Y'all killed Mario for losing to Utah..... Remember?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
This deserves to be scrutinized more.
2019: When Utah started to emerge as a PAC-12 powerhouse. Went 11-3 with one of those losses in regular season, one loss in conference champshionship game, and one loss in bowl season.
2020: Weird season for everyone--doesn't count.
2021: Went 10-4. Dropped Rose Bowl in a close match with Ohio State and three regular season games; however, they won their conference championship game.
2022: Went 10-3. (Pending Bowl result). Same story as 2021. Won their championship game, dropped some regular season matchups.
My point in typing all of that is to illustrate that Utah has been, over essentially the last 4 years, a really good football team and trending toward an established dominance in their conference. Ever heard of the expression "One is a data point, two is a coincidence, three is a trend"? A Utah bowl win ending on an 11-3 season will be an inflection point in their football history--to get a championship win and a bowl win. The 2023 season for them is going to be exciting football to watch.
As there are "quality of wins", there are "quality of losses". Miami losing to Louisville is not the same as Miami losing to Clemson and losing by 40 at home is not the same as losing by a field goal in the last :04 of the game anywhere. One is an inferior opponent, the other superior--at least in recent years and we know this is true because the playoff committee weighs these losing scenarios differently in their formulas which also include factors like road/home, beginning of the season vs end of the season, etc. For Mario Cristobal's Oregon part, 2021 Utah was their bugaboo. Perhaps at the time most of the critics of Mario losing to Utah were sound. I believe that when you consider the follow-up 2022 performance by Utah, you just got to think that 2021 Utah wasn't some flash in the pan but a team coached to last. We're 2-4 years into watching Utah come of age and people are starting to talk about them as a national threat to the blue bloods that go playoff each year.
What could have been? That Florida game in week one was one of my top 10 favorite games this year and they almost won that one, on the road. It was 2nd and goal on the Florida 6 yard line with :22 seconds in the 4th qtr and down a field goal. Richardson was playing like ****, and Utah was driving down the field. Interception sealed it. Had they won that game and gone on to still lose to 18th ranked UCLA on the road and 12th ranked Oregon on the road, we might be talking about them being in the 5th spot waiting for TCU or even controlling their own destiny last night by defeating USC and getting in that way.
Utah is an interesting case study on coaching, perseverance, stars and recruiting. They are fun to watch and I look forward to see how they match that moxie in 2023/24.
