Whittingham: Winning The Pac-12 Is Culmination Of A Lot Of Hard Work
Dec 3, 2021, 11:43 PM
Head coach Kyle Whittingham of the Utah Utes holds a rose after the PAC-12 Football Championship football game against the Oregon Ducks at Allegiant Stadium on December 03, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Utah Utes won 38-10. (Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images)
(Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS – After 10 seasons in the conference, Utah football has taken the Pac-12 Championship after a 38-10 win over Oregon at Allegiant Stadium.
Every team that enters a power-5 league from a group of five conference has always experienced growing pains and Utah has certainly gone through that.
They certainly went through the growing pains faster than expected. All of that culminated on Friday night at Allegiant Stadium when confetti came flying down after Utah hoisted the Pac-12 Championship trophy with roses in their hands.
🌹 ROSE BOWL BOUND 🌹#GoUtes #Pac12FCG #OREvsUTAH
📰: https://t.co/1u8KPUOEsH pic.twitter.com/dS2ArRdMND
— KSL Sports (@kslsports) December 4, 2021
“We knew we were going to have some things improve,” Whittingham said after the win on Friday. “You know, our roster we had to improve the perimeter, the skill players, we knew were a little behind. The facilities budget, but we’ve just been working away at it ever since we joined the league and this is the culmination of a lot of years of hard work and effort not only by us by our administration by everybody involved, it takes a lot of people to make this thing go.”
Utah Didn’t Have Much Growing Pains In Pac-12 Transition
In 10 seasons in the Pac-12, Utah football has only had two losing records and that was during the early part of the move to the conference.
Since 2015, Utah was competitive and was ranked in the College Football Playoff Top 25 at some point in each season until 2020.
They made a statement in 2018 by winning the south division but fell to Washington at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. During the 2019 season, Utah had a prime opportunity to reach the College Football Playoff if they were able to win the Pac-12 title against Oregon but the Ducks picked up the 35-17 upset win.
After ending the season with a 3-2 record in 2020, Utah made a run in 2021 after a poor non-conference showing.
Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com, Co-Host of Faith, Family and Football podcast with Clark Phillips III and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports.
