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SALT LAKE CITY — The notion of a college football team being beaten twice by the same opponent is a giant cliche.
The meaning there is that when you lose a game, don't dwell on the defeat to the point where you allow yourself to lose to the next opponent.
The University of Utah was bludgeoned a week ago by Oregon, but for as much of a cliche as it might be, the Utes did not allow themselves to be beaten twice by the Ducks. Instead, they put that loss in the past, taking their frustrations out on Arizona State 55-3 at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
The notion of not getting beaten twice by Oregon unfolded Monday during Utah's typical team meeting to open a game week. At that point, Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham had appealed to his four captains and leadership council to help get the message across.
Utah's leadership council is composed of 12 players and functions similar to that of a captaincy.
"'Now's when we need you,' that's exactly when you need your leadership to step up and manifest it when things are tough," Whittingham said. "When things are going good, everything's going good, but when things get a little bit dicey, and a little tough, that's when the leadership really needs to step up and take charge and they did. They answered the bell."
In his players answering the bell, Whittingham indicated he was pleased with how the week of preparation, from Monday's typical afternoon walkthrough, into Tuesday, which is generally the most-physical day of practice, all the way through Wednesday and Thursday.
Saying that the week of practice was very good could be construed as another cliche, but the product Utah (7-2, 4-2 Pac-12) put on the field Saturday backed up Whittingham's words.
Utah rushed for 352 yards, more than triple what Arizona State's top-20 rush defense gives up per game (104.4), ran for 7.2 yards per carry, and finished with 513 total yards. For what it's worth, the Sun Devils entered Saturday with the 39th-ranked total defense in the country at 340.9 yards per game.
Bryson Barnes, seemingly more comfortable and looking more capable than at any point this season, went 19-of-28 for 161 yards and a career-high four touchdowns, plus another 56 yards rushing on seven carries. The four touchdown passes marked the first time a Utah quarterback threw for that many in a Pac-12 game since Tyler Huntley threw for four against USC in a 41-28 win on Oct. 20, 2018.
"Regardless of what the outcome is on Saturday, you have to be able to put that in the rearview," Barnes said. "Coming in Monday, the talk around the facility was don't let a team beat you twice. I feel like that really rang true for a lot of the players and we were able to keep the mojo up and regain our energy.
"We had to get over that loss regardless of how bad it was, because we had to go 1-0 this week. It didn't matter what happened last week, it was just a matter of getting over it."
Added cornerback Miles Battle, a veteran of 52 Power Five contests, including 43 at Ole Miss: "We play a lot of good teams, and stuff like that happens in college football. That's a really good team we played, but we're also a really good team, so you just have to bounce back.
"I know as a DB, the mentality I gotta have is: next play, next game. You gotta have a short-term memory, look at the film, as hard as it was to watch, but you gotta lock in for the next game because there's another team that we just played that's actually really good. They had a lot of close games within 7 points, so just being able to keep that focus and lock in even more."
Dating back to the 2019 season, Utah is now 9-2 in the regular season when coming off a loss. This particular win off a loss affords the Utes the right to keep playing meaningful November football as it hangs on to whatever hopes remain of winning a third-consecutive Pac-12 championship on Dec. 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Those hopes now head to Seattle and the University of Washington, No. 5 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings and the Pac-12's lone unbeaten as it looks to take its own giant step towards Las Vegas next month.
