Have You Seen This? When Utah and Ohio State become unlikely friends

Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham, left, and Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day pose with the Rose Bowl trophy during a press conference in Los Angeles on Friday, Dec. 31, 2021.

Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham, left, and Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day pose with the Rose Bowl trophy during a press conference in Los Angeles on Friday, Dec. 31, 2021. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)


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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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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 — It's no secret that Ohio State rallied from behind to beat Utah in a high-scoring 2022 Rose Bowl.

The game was electric and had one of the highest attendance in Rose Bowl history, to say nothing of the stellar television numbers that were released after the game.

With another Rose Bowl on the line for Utah last week, Ohio State became an unlikely friend of the program. A win by Utah, after all, would knock USC out of the playoff and send Ohio State to the College Football Playoff. It was merely a business dealing, and one in which Ohio State fans became the biggest Utah fans of their life.

In fact, the area of Columbus, Ohio, had 27% of all TV's that were on Friday night tuned to the Pac-12 championship game — Salt Lake City had 50% of all TV's tuned into the game, while Los Angeles only had 19%.

When Utah closed out the deal and beat USC to earn a second trip to the Rose Bowl, Ohio State fans rejoiced. Former Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones joked on Twitter that he's a "big Utah guy! Go Utes" and "Thinking about getting my masters at Utah! Go Utes" after the win.

Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham also had a message for Ohio State after the victory. On the postgame show with the FOX broadcast crew, which included former Utah head coach Urban Meyer, Whittingham said: "Coach (Ryan) Day, you're welcome."

It was an entertaining weekend as Utah earned another Rose Bowl and Ohio State earned another playoff bid. But there was only one way to show how this all transpired, and it comes from Will Ferrell's classic "Talledega Nights."

I could explain the video, but it's just better to watch:

I'm sure Ohio State would have done the same thing for Utah.

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Josh is the Sports Director for KSL.com and beat writer covering University of Utah athletics — primarily football, men’s and women's basketball and gymnastics. He is also an Associated Press Top 25 voter for college football.

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