After Championship Win, Utes Are Rose Bowl Bound
Dec 2, 2022, 9:51 PM | Updated: Dec 5, 2022, 10:53 am
LAS VEGAS- The Utah Utes are Pac-12 Champions once again, which means they are also Rose Bowl bound.
Against all odds No. 12 Utah up-ended No. 4 USC, stamping their ticket to the Granddaddy of them All while simultaneously ruining the Trojans’ hopes of going to the College Football Playoff.
The conference title game between the Utes and Trojans took place at Allegiant Stadium, home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders, on Friday, December 2.
Utah upset USC, 47-24.
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Utes On Repeat
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Utah had high hopes for the 2022 football season being touted as a possible Playoff contender but hit some bumps in the road against Florida, UCLA, and Oregon on their journey. While those losses took the Utes out of CFP contention, they didn’t affect Utah’s ability to repeat as Pac-12 Champions with another shot at the Rose Bowl which was another goal they had for the season.
The path to repeating was an interesting one that literally came down to the last game on the last Saturday of the regular season for the Pac-12. UCLA had to beat Cal, Oregon State had to beat Oregon, Utah had to win their game against Colorado and Washington had to take down Washington State for the Utes to be in Las Vegas.
Because of Utah’s unconventional path to the Pac-12 Championship and the three losses on their record, not many people were giving them a shot against the Trojans, but clearly, the Utes never got that memo.
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Utah Smelling Roses Again
Last season Utah got themselves to the Rose Bowl on the heels of two deaths on the team- Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe. No one necessarily expected the team to rally the way they did from such an excruciating tragedy but rally the Utes did.
In Pasadena on New Year’s Day Utah put on a show against Ohio State and created a lot of buzz about themselves despite coming up just short of victory 48-45.
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Utah now has one more crack at the Rose Bowl in 2023 with hopefully a little different result.
Michelle Bodkin is the Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of both the Crimson Corner Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and The Saturday Show (Saturday from 10 a.m.–12 p.m.) on The KSL Sports Zone. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram: @BodkinKSLsports
