a little bit of a crossroads we’re at right now,” Utes coach Kyle Whittingham said. “We still got a lot of football left, fully 1/3 of the season left. I love our senior class, and they’re great leaders. I know we’re 4-4 and things aren’t how we want them to be, but those guys have shown great leadership all the way through.”

Utah’s schedule still includes games against UCLA (Nov. 3), Washington State (Nov. 11) and Colorado (Nov. 25) at home as well as a road trip to Washington (Nov. 18). After this weekend’s games, all four of Utah’s remaining opponents have .500 records or better. Washington and Washington State have each won seven games.

The Utes will try to avoid missing a bowl game for the first time since 2013. They did not play in a bowl in 2012 or 2013, but they’ve gone to one the past three seasons, including two trips to the Las Vegas Bowl and one appearance in the Foster Farms Bowl.

“I appreciate the senior class,” Whittingham said. “The goal is to get them a bowl game. We’ve got four games left. You do that math. We’ve got to split these last four, minimum, to get these guys to a bowl game. That is what we’re aiming for right now.”

Following Saturday’s loss, senior defensive end Kylie Fitts couldn’t concern himself with anything beyond next week’s game against UCLA and fixing the mistakes he and his teammates made in Oregon. Fitts described himself as “embarrassed” after four consecutive losses and vowed that the Utes will keep fighting.

Defensively, the Utes couldn’t stop Oregon’s running attack. That inability to stop the run has become a theme in the recent losing slide. Oregon rushed for 347 yards against a unit that entered the weekend ranked third in the Pac-12 in total defense.

Offensively, the Utes passed the ball more effectively than they had last week in a loss at home to Arizona State in sophomore quarterback Tyler Huntley’s first game in a month.

While the Utes struggled to mount any sort of a running game in the first half and gained just 3 yards on the ground, they were still within 4 points, 17-13, following a touchdown on the opening drive of the third quarter. Right tackle Darrin Paulo had the good fortune to haul in a Huntley fourth-down pass while flat on his back in the end zone after a deflection.

Whatever momentum the Utes had built up at that point, quickly disappeared as Oregon pushed its lead back to 34-13 less than three minutes into the fourth quarter.

Wide receiver Darren Carrington II and Huntley questioned the Utes’ desire to win following Saturday’s loss. Carrington referred to a “lack of caring” in his postgame comments. Huntley suggested the Utes may have become too comfortable with their recent losses.

“We got to ask each other do we really want it,” Huntley said. “I think that’s the question. We go in the locker room after a loss and we just like ‘All right, damn, we lost.’ As a player we’ve got to go home, look ourselves in the mirror, [shoot], ask yourself do you want it. That just goes for all of us.”