Utah shocks Alabama in Sugar Bowl

The University of Utah was supposed to be in over their head playing Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.  Despite the Utes’ undefeated record, pundits sniffed at their level of competition in the Mountain West Conference and chortled that they’d be “exposed” by the Crimson Tide.  Utah, however, must not have received the “script” as they used their blinding team speed and solid QB play from Brian Johnson to easily handle Alabama en route to a 31-17 victory.

The Crimson Tide must have believed their own press clippings, as they appeared blindsided in the first quarter as the Utes shot out to a 21-0 lead.  Brian Johnson opened the scoring with his first of three TD passes, this one to Brent Casteel from 7 yards out.  Less than three minutes later, Matt Astiata scored from 3 yards out to increase Utah’s lead to 14-0.  Johnson capped the first quarter onslaught with another TD pass, this one to Brandon Godfrey from 18 yards.

Alabama got off the mat in the second quarter, scoring on a 52 yard FG from Leigh Tiffin and a 73 yard punt return from Javier Arenas.  Their offense continued to sputter against the speedy Utah defensive front and they were lucky to go to halftime down by only 11 at 21-10.

Glen Coffee brought Alabama to within four early in the second half as he caught John Parker Wilson’s only TD pass of the game.  With the score at 21-17, Johnson calmly marched the Utes back down the field to answer with another TD pass less than two minutes later, this one to David Reed from 28 yards out to put Utah up 28-17.  Louie Sakoda added another field goal for Utah to produce the final margin of victory.

The result will be another black eye for the BCS system, which now has to rationalize a system that will relegated the only undefeated team in 1-A/FBS college football to a subordinate spot in the final rankings.  Utes coach Kyle Whittingham wasn’t going to play that game and had no problem answering when asked where he’d rank his 13-0 football team:

"I know where I'm voting us. I'm voting us No. 1. End of story”

QB Brian Johnson shared his thoughts after the victory:

"What else do we have to prove? Without question, we're one of best, if not the best team in the country.”

Johnson also took umbrage at a comment by Alabama coach Nick Saban after the SEC Championship game where he sniffed that his team was the only school in the country to finish the regular season unbeaten in a "real BCS conference”:

"From my perspective, I was angry, not just because of what Saban said but everything that was out there. I just felt like we were being completely disrespected."

It was the latest chapter in the pervasive East Coast bias among college football pundits, and for Saban’s part he was left to eat his words after the thrashing:

"I apologize if anybody was offended by that. We had a tremendous amount of respect for Utah. I certainly misstated that. ... So if that's what gave them all their intensity, then I guess I'm responsible for the way they played and I'm responsible for the way we played."

Bama running back Glen Coffee offered perhaps the most honest assessment of his team’s performance and lack of respect for their Sugar Bowl opponent:

"They jumped ahead of us early in the game. I don't think we gave them their due respect coming into the game. That's something we never should have allowed to happen."

Hopefully Saban and the Tide have learned their lesson and will no longer summarily dismiss Mountain Time Zone college football.  Whether the mainstream sports media is able to learn the same lesson remains to be seen.