A New Year’s Eve win would be a huge deal for Utah football team and not just a consolation prize

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham takes the field before game against Oregon at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. | Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

Utes need a victory over Texas to make 2019 season meaningful

SAN ANTONIO — It’s been quite a football season for the Utah football team.

The Utes were this close to making it to the College Football Playoffs, if not for a loss to Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship game.

They were this close to making it to the Rose Bowl, if not for an Oregon loss to Arizona State in late November.

Sure, the Pac-12 may not have been awarded a berth in the CFB, but I believe the league would have put a team in the Playoff if not for the aforementioned results.

Did you see Oklahoma’s defense in that semifinal the other night? No way the Sooners were a better team than either Oregon or Utah.

Instead, the Utes are here in the Alamo City, where they’ve been holed up since Christmas night, working out every day preparing for a New Year’s Eve celebration. They’re getting ready for the University of Texas, one of college football’s all-time blueblood programs, which just has to bus down to San Antone from up the road in Austin, like going from Logan to Salt Lake for a game.

It may seem like quite a comedown for the Utes to be playing in the Alamo Bowl after coming oh so close to a playoff berth or a Rose Bowl appearance, a couple of opportunities that don’t come around very often.

But Tuesday night’s game is still the biggest bowl the Utes will have played in since joining the Pac-12 eight years ago. And it may be a bigger game than their most recent game in Santa Clara three weeks ago. That’s right, bigger than the game that could have gotten them to the playoff.

Stay with us here.

If the Utes had gotten into the playoff, they would have likely lost to LSU. Most folks would have expected them to lose and after seeing the Tigers on Saturday afternoon, I don’t believe the Utes would have stood much of a chance against Joe Burrow and Co.

While I don’t think the Ute defense would have given up 63 points and believe the Utes would have been closer than 35 points to the Tigers, their season would have ended three days after Christmas and all they could claim was that they made the final four of football.

Now the Utes still have big things to play for, including a top-10 final ranking, a 12-win season and a continuation of the best bowl record in the country.

The Utes and coach Kyle Whittingham take bowl games seriously, a big reason why Utah has by far the best bowl record of any school in the country — an all-time 77.3 winning percentage, while Whittingham leads all coaches with his 11-2 mark and 84.2 winning percentage.

“That’s something we have talked about, the reasons to win the game, not only because of the track record we have, but being a top-10 ranking, winning our 12th game ... sending our seniors out the right way,” Whittingham said at Monday’s official press conference at the Alamodome.

“There’s a myriad of reasons for winning the game, not that you need anything more than being a competitor, but those are the carrots out there, we’ve talked about. That would mean a lot to our program, bottom line, to finish in the top 10. That’s definitely something in the forefront of our guys’ minds.”

If the Utes lose this week, this whole wondrous season will have been for naught. Of course, Ute coaches and players could still talk about their great 11-3 season and all the big wins and large margins of victory and high rankings, etc. etc, etc.

But two losses to finish the season? After where they were at the end of November?

Considering what happened last year in San Diego when the Utes were outscored 28-0 in the second half (third quarter actually) in a loss to Northwestern, the Utes should be out for blood this year.

Texas is certainly better than its 7-5 record indicates, including a close loss to LSU on its ledger, but if the Utes lose to the Longhorns, it’s going to be a long offseason and the 2019 season will end up on the scrap heap of another “good” season for Utah football.

The Utes need to get a win and finish 12-2. That’s where they would have ended up with a win over Oregon and a loss to LSU. Only this way they’ll regain some of their dignity having beaten a name program in a big bowl game and take some serious momentum into next season when they can try it all over again.

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