2008 Utah Utes football team
| 2008 Utah Utes football | |
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Sugar Bowl champion
Mountain West champion |
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Sugar Bowl vs. Alabama, W 31–17
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| Conference | Mountain West Conference |
| Ranking | |
| Coaches | No. 4 |
| AP | No. 2 |
| 2008 record | 13–0 (8–0 MWC) |
| Head coach | Kyle Whittingham (4th year) |
| Offensive coordinator | Andy Ludwig (4th year) |
| Offensive scheme | Spread |
| Defensive coordinator | Gary Andersen (4th year) |
| Base defense | 4–3 |
| Home stadium |
Rice–Eccles Stadium (Capacity: 45,017) |
| 2008 Mountain West football standings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | W | L | W | L | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #2 Utah $ | 8 | – | 0 | 13 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #7 TCU | 7 | – | 1 | 11 | – | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #25 BYU | 6 | – | 2 | 10 | – | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Air Force | 5 | – | 3 | 8 | – | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Colorado State | 4 | – | 4 | 7 | – | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UNLV | 2 | – | 6 | 5 | – | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| New Mexico | 2 | – | 6 | 4 | – | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wyoming | 1 | – | 7 | 4 | – | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| San Diego State | 1 | – | 7 | 2 | – | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2008 Utah Utes football team represented the University of Utah in the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team, coached by 4th year head football coach Kyle Whittingham, plays its home games in Rice–Eccles Stadium. Utah was one of only two teams in the top-level Division I FBS to finish the regular season undefeated (the other being the Boise State Broncos), but after the Broncos were defeated by TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl and Utah won the Sugar Bowl over Alabama, the Utes finished as the nation's only undefeated team.
For their efforts, Utah claimed the nation's longest active win streak at 14 wins and the nation's longest active bowl win streak at 8 wins. In addition to winning the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year Award head coach Kyle Whittingham also received 2 national coach of the year awards, the AFCA National Coach of the Year Award and the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award.
Sources:
Series Tied: 1 – 1 – 0
Utah fans went to the Big House hoping for a better outcome than the last time the Utes visited Michigan Stadium, which resulted in a 10–7 loss in 2002. New Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez's offense was new to a Michigan squad built to run a smashmouth offense and was slow to get things going against the Ute defense, and the experienced Michigan defense prevented the Utah offense from gaining momentum. After a slow start for both teams, the Ute offense scored finally started clicking and scored sixteen points in the 2nd quarter taking a 22–10 lead into half-time. The offense wouldn't be able to do much the rest of the game. In the 2nd half it was more of the same from the 1st quarter, the only score coming off of a 53-yard field-goal from Louie Sakoda to put the Utes up 25–10. Michigan scored on the first play of their 2nd possession of the 4th quarter with a 33-yard touchdown pass by Steven Threet to Junior Hemingway, inching closer to the Utah lead. Only two minutes later Michigan RB Sam Mcguffie ran into the endzone from three yards out bringing the Wolverines to with two points, but failed on the ensuing two-point conversion. Utah was able to run out most of the clock before turning the ball over on downs to the Wolverines who were unable to score before time expired, giving the Utes their first win of the season and improving Kyle Whittingham's record against BCS opponents to 5–3.
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