SALT LAKE CITY — By his own admission, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham doesn’t look too far down the road.
“As soon as the gun goes off and the game is over, I’m already thinking about the next opponent, and so I probably do myself a disservice by not enjoying the victories as much as I should,” he said. “I think that is how a lot of coaches are built. You are always on to the next thing. When the season is over you can look back and reflect and maybe that is when you appreciate a little bit more of what was going on.”
And what’s going on for the Utes is pursuit of a berth in the College Football Playoff. For the second consecutive week, they’re seventh in the rankings.
“I guess that’s what you would expect. I don’t know. Did you guys expect different?” said Whittingham, who acknowledged that you never know. “There’s still some football left. We’ll see what happens. We’ve just got to keep doing our thing and take care of our business.”
The announcement didn’t really move the needle much with players and coaches after practice on Tuesday. Utah is preparing to take on Arizona Saturday in Tucson.
“It doesn’t matter. Ask me after the season what we’re ranked and then that will matter to me,” said defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley. “Right? I can’t control that. Control the controllables, and we can’t control that. We can control what we do against Arizona and that’s what we’re doing right now.”
In Tuesday’s rankings the Utes (9-1) are ahead of one-loss contenders No. 8 Penn State, No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 10 Minnesota, but behind No. 4 Georgia, No. 5 Alabama and No. 6 Oregon. Three undefeated teams — No. 1 Louisiana State, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Clemson — top the rankings and the quest for spots in the national semifinals.
“It doesn’t matter. We just want to focus on Arizona (this week) and take it game-by-game,” said senior safety Julian Blackmon. “We’ll move up as long as we keep winning. So we’re just going to focus on winning.”
Aside from the top 10, the CFP rankings include: No. 11. Florida, No. 12. Wisconsin, No. 13. Michigan, No. 14. Baylor, No. 15. Auburn, No. 16. Notre Dame, No. 17. Iowa, No. 18. Memphis, No. 19. Cincinnati, No. 20. Boise State, No. 21. Oklahoma State, No. 22. Iowa State, No. 23. USC, No. 24. Appalachian State and No. 25. SMU. The next announcement is next Tuesday (5 p.m., ESPN).