FIESTA BOWL
6) UTAH vs. 21) PITTSBURGH
Jan-1 8:30/ESPN
#6 Utah 11-0 (7-0) 1st Mountain West
#21 Pittsburgh 8-3 (4-2) T-1st Big East
This is the BCS bowl the networks did not want to see happen. A mid-major versus a three loss team from a conference which barely qualifies as a major one anymore. Regardless of what the big conference complainer says Utah deserves to be in this game. Pittsburgh however does not. The depleted Big East should not have an automatic bid even with Louisville entering the conference next year. Sadly Utah does not get the test it badly wanted. It would have better opportunity to show its stuff playing previously mentioned Louisville in the Liberty Bowl.
Utah followed up last years 10-2 season by running the table. While many people claim they had an easy schedule they did easily beat Texas A&M and North Carolina. A&M gave Oklahoma a big scare when they dominated most of the game before losing by a touchdown after a failed Hail Mary pass. North Carolina defeated national power Miami and lost to BCS-bound Virginia Tech by only a field goal. They closest game they had this year was against Air Force which lost by 14 points.
The Utes have one of the best offences in the country. It is led by quarterback Alex Smith who finished 5th in the nation in Quarterback passing efficency. He had 28 touchdown passes and 10 rushing touchdowns while only throwing four interceptions. The ground attack is balance with three players, Smith, Marty Johnson and Quinton Griffith each having over 500 yards rushing this year. Receivers Steven Savoy and Paris Warren both finished with over 60 receptions, over 800 yards and double-digit touchdown receptions.
Pittsburgh finished the season strong winning six of their last seven games. Their win over West Virginia helped leap them to the top of the Big East where they ended up finished tied for first with three other teams but won a tie-breaker. So the Panthers end up in what is also their first BCS bowl. Hopefully the team that shows up is the one who beat Notre Dame and West Virginia not the team that needed overtime to beat 1-AA Furman.
The Panthers do have a solid quarterback in Tyler Palko. He finished the regular season with 2816 passing yards and 23 touchdowns with seven interceptions. Their rushing attack is not as potent. Their two leading rushers both averaged less then four yards a carry. Senior Running Back Raymond Kirkley had 560 yards with a 3.9 yards per carry average this season. Fullback Tim Murphy ended the season with only 297 yards and a 3.6 yard per carry average. He did however have a big game against West Virginia where he ran for over yards. Wide Receiver Greg Lee is the star on the offensive side. He ended the season with 61 catches for 1204 yards and nine touchdowns. Utah will need to keep an eye on him. Pitt’s defence was able to hold West Virginia and Boston College to 13 and 17 points respectively but gave up 38 points to each Syracuse, Notre Dame and Furman. They may have their hands full with Utah’s spread offense.
Players to Watch:
Utah: Alex Smith-Quarterback.
Smith is an exciting player who can run and throw. Most of the nation has not been able to see him strut his stuff. He finished fifth in Heisman voting but deep down he must know that if he did what he did this year at a big school he could have won the trophy. Therefore he will likely be pumped up in front of a national audience and want to put on a big show. Hopefully the long layoff and the loss of coach Urban Meyer will not distract him.
Pittsburgh: Tyler Palko-Quarterback to Greg Lee-Wide Receiver.
With a lack of a rushing attack this combo will be counted upon to put numbers on the board. If they are unable to do so then it will be a rout.
Who will win?
Utah is a heavy favourite to win and there is no reason to think they should not defeat Pittsburgh handily. That said how each team deals with the loss of their coaches (Urban Meyer has left for Florida and Walt Harris is headed to Stanford) may be the key factor in who wins the game. If Utah does lose then it will back up all the naysayers who do not want mid-majors crashing the BCS. If they can win handily it will leave more unanswered question as to which team is the best this season and lead to more calls for a playoff system.
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Game Recap
Utah demonstrated total domination in all facets of the game. Alex Smith used his arms and his legs to full effectiveness. Urban Meye’s spread offence looked flawless. The Utes defence repeatedly blitzed Pitt’s QB Tyler Palko sacking him nine times. The special teams blocked a Pitt field goal in the first half and were close to blocking every punt Pitt attempted. Smith finished the game going 29 of 37 for 329 yards and 4 touchdowns along with 58 yards on 13 carries. Wideout Paris Warren had a career game with 15 catches for 199 yards and 2 touchdowns.
While many Ute fans will be celebrating tonight’s victory in many ways this game is a sad reminder of what is wrong with college football. Utah had a team that played perfect football all season and yet will probably never be remembered in the history books because it was not given a chance to prove itself against a worthy opponent this bowl season. Could Utah have beaten an Auburn, Oklahoma or USC? I do not know and sadly no one will ever get the answer to that question.
On the other side of the coin wouldn’t Pitt have been better off playing say Virginia Tech in a bowl game then getting whooped by Utah? This Panther team is not that bad of a team they just ran into an unstoppable Utah team.
Even though Pitt was thoroughly demolished quarterback Tyler Palko played a very solid game in a losing effort. He finished going 22 of 40 for 251 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions. Those stats may not look great but he did all he could to keep Pitt in the game. Hopefully Palko and Pitt do not allow this game to ruin what was generally a successful season. Palko and his favourite target Greg Lee are both sophomores and should be able to help Pitt fight with Louisville and West Virginia for the Big East crown next year.
Utah loses most of its coaching ranks with Meyer going to Florida and offensive coordinator Mike Sanford will be the head coach of UNLV next year. Current defensive coordinator Kyle Whittingham will be running the show at Utah next year. With any luck he can keep the Utah program playing top flight football for years to come.
