The Utah football season is on hold, for a week anyway, as some players head home for the Thanksgiving holidays while others hit the weight room.
The Utes hope to resume practicing again on Tuesday, but their fate rests in the outcomes of three games Saturday or a decision by the Copper Bowl officials this weekend.By now, most Ute fans know they should be rooting for Fresno State to beat BYU, for San Diego State to defeat Colorado State and for Air Force to beat Hawaii in games this Saturday.
Either with those results or a tie between SDSU and CSU, the Utes will be heading to San Diego for their first Holiday Bowl Dec. 29.
Otherwise they're hoping the Copper Bowl will choose them as the WAC No. 2 team to face one of three teams from the new Big 12 - Texas Tech, Kansas or Texas A&M.
"I don't think there's any other team they should take," said Ute coach Ron McBride, speaking of the Copper Bowl. "A couple of weeks ago, I'd have said probably not, but not now."
McBride feels the Utes are the hottest team in the WAC right now and he's proabably right. Both of the Utes' losses in early October, to San Diego State and Colorado State, were games they could have won. And both of those teams have since lost home games to lower-division WAC schools (SDSU to Wyoming, and CSU to New Mexico). Air Force is coming off a 30-point loss to Notre Dame, while BYU is still smarting from the shellacking the Utes gave them last week.
So is the ever-superstitious McBride sending out good-luck charms to Jim Sweeney, Ted Tollner and Fisher DeBerry this week?
"I'll just keep them with me and see what happens," said McBride.
WHAT IF: Even if they do make a bowl game, the Utes statistics won't change since they only count for regular-season games.
No Ute players moved to the top of record charts this year, but a couple of the Utes' key players did remarkably well, especially considering their slow starts.
Quarterback Mike Fouts finished with 2,581 yards passing, which nearly put him among the top five best Ute passers for a single season. But in his first two games he only passed for a grand total of 41 yards in playing just one quarter.
If he had thrown for his season average of 258 yards in those two games, Fouts would have had more than Mike McCoy's 3,035 total of last year, the fourth best season total in Ute history.
Then there was Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala, who finished with 834 yards rushing. In the first two games, he carried the ball just five times for six yards. He would have had right around 1,000 yards if he had hit his season average in those first two games.
The Utes can only wonder what if Fouts and Fuamatu-Ma'afala had played in those two opening games, which were losses to Oregon and Stanford.
TOUGH START: With their opening game against No. 2 Kansas coming up Saturday, the men's basketball team is starting to wonder if it will have enough players to suit up for the game.
Not only will Brandon Jessie and Ben Melmeth have to sit out because of suspensions, but Ben Caton is recovering from a broken cheekbone and Doug Chapman is dealing with a family illness.
"We're going to have to play with what we have," said coach Rick Majerus. "Sometimes problems create opportunity and maybe we can become a better team because of this."
MOVIN' UP: After their near-victory over No. 11 Colorado Friday night, the Utah women's basketball team has moved up to a tie for 34th in the latest women's poll.
The Utes will get another shot at a ranked team when they meet No. 17 Western Kentucky Monday night at the Huntsman Center. Also on the Utes' tough preseason slate are road games at Montana, Texas and SMU.