Warning: This is going to get strange and complicated, strangely complicated, so only the steady and smart need continue reading. That’s all y’all, fyi.
Let’s begin with the obvious part of Utah’s 21-17 win over Washington State on Thursday night, the part that slapped everyone across the face right from jump — the absence of Cam Rising.
Where was the Utes’ leader? He was right there, warming up before the opening kick, and then firmly planting himself on the sideline, padded up, in uniform, draped in a yellow pinny, stocking cap on, headset on, knee support on, mystery on, any real chance of playing off.
In one of the goofier aspects to college football, where injury surprises like this can be dropped last second, Rising’s failure to trot onto the field to start the game affected nearly everything that happened thereafter.
Instead Bryson Barnes, a walk-on from Milford, a small Utah town about which you likely know very little, stepped in and stepped up. What you knew about Barnes was just as sparse — other than maybe that he grew up raising pigs in a barnyard and threw the pigskin for a touchdown in his brief appearance near the end of the Rose Bowl game.
We know more now.
It wasn’t always picturesque, but Barnes threw for 175 yards, hitting on 17 of 27 passes, throwing for a touchdown, and adding 51 rushing yards, showing this slice of intelligence — he threw the ball to Dalton Kincaid, the tight end that the Cougars couldn’t stop, nor can anybody else, except apparently the football gods themselves. We’ll get to that later.
Barnes had some nice moments, including a 31-yard ball to Money Parks and a big throw to Jaylen Dixon. He also showed Rising tendencies by getting those yards on the ground, taking hits, churning forward, adding that dimension to an attack that needed it, all of which set up Utah’s touchdowns.
“He did a good job,” was the way Kyle Whittingham said it.
As the young quarterback got comfortable, preserving drives, making plays, Utah’s defense worked over Washington State, forcing turnovers, alongside some boneheaded plays by the Cougars, such as a touched punt covered by Utah at the WSU 25 and a targeting call, helping the Utes take a lead at the break.
Stuff was happening. Weird stuff.
Such as: A review and reversal of a first down by the Cougars deep in Utah territory, ending the threat; important runs by freshman Jaylon Glover, who gained 76 rushing yards and a TD; (Tavion Thomas didn’t make the trip); quarterback-turned-running back Ja’Quinden Jackson picking up yards and a score; Kincaid getting hurt on the Utes’ third TD, his own score; WSU suddenly scoring a touchdown early in the fourth, cutting Utah’s lead to seven; a fumble on an exchange from Barnes to Jackson inside the Utes’ 40-yard line midway through the fourth, setting up a field goal; another call reversal, a correct one, benefitting the Utes on a fourth down that sealed the deal, but not without a big defensive holding call on a last-minute State interception.
What to make of it all?
Only one thing … well, two things mixed into one: football and philosophy.
It was Utah’s destiny to win this game and stay alive — temporarily or otherwise — in the chase for a league championship.
Of all the cliches in modern sports, the worst, from this vantage point, is the one about controlling destiny. As in (deep broadcaster voice) … The Utah Utes control their own destiny.
Bullspit.
No they don’t. And it has nothing to do with Thursday night’s victory. They never did. Destiny cannot be controlled, no more than the tail can wag the dog. Destiny must be articulated as a tense, as though it’s in the past. It is what it is. It is what it was to be.
It’s not a matter of predestination, so let’s not go there. It’s a matter of approach, of direction, of definition. You have to go in the backdoor, not the front. The Utes’ destiny is what happened to them. The outcome is what they controlled. Those are two different things.
If that makes no sense to you, take a number and get in line. We’re all just bumping and skidding along here.
Let’s do it a different way. Let’s talk about that outcome. Let’s bring it down to field level.
As a team on Thursday night, the Utes took the form of a return man squinting through swarms of gnats, through the darkness into the bright stadium lights, searching for a punted ball up there, out there, somewhere, waiting … waiting … waiting for it to drop down into his arms. It came in a rush and the Utes safely secured and returned it.
The hang time, adversity, a lack of focus could have been a killer.
But it wasn’t.
After beating USC in one of the most memorable games in the history of Rice-Eccles Stadium 12 nights earlier, that memory, at least the significance of it, might have been wiped away at Washington State.
With four Pac-12 regular-season games remaining — two at home, two on the road, three of them easy, one as difficult as difficult can be — Utah’s hopes for a repeat league championship were kept alive at Martin Stadium.
Whatever coach first said it, that every game carries equal meaning, he was right on this occasion. Getting amped up for USC at home and then, straight into the cold wind of having your star quarterback unable to play, your star running back left behind, your star tight end hurt during the action, losing to WSU on the road, an off-game after an off-week, would have made no difference. As the poet once said it: “A difference that makes no difference is no difference at all.”
An L is an L is an L.
And a win after a win is all the sweeter.
In modern football parlance, inside the context of a competitive league schedule that smiles not one bit on an additional defeat, Thursday night’s match in Pullman might have been a trap game. The Utes were having none of it.
Washington State had suffered consecutive road losses by a combined 30 points coming in, although the Cougars earlier had shown valor in a tight win at Wisconsin and a narrow defeat at home to Oregon.
Ute coaches had emphasized the challenge here a thousand times in the run-up, and a challenge it was.
Even wounded as they were, the Utes did not acquiesce.
What it means for Utah football is … a chance to yet qualify for the Pac-12 title game, a chance that will be sustained as long as they control their … err, as long as they keep winning.
Heading into this weekend, four league teams have one or no losses. Oregon is undefeated in conference play, UCLA, USC and Utah have a single defeat. The two teams with the best in-league winning percentage eventually advance to the championship game. The Bruins and Trojans will play each other in their rivalry game, so there’s that. The Utes must yet travel to Autzen to play the Ducks. USC does not play Oregon in the regular season. UCLA does play the Ducks.
The tiebreaker for qualification for the championship game is tougher to follow than understanding the near and far reaches of destiny.
You can pay the lawyers to read it for you. It could involve everything from advanced stats to an old-fashioned coin flip.
Best way for the Utes to figure it — keep winning. Lose, and the complications will swamp them.
Either way, their destiny is theirs.
