Utah football: Utes keep College Football Playoff hopes alive with comeback win vs. Washington
The Utah Utes started of slowly vs. Washington but finished with a flurry to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive with a win over the Huskies.
Washington beating Utah was a popular upset pick this week on a college football schedule that was devoid of many marquee matchups. And for a while, it looked like Utah would make it four straight top-10 teams who lost to an unranked team after Georgia, Wisconsin and Oklahoma all were upset the last three weeks. Utah trailed at halftime as their College Football Playoff hopes were in critical condition, but the Utes regrouped and dominated the second half to get the win.
Utah had three big takeaways, Tyler Huntley played one of his best games of the year and Zack Moss continued to churn out big yards on the ground. That’s typically how Utah wins games and that’s what they did when they went into one of the toughest places to play in the Pac-12 and took care of business.
The Utes were the preseason pick to win the Pac-12 South and you could see why today in Seattle when they never flinched or panicked or showed any signs of panic. That’s a testament to the head coaching job of Kyle Whittingham and the rest of his staff who had the team prepared to play four quarters in a tough road environment. Utah had everything to play for while Washington had to play the role of spoiler.
Utah and Oregon, provided the Ducks get past USC tonight, look like they’re on a collision course for the Pac-12 Championship Game. Can the Utes navigate the rest of the Pac-12 schedule to get back? And if they can, will a one-loss Utah team be good enough in the eyes of the College Football Playoff committee to make the four-team field?
The latter is a tough question to answer today. Helping Utah’s cause will be if the SEC and Big Ten can cannibalize each other so neither league has a chance at getting two teams in. Further, it’ll help if Baylor and Oklahoma suffer a loss.
They will worry about that for another week. The Utes are taking it one week at a time, which is a cliche but it’s a cliche for a reason. It’s the best approach and mindset to take. All of Utah football’s goals are still alive and for the taking.
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