Utah’s path to the College Football Playoff narrowed on Tuesday night when the Utes dropped from 12th to 13th after rallying last week for a 51-47 home win over Kansas State.
To earn a spot in the Big 12 Conference title game and a potential berth in the CFP, Utah will have to win Friday at Kansas and then get help from three other Big 12 teams.
Even if the Utes (9-2, 6-2) take care of business in Lawrence against the Jayhawks (5-6, 3-5), they’ll require an Arizona victory at No. 20 Arizona State on Friday night, a West Virginia upset of No. 5 Texas Tech on Saturday in Morgantown, and a UCF stunner at No. 11 BYU that same day.
Those are some long odds but at least Utah still has a chance, thanks to Devon Dampier’s 1-yard touchdown run with 56 seconds left last week that salvaged a win on a day when it allowed a whopping 472 rushing yards.
“There’s no real easy explanation to it,” Utes coach Kyle Whittingham said about his defense’s poor performance. “We just did not play the run game in any way, shape or form with any consistency. It just wasn’t good. Everything we could do wrong, we did.”
Fortunately for Utah, its offense picked up the defense by amassing 32 first downs and 551 total yards. Dampier passed for 259 yards and ran for 94 to continue another banner season. He has thrown for 1,927 yards and rushed for 637 while accounting for 26 touchdowns (19 passing).
His performance has helped the Utes go from being one of the weakest attacks in FBS to one of strongest. They rank in the top 10 nationally in four categories — points per game (42.0), yards per game (484.5), rushing (279.6) and third-down conversions (53.1).
“Outstanding,” Whittingham said of Dampier’s latest effort. “Settled in and really played an excellent game.”
While Utah tries to maintain its slim chances of a CFP berth, Kansas needs the win to become bowl-eligible. The Jayhawks missed on a chance to do that last week with a 38-14 loss at Iowa State.
Kansas trimmed a 17-0 halftime deficit to get within 24-14 but wasn’t able to get a stop when it really needed one, which has been an issue most of the season. Its defense has allowed at least 37 points in five of the six losses.
Jayhawks coach Lance Leipold is stressing the need for his players not to try to do too much with bowl hopes on the line.
“It really goes for everyone in the building,” he said when asked if he had to deliver that message to specific players. “As coaches, that’s our responsibility to help our players. There’s times when a guy tries to go make a play that’s out of his responsibility. We want to make sure we play our best football.”
Kansas will need a big game from quarterback Jalon Daniels, who has thrown for 2,344 yards and 21 touchdowns with just four interceptions. The absence of Utes pass rusher John Henry Daley, whose 11 1/2 sacks are tied for second in FBS, should help Daniels. Daley is out for the season with a leg injury.
The teams are tied at 2-2 in their all-time series but this is their first meeting since 1996.
