Utah ends unsatisfying regular season with lackluster 20-14 win over Colorado

A regular season full of promise ended with a sloppy, unimpressive win for Utah against a struggling Colorado program. The Utes won, 20-14, Saturday, but thoughts still centered on what could have been.

The victory Saturday gave the Utes (9-3, 6-3) their best Pac-12 finish since joining the league in 2011, but there was still a feeling of emptiness after a 6-0 start and a No. 3 ranking just over a month ago. The six wins will tie for the most in the Pac-12 South Division, but Utah lost tiebreakers to both USC and UCLA, with the Trojans advancing to the conference title game on the strength of their 40-21 win over the Bruins later Saturday.

“The first six weeks the emotions were very good, you know everyone was excited, then we had a setback against USC,” said Utah Coach Kyle Whittingham, recalling a 42-24 loss to the Trojans on Oct. 24. “The biggest disappointment was not being able to get one of those last two prior to this game which would’ve really given us the outright championship and the chance to go to the Pac-12 championship game next week, so that was tough to take.

“We’ve got no one to blame but ourselves. We own that.”

The Utes lost to UCLA last week and at Arizona the week before that.

Colorado (4-9, 1-8) ends a season in which it was more competitive than in the past, but still struggled to win games.

Utah leaned on the run game despite being without leading rusher Devontae Booker, who is out for the season with a knee injury. Joe Williams ran for 187 yards and a touchdown and flat-out carried the offense. Quarterback Travis Wilson threw for only 108 yards, with one touchdown and one interception.

Colorado quarterback Cade Apsay threw for 145 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions before leaving the game late in the second quarter with an injury. Jordan Gehrke threw for 113 yards with one touchdown and an interception in his absence. Nelson Spruce finished with 111 yards receiving yards and a touchdown.

The two teams combined for seven turnovers.

“I definitely had my rocky moments,” Wilson said about the season. “I still feel like we had a special season and a great season.”

at California 48, Arizona State 46: Jared Goff passed for 542 yards and five touchdowns, and drove the Golden Bears into position for the winning 26-yard field goal by Matt Anderson on the game’s final play.

Cal finished the regular season with a 7-5 record, 4-5 in the Pac-12, and is headed to a bowl game for the first time since 2011.

Arizona State’s Mike Bercovici passed for 395 yards and four touchdowns, the last one a four-yard strike to Raymond Epps that put the Sun Devils (6-6, 4-5) ahead 46-45 with 2 minutes 35 seconds to play.