2014 Utah Utes football team

The 2014 Utah Utes football team represented the University of Utah during the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was coached by tenth year head coach Kyle Whittingham and played their home games in Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah. They were members of the South Division of the Pac-12 Conference. They finished the season 9–4, 5–4 in Pac-12 play to finish in fifth place in the South Division. They were invited to the Las Vegas Bowl where they defeated Colorado State.

2014 Utah Utes football
Las Vegas Bowl champion
Las Vegas Bowl, W 45–10 vs. Colorado State
Conference	Pac-12 Conference
	South Division
Ranking
Coaches	No. 20
AP	No. 21
2014 record	9–4 (5–4 Pac-12)
Head coach	Kyle Whittingham (10th season)
Offensive coordinator	Dave Christensen (1st season)
Offensive scheme	Multiple
Defensive coordinator	Kalani Sitake (6th season)
Base defense	4–3
Home stadium	Rice-Eccles Stadium (Capacity: 45,807)

2014 Pac-12 Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
North Division
No. 2 Oregon x$^		8	–	1					13	–	2
Stanford		5	–	4					8	–	5
Washington		4	–	5					8	–	6
California		3	–	6					5	–	7
Oregon State		2	–	7					5	–	7
Washington State		2	–	7					3	–	9
South Division
No. 19 Arizona x		7	–	2					10	–	4
No. 10 UCLA		6	–	3					10	–	3
No. 12 Arizona State		6	–	3					10	–	3
No. 20 USC		6	–	3					9	–	4
No. 21 Utah		5	–	4					9	–	4
Colorado		0	–	9					2	–	10
Championship: Oregon 51, Arizona 13
^ – College Football Playoff participant $ – Conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 28	5:30 p.m.	Idaho State*		Rice-Eccles Stadium Salt Lake City, UT	P12N	W 56–14	45,925[1]
September 6	1:00 p.m.	Fresno State*		Rice-Eccles Stadium Salt Lake City, UT	P12N	W 59–27	45,864[2]
September 20	1:30 p.m.	at Michigan*		Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, MI	ABC/ESPN2	W 26–10	103,890[3]
September 27	6:00 p.m.	Washington State		Rice-Eccles Stadium Salt Lake City, UT	P12N	L 27–28	45,859[4]
October 4	8:30 p.m.	at No. 8 UCLA		Rose Bowl Pasadena, CA	ESPN	W 30–28	74,329[5]
October 16	8:00 p.m.	at Oregon State	No. 20	Reser Stadium Corvallis, OR	P12N	W 29–23 ^2OT	40,479[6]
October 25	8:00 p.m.	No. 20 USC	No. 19	Rice-Eccles Stadium Salt Lake City, UT	FS1	W 24–21	47,619[7]
November 1	9:00 p.m.	at No. 15 Arizona State	No. 18	Sun Devil Stadium Tempe, AZ	FS1	L 16–19 ^OT	53,754[8]
November 8	8:00 p.m.	No. 5 Oregon	No. 20	Rice-Eccles Stadium Salt Lake City, UT	ESPN	L 27–51	47,528[9]
November 15	4:00 p.m.	at Stanford	No. 25	Stanford Stadium Stanford, CA	P12N	W 20–17 ^2OT	44,635[10]
November 22	1:30 p.m.	No. 15 Arizona	No. 20	Rice-Eccles Stadium Salt Lake City, UT	ESPN	L 10–42	45,824[11]
November 29	11:00 a.m.	at Colorado	No. 25	Folsom Field Boulder, CO (Rumble in the Rockies)	P12N	W 38–34	39,155[12]
December 20	1:30 p.m.	vs. Colorado State*	No. 23	Sam Boyd Stadium Whitney, NV (Las Vegas Bowl)	ABC	W 45–10	33,067
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Mountain time

Source: [13]

Rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Final
AP	NR	NR	RV	NR	RV	NR	24	20	19	18	20	25	20	RV	24	23	21
Coaches	NR	NR	NR	NR	RV	NR	RV	23	19	18	22	RV	21	RV	RV	25	20
CFP	Not released									17	17	23	17	25	23	22	Not released

Coaching staff

Name	Position	Seasons at Utah
Kyle Whittingham	Head Coach	10th
Dave Christensen	Offensive Coordinator	1st
Kalani Sitake	Defensive Coordinator	6th
Dennis Erickson	Running Backs/Assistant Coach	2nd
Aaron Roderick	Quarterbacks Coach	10th
Jim Harding	Offensive Line	1st
Ilaisa Tuiaki	Defensive Line	2nd
Morgan Scalley	Safeties/Special Time Coordinator	7th
Sharneff Shah	Cornerbacks Coach	3rd
Taylor Stubblefield	Wide Receivers Coach	1st
Robert Conley	Co-Graduate Assistant/Defense	3rd
Joe Dale	Co-Graduate Assistant/Defense	1st
Nick Danielson	Co-Graduate Assistant/Offense	1st
Sartaj Khan	Co-Graduate Assistant/Offense	1st
Doug Elisaia	Director of Strength & Conditioning	8th
Jeff Rudy	Football Operations Director	8th
Ernest Rimer [14]	Football Director of Sport Science	1st
Fred Whittingham Jr	Director of Player Personnel	2nd

Game summaries

Idaho State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bengals	7	0	7	0	14
Utes	14	21	14	7	56

Game officials: Referee - Jack Folliard, Umpire - Douglas Wilson, Head Linesman - Bob Day, Line Judge - Jeff Robinsoni, Side Judge - Aaron Santi, Field Judge - Brad Glenn, Back Judge - Steve Hudson, Head Replay Official - Jim Northcott

Fresno State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bulldogs	0	7	7	13	27
Utes	17	14	14	14	59

Game officials: Referee - Terry Leyden, Umpire - F. Villar, Head Linesman - Rod Ammari, Line Judge - Tim Messuri, Side Judge - Aaron Santi, Field Judge - S. Strimling, Back Judge - Mearl Robinson

Michigan

	1	2	3	4	Total
Utes	3	10	7	6	26
Wolverines	3	7	0	0	10

Game officials: Referee - S. Smith, Umpire - S. Woods, Head Linesman - M. Dolce, Line Judge - J. Baur, Side Judge - D. Swanson, Field Judge - J. Clay, Back Judge - T. Ransom

Washington State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Cougars	0	7	7	14	28
Utes	21	3	0	3	27

UCLA

	1	2	3	4	Total
Utes	7	10	7	6	30
#8 Bruins	0	7	7	14	28

Oregon State

	1	2	3	4	OT	2OT	Total
#20 Utes	6	0	3	7	7	6	29
Beavers	0	6	0	10	7	0	23

USC

	1	2	3	4	Total
#20 Trojans	7	7	0	7	21
#19 Utes	7	3	7	7	24

Arizona State

	1	2	3	4	OT	Total
#18 Utes	0	6	10	0	0	16
#15 Sun Devils	6	7	0	3	3	19

Oregon

	1	2	3	4	Total
#5 Ducks	0	24	3	24	51
#20 Utes	7	3	10	7	27

Stanford

	1	2	3	4	OT	2OT	Total
#25 Utes	0	7	0	0	7	6	20
Cardinal	7	0	0	0	7	3	17

Arizona

	1	2	3	4	Total
#15 Wildcats	7	14	0	21	42
#20 Utes	0	7	3	0	10

Colorado

	1	2	3	4	Total
Utes	3	13	15	7	38
Buffaloes	7	17	10	0	34

Las Vegas Bowl: Utah vs. Colorado State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Rams	10	0	0	0	10
#23 Utes	21	3	7	14	45

Notes

• September 1, 2014 – Wide receiver Kaelin Clay is named Pac-12 Conference special teams player of the week[15]

References

1. "Idaho State @ Utah". Stat Broadcast. August 28, 2014. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
2. "Fresno State @ Utah". Stat Broadcast. September 6, 2014. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
3. "Utah @ Michigan". Stat Broadcast. September 20, 2014. Retrieved September 20, 2014.
4. "Washington State @ Utah". Stat Broadcast. September 27, 2014. Retrieved September 27, 2014.
5. "Utah @ UCLA". Stat Broadcast. October 4, 2014. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
6. "Utah @ Oregon State". Stat Broadcast. October 16, 2014. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
7. "USC @ Utah". Stat Broadcast. October 25, 2014. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
8. "Utah @ Arizona State". Stat Broadcast. November 1, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2014.
9. "Oregon @ Utah". Stat Broadcast. November 8, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
10. "Utah @ Stanford". Stat Broadcast. November 15, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
11. "Arizona @ Utah". Stat Broadcast. November 22, 2014. Retrieved November 22, 2014.
12. "Utah @ Colorado". Stat Broadcast. November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 29, 2014.
13. "Pac-12 Conference Releases 2014 Football Schedule". University of Utah Department of Athletics. January 8, 2014. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
14. https://www.linkedin.com/pub/ernie-rimer/41/a4a/127
15. Piper, Matthew (September 2, 2014). "Travis Wilson Helps First-Grader in Cancer Fight". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved November 18, 2014.