Utah Utes – Urban Meyer Breaks The BCS
A lot of things have changed from the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Bowl Championship Series over the last few years. With teams like Boise State and Texas Christian finally beginning to obtain their due as legitimate national title contenders, the key conferences with automatic BCS berths seem poised to lose their stranglehold on the championship title. To look in the true origins on the breakdown of that stranglehold, 1 need only go back to Urban Meyer’s time as the coach with the Utah Utes. The Utes play within the Mountain West Conference, one with the smaller NCAA groupings that were not afforded the automatic berth provided to main conference teams when the BCS was very first established. As a result, no team from a conference for example the MWC was invited to a BCS game – which is, until Urban Meyer arrived at the University of Utah.
The Utes can play
When Urban arrived in the University of Utah, he was well aware that they currently had a proven history of winning football. Since their origins in 1892, the Utes plan has been in 5 separate conferences and won those conferences 24 times. With an overall record of 617 victories and 421 defeats, in addition to a twelve and three record in their postseason bowl match-ups – the highest percentage of wins by any college plan with a minimum of ten appearances – there was little doubt in Meyer’s mind that he was taking more than the reins of a plan that had a solid foundation on which to build. His public declaration that his Utes team was going to basically play as hard and fast as they could and offer everybody with a show worth watching was a clear sign that he currently felt he had the talent in place to compete at any level.
Breaking the BCS mold
The 2003 season’s 10-win and 2-loss victory was clear evidence that his beliefs were correct. With the implementation in the fast-paced spread offense attack, the Utes took on all comers, ended up winning the MWC conference title, and finished the campaign by shutting out Southern Mississippi inside Liberty Bowl. The next year’s campaign involved nothing less than a repeat from the conference championship, a new Utes report for scoring (544 points on the season), and an undefeated report. With that record, the BCS knew that they could no longer ignore schools like Utah, and invited them to the 2005 Fiesta Bowl where they trounced the Large East’s Pittsburgh team by a score of thirty 5 to seven. That victory, along using the season’s overall results, was sufficient for the AP to rank them at number four in their final poll on the season.
Meyer’s two seasons since the Utes’ coach had broken new ground while using Bowl Championship Series, because the BCS selection committee was forced to finally acknowledge that top level football was being played in places outside on the traditional power conferences. The Utes themselves would go on to play in another BCS contest in 2009, defeating the Alabama Crimson Tide in convincing fashion only one year prior to the Tide would go on to win a national championship.
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