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SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah Utes Football team has earned a lot this season. They earned eight wins over the best of the best in the Pac-12, including tough battles over a top 10 team in UCLA, a top 25 team in USC, and perennial conference champion threat Stanford, on the road.
Kyle Whittingham has likely earned a multi-million dollar contract extension, achieving the six wins he needed to take his team back to a bowl game only seven games into the season.
Defensive coordinator Kalani Sitake has also likely earned himself a head coaching opportunity at a Dvision-1 school as a result of constructing one of the nation’s top defenses.
That defense’s anchor, senior Nate Orchard, has possibly earned himself a high round draft pick in May’s NFL Draft.
Tom Hackett, a local favorite and finalist for the Ray Guy award, a trophy awarded to the nation’s top punter, has probably earned himself First Team All-Pac-12 recognition for his ability to change the field with his wacky rugby-style punts.
But there is one reputation the Utes have that, to this point, is completely unearned.
On the radio show I host with former Utah center Kyle Gunther, we talk to analysts who cover the Pac-12 every week, and one false talking point continues to come up:
Related:
Breaking down Utah's bowl opportunities
The University of Utah football team is bowl eligible for the first time in three seasons, but who it will play and where is still up in the air. That wait, though, will probably last another week as the 8-4 Utes look ahead to their final game of the season.“Rice-Eccles is one of the tougher places to play in the whole country. It’s a nightmare for people go in there.”
Former Arizona Wildcat and current analyst for the Pac-12 Network Glenn Parker told us this just days before freshman Arizona quarterback Anu Solomon walked into stormy Utah weather and walked out with a 42-10 victory over the Utes — a loss that seemed inevitable at halftime.
The Utes lost to Pac-12 cellar-dweller Washington State at home after building a 21-point first quarter lead. The Utes managed just 6 points over the final three quarters against a miserable defense, and 14 fourth-quarter points to lose in crunch time.
The Utes finished the season 3-3 at home, with losses to the aforementioned Arizona Wildcats, the Washington State Cougars and an offensive juggernaut in the Oregon Ducks. While losses to the eventual Pac-12 division champions can be excused away, the way in which the Utes were manhandled in the second half of each home loss this season is inexcusable. The loss to WSU in the Pac-12 opener likely cost the Utes a realistic chance of competing for a Pac-12 South title.
And this isn’t the first time it has happened.
In the Utes' inaugural Pac-12 season, the stars had aligned for Utah to finish off the lowly Colorado Buffaloes to clinch a division title. Several missed field goals later and the Utes donned their first conference bridesmaid dress.
The Utes’s 5-1 road record — including wins over Michigan, UCLA, Oregon State and Stanford — is worthy of its own article, and shows great promise for the future of a program that found only five wins total in each of the last two seasons. If the Utes can count on even a 3-2 split most years on the road, it will be a long time before we see this team on the outside looking in on the college football postseason.
The eight wins the team earned this season should be the new measuring stick for this program, year in and year out. Anything less might be viewed as an opportunity missed. The Utes can put that goal in a more realistic view if they can find a way to let Rice-Eccles Stadium live up to the reputation it hasn’t earned.
Ben Anderson is the co-host of Gunther in the Afternoon with Kyle Gunther on 1320 KFAN from 3-7, Monday through Friday. Read Ben's Utah Jazz blog at 1320kfan.com, and follow him on Twitter @BenKFAN.
