SALT LAKE CITY — When ESPN announced Sunday that its premier college football show, “College GameDay,” was making the University of Utah its home for the weekend, there was obvious excitement for the attention such a spectacle of the sport brings.
It’s not every day the college football world turns its whole attention to Salt Lake City — with Pat McAfee hyping up the crowds and games, Nick Saban breaking down game film, or Desmond Howard and Kirk Herbstreit providing their well-researched (and experienced) knowledge of the game.
The two-day event brings fans of all teams alike together to celebrate one of the biggest games of the week in an entertaining atmosphere.
But for the University of Utah, it’s a complicated relationship with the show coming to town.
Ask any diehard Utah fan and they’ve probably got varying opinions and emotions about “GameDay” coming to Salt Lake City — from anxiousness to elation. The pointed reality is Utah’s win-loss record when ESPN’s show comes to town isn’t great for the Utes, leaving some fans worried about what it could mean Saturday.
“College GameDay” will make its sixth appearance in Salt Lake City on Friday and Saturday; but of the previous five appearances, Utah has only won two games (2004, vs. BYU; 2015, vs. California). Add to it the three other times Utah has been a part of the show in other locations and the Utes are 2-6 overall.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Of course, it should be noted that these are generally high-profile games between two talented (most often both ranked) teams — hence why ESPN is even in town — which means they’re often a toss-up game in nature. It’s anyone’s game.
And the 2025 iteration is no less of a toss-up than in years past, with two ranked teams vying for a spot in the Big 12 championship game. While not the ultimate decider — mostly — the game will have big implications for both teams and their chances at a trip to Arlington, Texas, in December.
But all the noise around the game — and its potential postseason implications — are just distractions to what takes place on the field Saturday night (8:15 p.m. MDT, ESPN). Those distractions, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said, is something he’s hoping his team can avoid this week.
It’s all about focusing on the game at hand — nothing more.
“Those shows, they do a good job of not really being a distraction for your guys,” Whittingham said. “I mean, the biggest distraction is guys just knowing that they’re on the center stage and having those guys come to town. But they’re very non-invasive. And for the players, especially, they get it.
“It’s good for the program, the overall big picture, it’s great for the university, the program, the community, the state of Utah,” he added. “So I think it’s got so many positive things to it, positive aspects. And as a coach, you just try to — early in the week — make sure that your guys understand that, ‘Hey, they’re here, but it’s business as usual.”
Distractions aside, Utah’s biggest task at hand is proving that it’s a contender and not a pretender. Twice this season — both happened to also be on a week where FOX’s “Big Noon Kickoff” was at the respective game — Utah has failed to live up to the moment.
Saturday’s iteration is the last real chance to prove that this team— which is averaging 38.9 points per game for 11th best in the country and allowing just 14.3 points for ninth — can be one of the best teams in the Big 12 this season.
With two losses in conference play, Utah can’t afford to drop another game for the rest of the regular season to have a chance at a Big 12 title — and a guaranteed spot in the College Football Playoff. But even then, Utah still needs help from other teams to get them there.
The conference landscape still allows for a decent opportunity to the Utes to make the Big 12 title game — a minimum of five scenarios give Utah a path — but all rely on a Utah win Saturday.
No pressure.
It’s Utah’s back against the figurative wall as the team looks to break recent trends. It’s about putting the right amount of pressure on a team to excel, but not too much to distract from a game plan that has worked efficiently and effectively in six blowout wins this season.
It’s not changing — or altering, within reason — a game plan that has had proven success this season.
“We don’t approach it any differently as far as our preparation, and they’ve got to be able to block out the noise and not get caught up in it, because we’ve got a game to play, and we’ve got to prepare and go through our paces just like we always do,” Whittingham said.
Because there’s no doubt the fans will do their part in Rice-Eccles Stadium to provide the team with the energy and drive it needs to get a win — in a night game that will feature hand-painted helmets and whose home team is a double-digit favorite over a tough Cincinnati team.
“Our fans seem to love to come out to those night games,” Whittingham said. “So we’re looking forward to another great environment. The environment last week was terrific; it was homecoming crowd. And can’t say enough positive things about our fans, the MUSS, the band, it was all going on Saturday night. So we need to repeat that this coming weekend.”
It’s about leaving no doubt.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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