Las Vegas • If you had told the Utah football team at the beginning of this season that they’d be playing a game at Allegiant Stadium yet again, they surely would have figured it’d take place in a third consecutive Pac-12 Championship game, rather than Saturday’s Las Vegas Bowl.
Obviously, things didn’t quite work out that way.
Representatives from both Utah and Northwestern gave glowing remarks about their enthusiasm for the game during Friday morning’s media session at the stadium.
But while the respective programs share a vague commonality to this season — “Both teams faced a lot of adversity this year, in their own way,” noted Utes coach Kyle Whittingham — the circumstances behind their participation could not be more juxtaposed.
For the Wildcats, the bowl appearance is an exciting denouement to a season that began under a cloud when dozens of former players made allegations of hazing and racial discrimination that ultimately resulted in the firing of then-head coach Pat Fitzgerald.
“We were all really fired up when we heard we were coming to Vegas,” said Northwestern quarterback Ben Bryant. “It’s been so fun.”
The Las Vegas experience has been fun for the Utes, too, but it’s also a reminder that their season ultimately did not live up to their expectations.
“Being here twice and winning two Pac-12 Championships — I know that’s over with, but it’s definitely a familiar scene,” said Utah defensive end Connor O’Toole.
Which isn’t to say they were being sullen or petulant or spoiled.
But when you enter a campaign with dreams of winning a third straight Pac-12 championship and perhaps breaking through to the College Football Playoff, an 8-4 finish in a year defined and demolished by one significant injury after another inherently comes with some degree of baked-in disappointment.
“Just elated to be here, and proud of our team,” Whittingham claimed in his opening remarks.
To be fair, once the Pac-12 title was officially out of reach, the Utes did resolve to enjoy the remainder of their season, to make the best of their bowl situation.
And so the ensuing weeks have been about maximizing the time they have left together, and about ending the program’s four-game losing streak in bowl games.
To that end, quarterback Bryson Barnes once again shrugged off a question about the weirdness of simultaneously being in the transfer portal looking for a new team, but playing one last game with his old one.
“At the end of the day, whatever’s going on outside besides this bowl game is the least of my concerns,” he said. “Right now, it’s about going out there Saturday and winning the game.”
(Eric Walden | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, quarterback Bryson Barnes, and defensive end Connor O'Toole participate in a Las Vegas Bowl media session at Allegiant Stadium on Friday, Dec. 22, 2023.
Of course, that will be tough to do, not only because Northwestern is a solid team, but because a Utes roster already decimated this season by injuries has been further ravaged by transfer portal defections and NFL draft declarations.
Whittingham, of course, noted there would be no excuses.
“First of all, our two safeties [Cole Bishop and Sione Vaki] decided that they weren’t going to participate in the bowl, and that opened an opportunity for Nate Ritchie and Johnathan Hall. Those guys have been doing a great job in practice. We also had a couple offensive linemen opt out, [so] Jaren Kump and Tanoa Togiai have done a nice job filling in there,” he said. “There’s a lot of other guys that won’t be with us, but I think every team in the country is in that same boat to some extent or another. It’s not unique to us. I guess the silver lining of it all would be giving guys reps and an opportunity to play, and a head start with them for next season.”
For the Northwestern contingent, meanwhile, the questions were less about who will and won’t be available, or who’s stepping up into a more prominent role — it was all bigger-picture stuff about the significance of them being there at all, given how their season started.
None of it was lost on coach David Braun, who was originally hired in January as the team’s defensive coordinator, then became interim head coach in July following Fitzgerald’s firing, and finally was given the job outright last month, with two games remaining in the regular season.
“This opportunity is an absolute dream come true,” Braun said when asked about his situation. “Has it sunk in? Honestly, it hasn’t.”
He praised the character of his players and staff for fighting through a far different kind of adversity than what Utah experienced.
He praised his team’s approach to this game, for treating it like it is important to them.
“I mean, the level of urgency, communication, intentionality that this group has put on display, they’ve left no doubt in their preparation,” said Braun.
And he was effusive in his praise for his counterpart sitting a few feet away, and for the program that his own will be taking on Saturday evening.
“[It’s an] incredible, formidable opponent that we have an opportunity to go up against. I’ve told people over and over and over the past couple weeks, coach Whittingham and the Utah program is a program that I’ve admired from afar for a long, long time,” said Braun. “Their program … can be a model of what [ours] can look like going forward. Creating a sustainable program that’s built off of clean football, built off of physicality, fundamentals [are] all things that we’ve admired and that this program aspires to be.”
That being the case, Northwestern might one day view participation in the Las Vegas Bowl as an entertaining diversion rather than a desired destination.
That’s down the road, perhaps.
For now, there’s just two programs trying to make the best of their respective situations once the ball is kicked off, whatever that happens to look like.
