Utah Football Tradition

UTAH BOWL GAMES SINCE 2000

2001 W USC Las Vegas 2003 W Southern Miss Liberty 2005 (’04) W Pittsburgh Fiesta 2005 W Georgia Tech Emerald 2006 W Tulsa Armed Forces 2007 W Navy Poinsettia 2009 (’08) W Alabama Sugar 2009 W California Poinsettia 2010 L Boise State Las Vegas 2011 W Georgia Tech Sun 2014 W Colorado State Las Vegas 2015 W BYU Las Vegas 2016 W Indiana Foster Farms 2017 W West Virginia Heart of Dallas 2018 L Northwestern Holiday 2019 L Texas Alamo 2022 (‘21) L Ohio State Rose

WINNING PROGRAM • Averaged nine wins per season in years with a full schedule since 2003, including eight 10win seasons: 10-2 in 2003, 12-0 in 2004, 13-0 in 2008, 10-3 in 2009, 10-3 in 2010, 10-3 in 2015, 11-3 in 2019, 10-4 in 2021. • Ten finishes in the Top 25 polls since 2003: No. 21 in 2003 (AP), No. 4 in 2004 (AP), No. 2 in 2008 (AP), No. 18 in 2009 (AP), No. 23 in 2010 (Coaches), No. 21 in 2014 (AP), No. 17 in 2015 (AP), No. 23 in 2016 (AP), No. 16 in 2019 (AP), No. 12 in 2021 (AP).

THE PAC-12 ERA • Utah won its first Pac-12 Championship in 2021. • The Utes have played in the Pac-12 title game three times after claiming the Pac-12 South Division outright in 2018, ‘19 and ‘21. • Recorded its best league record (8-1) in both 2019 and ‘21. Also tied for the Pac-12 South title in 2015. • Winning record in Pac-12 play in seven of the past eight years.

CFP RANKINGS • Finished in the College Football Playoff top 25 six times: No. 22 in 2014, No. 22 in 2015, No. 19 in 2016, No. 17 in 2018, No. 11 in 2019, No. 11 in 2021. • Appeared in the CFP ranking every week for the first three years of the system (2014-16), made the rankings five times in 2018, all six weeks in 2019 and five weeks in 2021. BOWL ROLL • Seventeen bowl appearances since 2000 with a 13-4 record. Made nine consecutive bowl appearances from 2003-11. Had a streak of six straight bowl games before declining consideration following a 3-2 season in 2020. • 2-1 in games that are now part of the CFP New Year’s Six Bowls, defeating Pittsburgh in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl and Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl, and falling to Ohio State in the 2022 Rose Bowl. • Won nine-consecutive bowl games from 1999-2009 to tie for the second-longest bowl win streak in NCAA history. • A member of the Mountain West Conference at the time, five of Utah’s nine consecutive bowl wins were against Power Five conference teams: Alabama, California, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh and USC. • 17-7 all-time bowl record.

TOP COACH • Kyle Whittingham, in his 18th year as Utah’s head coach, is the longest tenured coach in the Pac-12 and second-longest in the nation at the same school. He is Utah’s winningest coach with 144 victories. • Whittingham has earned National Coach of the Year honors in two seasons, most recently winning the Dodd Trophy in 2019. In 2008, he was recognized by both the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and the Paul “Bear” Bryant Awards committee. • Whittingham was named the Pac-12 Conference Coach of the Year in 2019 and 2021. • Whittingham’s 11 bowl wins (11-4) tie him for second among active coaches and ranks in the top-10 all-time (including ties). • Whittingham has 19 wins over ranked teams, including five in the top 10: No. 4 Alabama (2009), No. 5 Stanford (2013) and No. 8 UCLA (2014), No. 4 Oregon (2021), No. 10 Oregon (2021).

ALL-AMERICANS • Eighteen major First-Team All-American honors since 2002. • Alex Smith (QB) was a Heisman Trophy finalist and earned two National Player of the Year Awards (Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News) in 2004. • Tom Hackett (2014 and ‘15) and Mitch Wishnowsky (2016) swept the Ray Guy Award as the nation’s best punter three consecutive years. • Matt Gay won the Lou Groza Award as the nation’s top kicker in 2017. • Nine Consensus First-Team All-America citations in the last 19 years: Jordan Gross (OL) in 2002, Eric Weddle (S) in 2006, Louie Sakoda (K) in 2008, Tom Hackett (P) in 2014 and ‘15, Mitch Wishnowsky (P) in 2016, Matt Gay (K) in 2017, Bradlee Anae (DE) in 2019, and Devin Lloyd (LB) in 2021.

ACADEMIC ALL-STARS • Eleven Academic All-America awards since 2000. First-team recognition was earned by Morgan Scalley (2003-04), Alex Smith (2004), Louie Sakoda (2008) and Britain Covey (2020). • Louie Sakoda earned an NCAA Top VIII citation in 2008. • Received public recognition from the NCAA for posting multi-year Academic Progress Report (APR) in the top 10 percent of all athletic teams in the country from 2016-20. • Has eclipsed 90 percent Graduation Success Rate over the last four years and its 90% score for 2021 was second in the Pac-12.

THE NEXT LEVEL • Five NFL first round draft picks and 11 others going in the second round since 2000. Seven Utes have gone in the first three rounds of the draft the past three years. • Quarterback Alex Smith was the No. 1 pick in the 2005 NFL Draft. • School-record eight NFL draft picks in 2017 led the Pac-12 and tied for third in the country. Seven Utes were selected in 2020. • 44 NFL Draft picks over the last 13 years.