SALT LAKE CITY — Despite all of their unprecedented accomplishments to date, including being ranked No. 6 in the College Football Playoff rankings this late in the season, while beating seven straight Pac-12 foes by an average of 29 points — the Utah football team still has to get a win this weekend to advance to the conference championship game next week.
The 10-1 Utes must beat 5-6 Colorado on Saturday (5:30 p.m. MT) at Rice-Eccles Stadium to win the Pac-12 South Division and earn a spot in the title game Dec. 6 against Oregon at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
It’s not a situation the Ute program is unfamiliar with.
It happened during Utah’s first year in the league, back in 2011 when the Utes just had to get past Colorado in the regular-season finale to get into the championship game. Instead, the Utah offense struggled and their usually reliable placekicker missed three field goals that would have made a difference in the 17-14 loss.

Looking back at the 2011 game, played on Nov. 24, also at Rice-Eccles Stadium, the Utes were nowhere near the level they are now. They came into the game on a four-game winning streak at 7-4 to get to 4-4 in league play. They were in position to win the division because USC was on probation and couldn’t go to the title game despite a 7-2 record. The Utes were big favorites against the Buffaloes, who came in with a 2-10 record, having played an extra game at Hawaii already and had a four-year 24-game road losing streak to boot.
The Utah offense, directed by Norm Chow, had relied on the running of John White, who set a season record with 1,519 rushing yards that year, but that day they couldn’t even make a first down until less than four minutes remained in the first half. By halftime, Utah had just 39 yards to 254 for Colorado and trailed 10-0.
Then in the third quarter, the Utes lost White to an ankle injury and had to go with Tauni Vakapuna, who had played sparingly that season. But quarterback Jon Hays got going and the Utes fought back into the game with a pair of touchdowns and trailed 17-14 early in the fourth quarter.
They drove down the field to the 5-yard line but stalled and were forced to try a 26-yard field goal.
Ute placekicker Coleman Petersen who had been named Pac-12’s Special Teams Player of the Week after booting three field goals the week before, came into the game with more field goals (17) than anyone in the conference. But he had already missed a 42-yard field goal in the first half and his 26-yard attempt with 8:55 left sailed wide right.

The Utes got the ball back during the final minutes and marched down to the 31-yard line with the clock ticking down. A field goal would send the game to overtime, but Petersen’s kick again went wide right, ending the Utes’ hopes for a spot in the Pac-12 title game.
While Utah has a much better team than in 2011, so does Colorado. The Buffs are 5-6, coming off two straight victories, 16-13 over Stanford two weeks ago and 20-14 over Washington last week. Before that, Colorado had lost five straight.
This will be only the fifth road game of the season for Colorado, which beat Arizona State 34-31 back in September, but has since lost at Oregon 45-3, Washington State 41-10 and USC 35-31.
The Utes rank among the nation’s leaders in several categories on offense and defense.
They’re first in rushing defense at 55.9 ypg and fourth in scoring defense (10.9 ppg) and pass efficiency defense. On offense, they rank 19th at 461 ypg, 23rd in rushing offense and seventh in passing efficiency.
Colorado is only 67th in total offense and 106th in total defense.
After having one of the best placekickers in the nation the past two years in Matt Gay, the Lou Groza Award winner who made 56 of 65 field goals during his career, the Utes are relying on freshman Jadon Redding this year. Redding hasn’t been called on to kick much this season with just 11 field goal attempts, making eight.
While they have confidence in their placekicker, when they play Colorado Saturday, the Utes are hoping it doesn’t come down to a kick this time around.
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Utes on the air
Colorado (5-6, 3-5)
at No. 6 Utah (10-1, 7-1)
Rice-Eccles Stadium
Saturday, 5:30 p.m.
TV: ABC, Ch. 4
Radio: ESPN 700AM