Utah Utes football The Utah Utes football program is a college football team that currently competes in the Pacific - 12 Conference ( Pac - 12 ) of the Football Bowl Subdivision ( FBS ) of NCAA Division I and represents the University of Utah . The Utah college football program began in 1892 and has played home games at Rice – Eccles Stadium since 1927 . They have won twenty - four conference championships in five different conferences during their history , and have a cumulative record of 623 – 428 – 31 ( 623 wins , 428 losses , and 31 ties ) . The Utes have a record of 13 – 4 ( . 765 ) in bowl game s , which is the highest winning percentage in the nation among teams that have had ten or more bowl appearances . Among Utah ' s bowls are two games from the Bowl Championship Series ( BCS ) : the Fiesta Bowl and the Sugar Bowl . In the 2005 Fiesta Bowl , Utah defeated the Pittsburgh Panthers 35 – 7 , and in the 2009 Sugar Bowl , they defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide 31 – 17 . During those seasons , Utah was a member of the Mountain West Conference , whose champion does not receive an automatic invitation to a BCS bowl . The Utes were the first team from a conference without an automatic bid to play in a BCS bowl game — colloquially known as being a BCS Buster — and the first BCS Buster to play in a second BCS Bowl . History . At the start of Utah ' s football history in 1892 , the school did not have a conference affiliation so Utah played as an independent . That changed in 1910 when Utah joined the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference . The Utes have played in five different conferences in their history . As of 2011 , Utah football competes in the Pacific - 12 Conference ( South Division ) . Timeline of Utah ' s conference history : Beginning of Utah football : 1892 – 1924 . During Utah ' s first year in 1892 , the Utes won one game and lost two , including a loss to future rival Utah State . The first two games were against the local YMCA , but no one knows when these contests took place . Utah ' s first game against another college , Utah Agricultural College ( now called " Utah State " ) , was scheduled for Thanksgiving Day , but was postponed one day due to a snow storm . Utah A . C . won 12 – 0 . Utah did not field a team in 1893 , but resumed playing in 1894 . One other season in Utah ' s history has been cancelled : in 1918 Utah did not field a football team due to World War I . Utah had its first sustained success when , in 1904 , it hired Joe Maddock to coach football , as well as basketball and track . During his six seasons , he coached the football team to a record of 28 – 9 – 1 ( . 750 ) . The school enthusiastically embraced the former Michigan Wolverine . In 1905 , the Galveston Daily News reported , " He has the Mormons all football crazy . He has written here to say that his team now holds the championship of Utah , Montana , Wyoming , and the greater part of Colorado . When he won the hard - fought battle with Colorado College a week ago the Salt Lake City papers said : ' Maddock ' is a new way of saying success . The great Michigan tackle has taken boys who never saw a football before and made them the star players of the Rocky Mountain States . " In early 1910 , Maddock retired from coaching ( although he later coached a year at Oregon . ) Fred Bennion coached the Utes from 1910 to 1913 . 1910 was also Utah ' s first season as a member of a conference , the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference ( RMAC ) . Bennion finished with a record of 16 – 8 – 3 ( . 648 ) during his four seasons . Nelson Norgren finished with a record of 13 – 11 ( . 542 ) during his coaching years from 1913 to 1917 . Utah did not field a team for the 1918 season because of a shortage of players due to World War I . When play resumed in 1919 , Thomas Fitzpatrick started his football coaching career . He continued as football coach until end of the 1924 season . His teams finished with a record of 23 – 17 – 3 ( . 570 ) . Utah won their first conference championships in these early years , in 1922 . 1925 – 1949 : Ike Armstrong era . Ike Armstrong was originally hired to coach both the mens basketball team and the football team . While he lasted only two years as basketball coach , in football he amassed a record of 141 – 55 – 15 ( . 704 ) during his twenty - five years as head coach , which places him first among Utah head coaches for total wins . Under Armstrong , Utah won thirteen conference championships , including six in a row from 1928 to 1933 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference . His teams produced three undefeated and untied seasons ( 1926 , 1929 , and 1930 ) and two more seasons where Utah was undefeated but tied ( 1928 and 1941 ) . The 1930 team only allowed 20 points by the opposition all year ( 2 . 5 points per game ) , but scored 340 points ( 42 . 5 points per game . ) On offense , they averaged 463 yards a game that year , but were unable to find a post season opponent because the only bowl game at that time was the Rose Bowl . Armstrong coached the Utes to their first bowl in the 1939 Sun Bowl defeating New Mexico 26 – 0 . Armstrong also oversaw the opening of Ute Stadium . As the popularity of Utah football grew , Cumming ' s Field , an 11 , 000 capacity stadium that was just south of Presidents Circle on campus , no longer met Utah ' s needs . The stadium was part of a larger trend of universities building larger stadiums during the 1920s . Ute Stadium initially had a 20 , 000 seat capacity and a cost of $ 125 , 000 . After the 1949 season , Armstrong accepted a job at University of Minnesota as their athletic director . In 1957 Armstrong was inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame . Fifties and Sixties . Under " Cactus " Jack Curtice , head coach from 1950 to 1957 , Utah enjoyed moderate success . During his eight seasons as Utah head coach , the Utes compiled a record of 45 – 32 – 4 ( . 580 ) and won four conference championships in the Skyline Conference . In contrast to his predecessor Ike Armstrong , Curtice focused his attention on offense and continually tinkered with his split - T offense . His teams are perhaps best known for popularizing the Utah Pass , which is an overhand forward shovel pass of the ball . The play is commonly used today by teams which use a spread offense . Quarterback Lee Grosscup caught the attention of the east coast press when he and the Utes had a close 33 – 39 loss to top ten program Army at West Point , New York . Grosscup threw for 316 yards against a tough Army defense in an era where most teams seldom passed the ball . Despite losing , Curtice referred to the game as " The time we beat Army . " After Curtice left to coach Stanford , Ray Nagel took the helm . He coached for eight seasons from 1958 to 1965 before leaving for Iowa . During his tenure , the Utes had a record of 42 – 39 – 1 ( . 518 ) and were co - conference champions of the Western Athletic Conference in 1964 . As a reward , the Utes garnered an invitation to Atlantic City to play in the 1964 Liberty Bowl , which was the first major college football game held indoors . Utah dominated the game against West Virginia from start to finish and won by the score of 32 – 6 . Utah finished the season ranked # 14 in the Coaches ' Poll . Nagel ' s replacement , Mike Giddings posted a record of 9 – 12 ( . 429 ) during the 1966 and 1967 seasons before resigning . Bill Meek , coach from 1968 to 1973 , failed to substantially improve the Utes , and they went 33 – 31 ( . 516 ) over his six seasons before he was fired . Seventies and Eighties . Utah replaced Meek with Tom Lovat , who has the lowest winning percentage among coaches of the Utah football program ( with the exception of Walter Shoup who only coached one game in 1895 . ) During his tenure from 1974 to 1976 , his teams posted a 5 – 28 record ( . 152 ) , and had a 0 – 6 record against in - state rivals Utah State and Brigham Young ( BYU ) . To make matters worse , these years coincided with an extremely successful era of BYU football with LaVell Edwards as head coach . Next in line was Wayne Howard , who coached from 1977 to 1981 . He performed substantially better than his predecessor and his Ute teams posted a record of 30 – 24 – 2 ( . 554 ) . Despite a record of 8 – 2 – 1 in his final season and being in contention for the Western Athletic Conference Championship , Howard resigned at the end of the season . He cited several reasons for leaving , but he particularly disliked the Utah – BYU rivalry . The Utes lost whatever progress they made under Howard during the Chuck Stobart years , 1982 – 1984 . During his tenure , the Utes compiled a 16 – 17 – 1 record ( . 485 ) , and saw hated rival BYU earn a National Championship . The program regressed further during the Jim Fassel era from 1985 to 1989 , with a 25 – 33 record ( . 431 ) . His teams were marked by high scoring offenses and abysmal defenses . In 1989 , his final season , the Utes scored 30 . 42 points per game , but allowed 43 . 67 points per game . The lone bright spot of his tenure was a 57 – 28 upset of nationally ranked BYU to end the 1988 season , which was dubbed by Ute fans as The Rice Bowl . 1990 – 2002 : Ron McBride rebuilding . After a twenty - eight year stretch of not playing in a bowl game , Utah football experienced a resurgence in the early 1990s under head coach Ron McBride . After Armstrong , McBride has the most wins for a Utah head coach , compiling a record of 88 – 63 ( . 583 ) and leading the Utes to six bowl games in which the Utes went 3 – 3 . The Utes ended their bowl hiatus by playing Washington State in the 1992 Copper Bowl , losing to the Cougars 31 – 28 . They reached their peak under McBride when they finished the 1994 season ranked # 10 in the AP Poll and # 8 in the Coaches ' Poll and recorded a 16 – 13 victory over Arizona in the Freedom Bowl . That season , the Utes beat four teams who ended the season ranked : Oregon , Colorado State , BYU , and Arizona . In 1995 , Utah was co - champion of the Western Athletic Conference , which was the first time in thirty - one years Utah had been champion or co - champion in football . In 1999 , Utah was again co - conference champion , this time in the Mountain West Conference ( MWC ) . McBride also coached the Utes to a 10 – 6 victory in the 2001 Las Vegas Bowl over Southern California , which was quarterbacked by Carson Palmer and coached by Pete Carroll . 2003 – 2004 : Urban Meyer years . Urban Meyer joined Utah for the 2003 season . In his inaugural season , the Utes showed a knack for winning close games . He implemented the spread offense and with quarterback Alex Smith led Utah to a 10 – 2 record , an outright MWC championship , and a 17 – 0 victory in the Liberty Bowl over Southern Miss . They finished the season ranked # 21 in both major polls . He also earned honors as " The Sporting News " National Coach of the Year , the first Utes ' coach to do so . In his second season as head coach , the Utes repeated as conference champions . They were a high scoring team ; they scored 544 total points on the season , which is a team record , and averaged 45 . 33 points per game . They played key out - of - conference games against Texas A & M , Arizona , and North Carolina , and they won every game by at least two touchdown s ( 14 points ) . After completing an undefeated season , Utah became the first team from a non - automatically qualifying BCS conference to play in a BCS bowl . The Utes played Big East Conference champion Pittsburgh in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl , winning 35 – 7 . The Utes finished the season ranked # 4 in the AP poll . Later that year , Alex Smith , who during the 2003 and 2004 seasons compiled a 21 – 1 record as a starting quarterback , was drafted # 1 by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2005 NFL Draft . He became the first player from a college in the state of Utah to ever be drafted first . This culminated in the University of Utah becoming the first school in history to produce two # 1 professional draft picks in the same year when Andrew Bogut became the # 1 pick in the 2005 NBA Draft . After two years with Utah , Urban Meyer left after the 2005 Fiesta Bowl to coach Florida . His record at Utah was 22 – 2 ( . 917 ) , which is the highest winning percentage among Utah head coaches . 2005 – present : Kyle Whittingham . Utah is currently coached by Kyle Whittingham , who was promoted from defensive coordinator following Utah ' s undefeated 2004 regular season . Whittingham served as the co - head coach in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl , helping Utah to defeat Pittsburgh . During Whittingham ' s first seven years as head coach , the Utes recorded a 65 – 25 ( . 722 ) overall and 39 – 18 ( . 684 ) in conference play . Under Whittingham , the Utes have won six of their bowl seven games : the 2005 Emerald Bowl , the 2006 Armed Forces Bowl , the 2007 Poinsettia Bowl , the 2009 Sugar Bowl , the 2009 Poinsettia Bowl , and the 2011 Sun Bowl . Utah lost the 2010 Maaco Bowl Las Vegas . Prior to his tenure as head coach , Whittingham worked for eleven years as an assistant coach at Utah ; the final ten years were as the defensive coordinator . Thus far , in his 18 years with the program , Utah has compiled a 151 – 66 record ( . 696 ) , played in 13 bowl games ( winning 11 ) , captured five conference titles , and finished in the Top - 10 three times . In 2008 , Utah posted a record of 13 – 0 on their way to winning the MWC Championship , and they were the only undefeated team in the Football Bowl Subdivision . During the regular season , the Utes beat Michigan on the road and Oregon State , TCU , and BYU at home . Their undefeated 2008 season resulted in an invitation to the 2009 Sugar Bowl , which made them the first non - BCS school to be invited to a second BCS bowl ; Utah won the Sugar Bowl and beat heavily - favored Alabama by a score of 31 – 17 . Four of the teams Utah beat ended the season in the Coaches ' and AP Polls : Oregon State , TCU , BYU , and Alabama . Both TCU and Alabama ended in the Top - 10 . In the final Coaches ' Poll and AP Poll , Utah finished at # 4 and # 2 , respectively , for their highest ranking in each poll ever . Stadium . Utah ' s home games are played at Rice – Eccles Stadium . In 1998 , the university completed a major renovation and gave the stadium its current name . In 1927 , Ute Stadium opened with a Utah win over Colorado Mines . In 1972 , the stadium was rechristened Rice Stadium in honor of Robert L . Rice who had donated money for a recently completed renovation . Spence Eccles gave money for the 1998 renovation , which expanded the number of seats to its current capacity of 45 , 017 and improved the press box , so the university added his last name to the stadium ' s name . Notable players . Years in parentheses are the years the player lettered in football with Utah . Achievements . The Utah Utes have played in 17 officially NCAA sanctioned bowl game s . Their 13 – 4 record gives them a winning percentage of . 765 , which is the highest in the Football Bowl Subdivision among teams with at least ten bowl appearances . The Utes also lost the 1947 Pineapple Bowl , which the NCAA did not sanction as a bowl game and counts as a regular season game in official NCAA statistics . They have won twenty - four conference championships in five different conferences during their history , Rivalry games . The Holy War : BYU . The Holy War specifically refers to the annual football game within the larger Utah – BYU rivalry . Despite its religious overtones , fans and journalists continue to use the name , and it was recognized by SI . com as the # 6 best nickname for a rivalry game . Utah leads the all time series against Brigham Young ( BYU ) 55 – 34 – 4 ( . 609 ) . BYU does not recognize the first six meetings that were held 1896 – 1898 , which the schools split 3 – 3 . BYU argues that because it was then known as Brigham Young Academy those games do not count in the series record . However , BYU recognizes its founding date as October 16 , 1875 . Utah dominated the early years of the series . From 1922 until 1971 , the Utes lost to BYU five times , won 38 times , with four ties . That changed when BYU hired LaVell Edwards as head coach . From 1972 , Edwards ' first year as head coach , to 1992 , Utah lost to BYU 19 times and won twice . Since 1993 , the series has been relatively even . Utah has beaten BYU 12 times and lost seven times . Also , the recent games have tended to be close , with the final score of 14 of the last 19 games being within a touchdown ( seven points ) or less . Battle of the Brothers : Utah State . The Battle of the Brothers refers to the rivalry between Utah and Utah State . The two teams have a long running football series , which , at 109 games , is the twelfth most played rivalry in the nation . Utah leads the series 77 – 28 – 4 ( . 725 ) . Both programs played their first game in history by playing each other on November 25 , 1892 , a game which Utah State won 12 – 0 . The teams played every year from 1944 to 2009 , but the series took a two year hiatus for the 2010 and 2011 seasons . The teams have 4 more games scheduled from 2012 to 2015 . Utah has won the last twelve games and twenty of the last twenty - two games . Rumble in the Rockies : Colorado . Despite not having played each other in nearly 50 years prior to the 2011 - 12 season , Utah and Colorado maintain a storied rivalry dubbed the " Rumble in the Rockies " that was reignited with the admission of both teams into the Pac - 12 . Prior to the discontinuance of the rivalry in 1963 , the two teams had played each other 57 times beginning in 1903 , with Colorado leading the rivalry 30 – 24 – 3 . This included an upset by Utah in 1962 , when Colorado was ranked # 8 in the nation . The two teams have discussed creating a trophy to " speed up " the development of the rivalry . In the most recent edition of the Rumble in the Rockies , Colorado defeated Utah 17 – 14 , denying the Utes an opportunity to play for the Pac - 12 Championship . Traditions . Blues Brothers ' theme . At the start of the fourth quarter for each home game , the Utah marching band plays the Blues Brothers ( Otis Redding ' s " I Can ' t Turn You Loose " ) while a female fan dances in front of them . The tradition was started by Bubbles , an elderly fan who danced enthusiastically to the song when the band first played it and thereby helped energize the crowd . The crowd so enjoyed the song and Bubbles ' performance that is soon became a tradition . After years of doing her dance , Bubbles retired so Crazy Lady took over . Crazy Lady received her nickname from the MUSS , which is the " Mighty Utah Student Section " . As the third quarter comes to a close , the MUSS chants for Crazy Lady to do her dance . Crazy Lady finds her nickname " endearing . " Third Down Jump . When the opposing team is trying to convert a third down , the MUSS and various other fans jump up and down and make as much noise as possible to distract the opposing team . The MUSS dubbed this the Third Down Jump . The closer the opposition is to their goal line , the more frenetic the fans become . In front of the MUSS is a running tally of the number of false starts the opposition has had during the season . Ute Thunder . Since 1968 , the University of Utah ' s Army ROTC department has operated a cannon on the sidelines called Ute Thunder . A few ROTC cadets compose the cannon crew , which is trained to fire the cannon . After each Utah score , the cannon crew fires a 10 - gauge shotgun blank . The cannon was built in 1904 and was used during World War I for training . It was refurbished in 2003 to repair the firing mechanism and wooden wheels . Future schedules . With Utah joining the Pac - 12 in 2011 , it had to shuffle its future non - conference games . These are the games the school currently has scheduled .