SALT LAKE CITY — Back home in Salt Lake City after what had to be one of the most somber late-night flights back this group has experienced, Terrell Burgess kicked up his feet Saturday morning and tuned in for the slate of remaining college football games that would determine this year’s College Football Playoff entrants. Utah’s senior strong safety FaceTimed his brother and they watched and talked about conference championship bouts together over the phone.
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And when one of the most beloved players on this year’s Utah team offered up that personal anecdote, he almost knew what was next. Like anticipating a route he’s seen over and over again on film, the safety from San Marcos, Calif., smiled and even finished a reporter’s question.
“What was it like seeing everything else that needed to happen … “ the reporter asked.
“Happen,” Burgess supplied.
That’s where the realm of Utah football world found itself Saturday all day. Every possible domino that would’ve pushed the Utes to a College Football Playoff berth fell. Oklahoma squeaked by Baylor in overtime in the Big 12 title game, LSU thumped Georgia in the SEC title game and the previously No. 5-ranked Utes had nothing but what-ifs to entertain.
“It sucks,” Burgess said, “but I mean, all that didn’t matter unless we did our job, and clearly, we didn’t.”
Utah’s loss to Oregon in Friday’s Pac-12 championship game railroaded aspirations of the Utes having their name called Sunday morning as the CFP’s Final Four were unveiled. The No. 4 spot went to the Sooners, and a few hours later, it was revealed that Utah tumbled all the way to No. 11, leaving the Utes not only out of the CFP discussion, not out of Rose Bowl talk, but out of the New Year’s Six games, too.
No. 11 Utah (11-2, 8-2), in theory, could’ve kept on rolling downhill, all the way to the Holiday Bowl, for what would’ve been a repeat visit from 2018. But the Utes were snagged to be featured in the 2019 Alamo Bowl on New Year’s Eve in San Antonio, Texas, where they’ll face an unranked Texas Longhorns (7-5) team that went toe-to-toe with two of the CFP finalists: LSU, the team Utah would’ve very likely drawn had it topped the Ducks, and Oklahoma, the team that took care of its business in its conference title game.
Utah senior left tackle Darrin Paulo did not tune in for what transpired throughout the day Saturday. Asked if he could pinpoint, two days later, what went so wrong for Utah’s offense in the 37-15 loss, the anchor of the line had no answers. Utah quarterback Tyler Huntley was sacked a season-high six times by the Ducks.
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“I can’t,” Paulo said. “I didn’t watch film. I didn’t watch football yesterday, either. I’m kind of shaken up, but we definitely could’ve protected a lot better than we did.”
There are two schools of thought when analyzing how this Utah team will end a season so absurdly close to becoming the latest Utah team in a program synonymous for breaking ground.
1. The Utes’ getting dominated in the fourth quarter of the Pac-12 title game not only cost them a shot at LSU or a Rose Bowl against Wisconsin, but it cost them a chance to be called by the Cotton Bowl. In theory, a more prestigious bowl.
2. Would facing Memphis in Arlington over Texas in the Alamodome really move the needle for Utah fans? The brand name of Texas obviously holds more weight nationally than the upstart Tigers. Being able to play the Longhorns in Texas a mere 80 miles away from Austin is the most ideal outcome. After all, the Lone Star State is part of Utah’s three-pronged recruiting footprint.
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said exactly that in a brief teleconference appearance Sunday afternoon.
“It’s going to be great for our exposure for our team,” he said.
It could very well be a pseudo-road game, too, considering the proximity to Austin. Utah athletic director met with media members Sunday afternoon in the Eccles Football Center and publicly pleaded with die-hard Utes fans to get to San Antonio for New Year’s Eve.
“We’re going to need folks to fight off that burnt orange and bring a lot of red to the game,” Harlan said.
While the Utah coaching staff on the road recruiting this week, Harlan spoke about the trajectory of the program, opting for an optimistic outlook despite Utah being within four quarters of proving all of its very loud doubters wrong. Finishing one spot outside the Top 10, winning the Pac-12 South in back-to-back seasons means the Utes, he believes, are on the proper path.
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Meanwhile, this year’s group, filled with seniors who will go down in program lore for several different reasons, have one more game to prep for.
“We all had high hopes and aspirations to win that game, but it didn’t fall (our way), it didn’t happen for us,” Burgess said. “We just have to make sure we go out the best way that we can at this point.”
Always one of the quieter, humble players on the team, Paulo wore the ache of Friday night’s loss each time it was brought up. It’s still so fresh, and impossible not to think about, even with a fairly high-profile bowl game against a college blueblood like Texas now on tap.
“It’s probably going to stick with me for a while, but we can’t dwell on it too long,” he said. “We’ve got to play Texas still. I don’t think we’re just representing Utah either. The Pac-12, too.”
On the teleconference call orchestrated by the Alamo Bowl, both Whittingham and Texas coach Tom Herman were asked to summarize their team’s seasons to date, their opponents and their excitement level now that their date in San Antonio is secure.
“We feel like our team is … we played good football this year,” Whittingham said. “We came up a little short in that last game. But we’ve got a quarterback that we think is elite,as well as an elite running back and an elite defense, so we’ve got some things going for us.”
A spot-on scouting report of his own team, the team that everyone in college football saw highlighted each week in anticipation of the first week of December. But instead of being on an ESPN hit talking about Utah’s far-flung hopes as a playoff Cinderella, Utah’s coach, like his players, is still processing dreams dashed. All the while ensuring Oregon doesn’t beat the Utes twice, because a game against Texas in Texas is near and Utah needs to remind the country what it can be. Not what it was on Friday.
(Photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
Christopher Kamrani is a college football enterprise writer for The Athletic. He previously worked at The Salt Lake Tribune as a sports features writer and also served as the Olympics reporter. Follow Christopher on Twitter @chriskamrani
