With the eyes of the college football world upon them Saturday, the Utah Utes were throttled by a surging Oregon Ducks team. Entering the contest widely predicted to keep things tight, due to their typically staunch defense and turnover-free offense, Kyle Whittingham’s bunch was surprisingly dominated on both sides of the ball by the Dan Lanning-led Ducks.
The dominance began on the game’s opening drive, where Heisman Trophy contender Bo Nix and his Ducks’ offense carved through the Utah defense like a knife through warm butter, en route to a statement touchdown. Nix and Oregon remained unstoppable all day, and a pair of interceptions from the pig-farmer-turned-starting-QB Bryson Barnes certainly didn’t help the cause. Following the game, Barnes laid into his own performance on the two interception plays, saying “it’s a bad play from a quarterback perspective, it’s a bad play. Got to protect the ball, protect the team, can’t be giving the ball away.”
Barnes’ head coach in Kyle Whittingham certainly didn’t chalk the whole loss up to him however, rather pointing at a more alarming facet of the game. “Today we got out-physical(ed),” said Whittingham, who vowed to have his program return stronger following the disappointing showing. “In adversity and tough times like this we build character and I believe we’ve got a lot of character in our locker room. A lot of guys that are very prideful and we’ll come back and respond and work harder this week and work to get back on track,” Whittingham said.
Their first opportunity to restore their patented physicality and toughness comes this Saturday against ASU. While the Utes certainly cannot overlook the frisky Sun Devils, despite their brutal 2-6 record, they should use the game as a tune-up of sorts before their Nov. 11 showdown against the Washington Huskies. Washington, who is led by Heisman frontrunner Michael Penix Jr., has excellent line play to compliment its bevy of skill position weapons, and they’ll be looking to take it to the Utes as they make a College Football Playoff push.
While last weekend’s loss certainly all-but knocked the Utes from playoff contention, they still have a pulse as it relates to contending for a third-straight Pac-12 title. That achievement would put them in rarified air, with only five of the 12-member institutions having ever accomplished the feat, most recently Oregon from 2009-2011.
Entering Saturday a game-and-a-half back of USC for the second and final spot in the Las Vegas championship, the Utes will kickoff against the Sun Devils Saturday at noon. Tickets can be found online via third party retailers like StubHub, SeatGeek and more, and it will also be broadcast across the Pac-12 Network.