Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY - Everything that needed to happen for the Utes to make it to the Pac-12 championship game happened, except the easy one - beat Colorado at home. This could have been a week of hyping the new guys against the recent giants. Utah could have been prepping for one of the fastest teams in the nation, Oregon. Utah could have been thinking about a Rose Bowl game. Another game could have stretched John White's rushing mark to shatter the Ute single season record. However, with the loss there is no one talking about the Utes.
The goat of the game was Coleman Peterson, but the Buffaloes played with more passion than the Utes. Despite the thought that nothing was on the line for Colorado, they were playing for something that can be more powerful than a championship game: pride. They were riding a nearly four year losing streak on the road. The seniors had never won on the road and they wanted that to stop.
"That was our No. 1 goal going into this season, to end that streak," said Buffaloes coach John Embree. "This is awesome. I'm happy for those kids. It was four years of not winning on the road. And for them to finally get that (win), they see what it feels like."
It wasn't the end of the world for the Utes. They will still go to a bowl game, still have a good first season in the Pac-12 but they won't be able to go to the big game. If they needed to win the last game, they probably would have. In stead they seemed to lack the urgency that Colorado had and now instead of a chance for a Rose Bowl they will play in just another bowl game, like so many years in the Mountain West and the WAC.
It will be more glamorous than any that they would have made last year finishing fourth in their conference, but they could be playing for more. The question is now about where the Utes go? "Block U" looks at the newly confusing bowl picture for the Utes, "A week ago, it looked like if Utah wasn't a lock for the Alamo Bowl, they would certainly fall no further than the Holiday." Everything changed with the loss.
The most common thought for the Utes is now the Sun Bowl. "SB Nation" wrote their Pac-12 bowl predictions and said this for the Utes, "With more attractive fanbases/TV markets like Cal and Washington on the table, Utah will likely be relegated to El Paso and a date with the ACC #4, which will be either Wake Forest or Virginia."
The Utes season has been up and down, but above all else that have made an impact that they can be competitive and they have the talent to be great in the conference. A show of their talent is on the All-Pac-12 team coaches' poll. Three seniors made the first team: Star Lotulelei, Derrick Shelby and Tony Bergstrom. The second-team included two Utes: senior John Cullen and junior John White IV.
Despite four seniors on the All-Pac-12 team the future is bright for the Utes. White is a second-team member as a junior, but he actually had more yards and touchdowns than Washington's Chris Polk who made first team. They also had three other underclassmen make the honorable mention list: Ryan Lacy and Coleman Peterson are both juniors and Brian Blechen is a sophomore. Greg Bird, Conroy Black and Chaz Walker also were honorable mentions as seniors.
