It sounds like a stupid question at this point, but we’ll ask it anyway.
Are the Utah Utes a decent football team?
Don’t laugh, they have their moments, a few of them. But do decent football teams lose six straight games? Let’s back up and start again.
Are the Utah Utes a mediocre football team?
Umm. Do mediocre football teams lose six straight games? Back it up again.
Are the Utah Utes a lousy football team?
They certainly looked the part of an outfit standing on the corner of Atrocious Ave. and Brutal Blvd. on Saturday at the end against Colorado, dropping that game by the count of 49-24 in Boulder. It wasn’t just that they dropped it; they dropped it like an ignited cache of nitroglycerin landing and exploding on their own noggins, falling as they did to 1-6 in the Big 12 and 4-6 overall.
Still, it seems inconceivable that they’re horrible.
That’s what’s strange about this, the Utes’ season of disappointment, their season of despair, their season of defeat: They have good athletes. They have talent. They have a strong defense. They have smart coaches. They have the same winning culture they’ve had for years under Kyle Whittingham. What they don’t have — no surprise here — is consistency on offense.
Did all of that dissipate when Cam Rising suffered his injuries, hand and leg, earlier this year? The quarterback position is the most important slot in all of team sports. Understood. But for all of that to blow into the wind on account of the absence of one player seems too … what’s the word? … fragile.
Utah quarterback Isaac Wilson, top, is tackled after a short gain by Colorado linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green in the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Utah football is supposed to be all about the opposite of that — physical, rugged, tough, smack-you-upside-the-mug, next-man-up resiliency. But the bull in the china shop has turned into china in a bull shop. There, indeed, have been other injuries. But every team suffers through those. We heard that explanation last season, as well. At what point does an explanation become an excuse?
The Utes have crossed that threshold.
And, yet, when you watch bits and pieces of this team, you think, “OK, that’s pretty darn good.” Hopefully, that doesn’t sound overly condescending. It’s not meant to be. It’s just that there are times when the sunshine cuts through the clouds. It goes past what happened a week ago, when Utah came within a holding call of beating BYU. Some of the same positive productivity was on display against Colorado. Right alongside the waves of negative. Turns out, the latter swamped the former.
Reverting back to the quarterback play, Isaac Wilson is evidence of the Utah to-and-fro. The freshman has had his share of undulations this season, and on Saturday he had more of the same. He threw three picks and bumbled a fumble, turnovers that led to ruptured drives and Colorado points. But — and it’s a big but — he also delivered impressive throws that may temper some disillusionment of this season into promise for the future.
Maybe. Maybe not.
That’s all this year has to offer the Utes now.
The first minutes against the Buffs exemplified the entire affair. The Ute defense stopped CU on its initial possession, with Lander Barton picking off Shedeur Sanders’ pass, setting up his offense near Colorado’s 20-yard line. Could the Utes score a touchdown? No. They did manage a field goal, taking a lead that might have been more.
It needed to be more.
A long Colorado touchdown throw and a 76-yard punt return rearranged that margin in short order, 14-3. What followed were a few whiffs of the sensational and a considerable amount of sloppy football.
On one occasion, at the Colorado 23-yard line, Sanders dropped a snap out of the shotgun, with Utah recovering the loose ball. That gave the Utes another sweet chance for a touchdown and … as has been the case far too often … what was sweet turned if not sour, only semi-sweet: another field goal.
It’s hardly breaking news that the Utes struggle on attack. It’s gotten to the sad-and-sorry situation where they can’t even run the ball. The offensive bump-and-stumble has been the truth all season, and it was a fact on Saturday. Teammates or no, it’s remarkable that Utah’s defensive players haven’t punched some of the offensive players in the mouth. They’ve almost certainly wanted to.
Colorado wide receiver Will Sheppard, left, pulls in a touchdown pass over Utah cornerback Cameron Calhoun in the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Either way, the defense did what it could — far from enough — to keep the deficit from getting out of hand, a tall order since Sanders and Heisman hopeful Travis Hunter made clear the enormity of that challenge. It went unmet.
A bomb from Sanders to Hunter set up Colorado’s third touchdown, making it 21-6. A third Cole Becker field goal ended the half with the Utes down by 12.
A second Isaac Wilson interception set up another Colorado TD early in the third quarter, jacking the lead to 28-9, and after a subsequent Utah touchdown, Sanders threw another TD pass for the Buffalos, and at that juncture anybody with eyes to see knew there was no way the Utah O could make up that 19-point difference in the closing 13 minutes. It tried, executing a nice Wilson-led drive, but ultimately failed.
And failure is what has become the norm this season.
The remaining question for Utah football now centers on whether what’s happening on the field is a complete anomaly, a stranger passing in the night, or is it a harbinger, a familiar face, of what’s to come — not just in the games ahead, but rather in the seasons. That’s hard to imagine, let alone process.
A season or two ago, that question would have been a stupid one, too. Not so much now. Not anymore.
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