SALT LAKE CITY – It’s a great time to be a sports fan in Utah with four amazing stories happening across the state.
Let’s start with college football, where two teams compete for a conference championship. Utah will play Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship in Las Vegas on Friday, and Utah State will play San Diego State on Saturday in Carson, California.
The Utes could have thrown in the towel back in September after losing two straight non-conference games to BYU and San Diego State, followed by the tragic death of teammate Aaron Lowe. But that’s not in head coach Kyle Whittingham’s DNA as the 14th Utes rallied to win eight of their last nine games to claim the Pac-12 South title.
“I think we’ve probably taken the hardest thing that can happen and we’ve made something beautiful out of it,” said Utah captain Britain Covey. “We recorded a tragedy and made something beautiful out of it.”
No one could predict the state of Utah’s success this season as the Aggies were in a dire situation last year after head coach Gary Andersen left the team mid-season and the Aggies only won one game. But they stand 9-3 this season, playing for a conference championship under the first year head coach Blake Anderson, who deserves a lot of credit but said the credit goes to the seniors who have chosen to stay in the state of Utah and not to enter the transfer portal.
BYU season was also notable as the Cougars proved that last year’s 11-win season was no accident when many people said they beat up a number of bad teams. This year, after losing large numbers of players to the NFL, the Cougars are 10-2, ranking 12th in the country, with a 5-0 record against Pac-12 teams. Head coach Kalani Sitake has BYU on the right track towards the Big 12 Conference.
Let’s not forget about Real Salt Lake. The club still doesn’t have a new owner, more than a year after Major League Soccer forced Dell Loy Hansen to sell the team.
After head coach Freddy Juarez suddenly left the team in August to take an assistant coaching job in Seattle, a playoff run was unthinkable. But RSL scored an injury-time goal in the final game of the regular season, securing the final playoff spot in the Western Conference on the way to a surprise against Seattle in the first round of playoffs.
Over the weekend, RSL scored two goals in the second half of the conference semifinals to defeat Sporting Kansas City.
All four teams have conceded this season. Whether you’re a fan of Utah, Utah State, BYU, or RSL, it’s been a fantastic fall for sports fans in the state.
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