This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Boulder, Colo.
The Utah Utes, the football team that would cancel November if it could, triggered a championship celebration Saturday night. The only trouble was the joyous scene that unfolded at Folsom Field had nothing to do with Utah. Or everything, actually.
The Utes' offensive struggles enabled Colorado to claim a 27-22 victory and the Pac-12 South title, while dooming the Utes to a long month of waiting to play in another lower-tier bowl game. Regardless of what the offense does on that stage, coach Kyle Whittingham and co-coordinators Aaron Roderick and Jim Harding face a rough winter of wondering what went wrong and how to fix it.
I've criticized Whittingham's tendency to blame the offense for Utah's losses, but there's no other way to analyze this showing. This outcome didn't stem from the Utes' lack of motivation or effort or any other such responses to last week's loss to Oregon that ended their Pac-12 championship hopes.
The Utes (8-4) simply weren't good enough offensively to complete a sweep of their five rivals in the South and keep Colorado from advancing to play Washington in the conference title game.
As Ute quarterback Troy Williams said, "Defense played lights-out. Offense just didn't get it done."
Whittingham labeled the offense "nonexistent," and that was being nice. Play-calling and coaching fit into his answer of "all of the above" in citing problems for Utah's having to kick three field goals in the second half on trips inside the Colorado 5-yard line. Until Williams delivered touchdown pass on the offense's last possession of the game, the Utes found the end zone only via Boobie Hobbs' 55-yard punt return in the fourth quarter. Not even Kyle Fulks' 93-kickoff return to the Colorado 3 could produce more than a field goal.
The latest chapter in Joe Williams' phenomenal comeback story lacked much good material. He ran for only 97 yards on 26 carries and lost two fumbles. Those turnovers could be said to have resulted in a 14-point swing, including a Colorado touchdown, but that assumes the Utes would have finished the drive that ended with the Buffaloes' recovery at their 2.
If you're frustrated with this offense, imagine being the USC Trojans. Those guys — including Utah prep products Steve Tu'ikolovatu and Porter Gustin and assistant coach John Baxter, Ron McBride's son-in-law — were hoping the Utes would upset Colorado and send USC to the Pac-12 championship game.
And the Utes have to live with the reality that they're the only South member never to have appeared in the Pac-12 championship game. Utah's performance Saturday served to anoint Colorado as the newest contestant, while the Utes completed a disappointing November that once held so much promise — with the Rose Bowl among their possibilities.
Utah is likely to drop out of the College Football Playoff rankings for the first time in the three seasons they have been published. The Utes were proud to have joined Alabama, Clemson, Florida State and Ohio State with that distinction. But now they're among Cal, Oregon State and Washington as the Pac-12's only schools that haven't played in the title game in the six seasons since the conference's expansion.
Whittingham operates a strong, steady program in contrast to the ups and downs of those schools, but consistency is Utah's problem, in a sense. The Utes are becoming known for November letdowns, having lost their second-to-last game five years in a row. In the previous four seasons, the regular-season finale vs. Colorado provided some degree of comfort. Not this time.
kkragthorpe@sltrib.com Twitter: @tribkurt