alt=Jeff CallNo one can blame Utah coach Kyle Whittingham and his players for doing some scoreboard watching Saturday afternoon at Folsom Field.
While the No. 14 Utes were crushing Colorado, 63-21, No. 9 Oregon and No. 21 Oregon State were clashing in Corvallis.
Going into the day, in order to advance to next week’s Pac-12 championship game in Las Vegas, Utah needed to beat Colorado, they needed OSU to upset the Ducks and they needed No. 13 Washington to beat Washington State in Pullman.
The Oregon-OSU game kicked off 30 minutes before the Utah-Colorado game. The Utes knew that a Beaver win would keep their Pac-12 title aspirations alive.
And in improbable fashion, Oregon State rallied from a 31-10 deficit in the second half to beat Oregon 38-34. When the final score appeared on the scoreboard late in the fourth quarter at Folsom Field, the Ute fans in attendance roared with approval.
Now, Utah will be closely watching the outcome of tonight’s Washington-Washington State game in the Apple Cup (8:30 p.m., MST, ESPN). If the No. 13 Huskies beat the Cougars, the Utes will be headed to Las Vegas.
And if that happens, Utah will face No. 6 USC in the Pac-12 championship game. Utah defeated Oregon last year in Las Vegas to secure its first Pac-12 crown.
A Washington State win will send Oregon to the Pac-12 championship game.
Nobody should be surprised it’s come down to this. This is the Pac-12. It’s usually wacky and weird.
“Obviously, with what’s transpired, we’re in the hunt,” Whittingham said after his team’s victory. “We’ll see what happens tonight.
“Three things have happened; four had to happen. One to go tonight. We’ll be rooting hard for the Huskies and see where it takes us. If the Huskies win, we’ll gear up for the game next weekend. If not, then we’ll figure out what’s next. Regardless, very proud of our guys and very proud of this football team.”
During his team’s game, Whittingham tried not to focus on the Oregon-Oregon State game.
“Not til the very end,” he said. “I saw the score flash up there like everyone else did, periodically, but not until deep into the fourth quarter was I getting feedback from my guy on the sidelines.”
Utah’s players admitted they were doing some scoreboard watching during Saturday’s game. And they were thrilled with how things played out in Corvallis.
“We’ll just see how the cards unfold for us,” quarterback Cameron Rising said. “So far, so good.”