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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utes are going bowling for the third consecutive season.
The University of Utah accepted an invitation to play the Indiana Hoosiers in the Foster Farms Bowl. The Utes jumped Stanford in the bowl order despite finishing with the sixth-best record in the Pac-12. The Utes finished the regular season with an 8-4 record and 5-4 record in conference play.
“The Foster Farms Bowl in Santa Clara is a great destination for our players and our fans,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said in a statement. “This will be our second trip to the Bay Area in the postseason, after playing there in 2005, and we are looking forward to going back. We’re excited to be playing Indiana as we rarely get the opportunity to play teams out of the Big Ten.”
“It’s been an exciting season and this is a great opportunity for our student-athletes to enjoy the bowl experience,” Utah Director of Athletics Chris Hill said in a statement. “This is a great destination, not only for our local fans, but also for our many alumni in the Bay Area. It will be fun for all of us to play a Big Ten school.”
Stanford, which finished with the fifth-best record in the conference, will instead play in the Hyundai Sun Bowl. The Cardinal would have essentially been playing a home game in the Foster Farms Bowl had they been selected. The Utes were helped with Washington making it to the College Football Playoff, improving the remaining Pac-12 teams’ bowl location.
The Hoosiers finished the regular season with a 6-6 record and a 4-5 record in conference play. The Hoosiers ended the season with the eighth-best record in the conference and fourth best in the Big Ten East division.
The Hoosiers’ head coach Kevin Wilson resigned Friday, citing “philosophical differences” with the university. Defensive coordinator Tom Allen was immediately made head coach on a six-year deal with the university. Wilson’s departure makes it the third consecutive season where the Utes will play a team in the postseason where the school was in transition with its coaching staff.
Indiana University said Wilson’s resignation was not related to an NCAA compliance investigation into his treatment of players and that he and the university “weren’t on the same page.”
Utah has played in the Foster Farms Bowl once before, but when it was named the Emerald Bowl. Utah beat Georgia Tech 38-10 in 2005, making it Whittingham's first bowl win as a head coach.
The Utes have a 2-1 record all time against the Hoosiers. The Utes last played the Hoosiers on Sept. 7, 2002 in a 40-13 win. The previous season, Utah narrowly beat the Hoosiers in a 28-26 victory on the road. Utah’s only loss to the Hoosiers came in 1975 in a 31-7 lopsided affair.
Kyle Whittingham is the all-time national leader in bowl-winning percentage at 90 percent. His 9-1 record in the postseason beats out his former boss, Urban Meyer, who has won 81.8 percent of all postseason games. Whittingham’s only bowl loss came to Boise State in the 2010 Maaco Bowl in Las Vegas.
The Foster Farms Bowl will be played at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, California on Wednesday, Dec. 28 at 6:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on FOX.
The Pac-12 bowl games for the season are as follows:
National Funding Holiday Bowl:
Minnesota (8-4) vs. Washington State (8-4)
Tues., Dec. 27 at 5 p.m. - ESPN
San Diego, California (Qualcomm Stadium)
Valero Alamo Bowl:
No. 12 Oklahoma State (9-3) vs. No. 10 Colorado (10-3)
Thurs., Dec. 29 at 7 p.m. - ESPN
San Antonio, Texas (Alamodome)
Hyundai Sun Bowl:
North Carolina (8-4) vs. No. 18 Stanford (9-3)
Thurs., Dec. 30 at 12 p.m. - CBS
El Paso, Texas (Sun Bowl)
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl - CFP Semifinal:
No. 4 Washington (12-1) vs. No. 1 Alabama (13-0)
Sat., Dec. 31 at 1 p.m. - ESPN
Atlanta, Georgia (Georgia Dome)
Rose Bowl:
No. 9 USC (9-3) vs. No. 5 Penn State (11-2)
Mon., Jan. 2 at 3 p.m. - ESPN
Pasadena, California (Rose Bowl)
