The Utah Utes football program is a college football team that competes in the Big 12 Conference 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 the current site of Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City since 1927. They have won 27 conference championships in five conferences during their history. As of the end of the 2025 season, they have a cumulative record of 735 wins, 491 losses, and 31 ties ().
The Utes have a record of 18–9 () in major bowl games. Among Utah's bowl appearances are two games from the Bowl Championship Series (BCS): the Fiesta Bowl in 2005 and the Sugar Bowl in 2009. In the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, Utah, led by coach Urban Meyer, defeated the Pittsburgh Panthers 35–7, and in the 2009 Sugar Bowl, headed by coach Kyle Whittingham, they defeated coach Nick Saban and 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.
So far in the College Football Playoff era (2014–present) the Utes have made 2 appearances in a New Year's Six game after receiving automatic bids to the 2022 and 2023 Rose Bowl Game by winning the Pac-12 Conference Championship Game.
History
Early history (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 it is uncertain 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 canceled: 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. During his four seasons, Bennion finished with a record of 16–8–3 (.648). 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 the football coach until the 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.
Ike Armstrong era (1925–1949) Future College Football Hall of Fame coach Ike Armstrong was originally hired to coach both the men's 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 25 years as head coach, which places him second among Utah head coaches for total wins. Under Armstrong, Utah won 13 conference championships, including 6 in a row from 1928 to 1933 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. He coached 5 undefeated teams: 3 undefeated and untied seasons (1926, 1929, and 1930) and 2 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 postseason opponent. Armstrong coached the Utes to their first bowl in the 1939 Sun Bowl defeating New Mexico 26–0. The MSC was popularly called the "Big Seven Conference", and then after Colorado left following the 1947 season, popularly called the "Skyline Conference" or "Skyline Six". Utah played in and won its first bowl game, the 1939 Sun Bowl, during Armstrong's tenure in the MSC. Armstrong also helped keep the team in existence during World War II even though most of the other schools in the conference decided not to field teams from 1943 to 1945. 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.
Jack Curtice era (1950–1957)
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."
Ray Nagel era (1958–1965) 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 No. 14 in the Coaches' Poll.
Mike Giddings era (1966–1967) Nagel's replacement, Mike Giddings, posted a record of 9–12 (.429) during the 1966 and 1967 seasons before resigning. Giddings had previously been an assistant coach at USC under head coach John McKay and brought with him hopes that the Utes football program would be turned around, but an inability to get recruiting going led to on-field issues that essentially prevented any chance of viable football success.
Bill Meek era (1968–1973) 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. The Utes' best season under Meek was an 8–2 campaign in 1969. Meek, like his predecessor, Giddings, failed to get any sort of recruiting momentum which resulted in subpar and mediocre team performances year in and year out.
Tom Lovat era (1974–1976)
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). These years coincided with the emergence of BYU football under the tutelage of LaVell Edwards.
Wayne Howard era (1977–1981) 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 BYU–Utah rivalry.
Chuck Stobart era (1982–1984) 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. Though the Stobart era wasn't the worst period in Utes football history, it was marked by the continued mediocrity that had plagued the program in recent years. Stobart's 1982 and 1983 teams posted 5–6 records with only decent offenses and average defenses to show for it. The 1984 Utes improved slightly to a 6–5–1 record, but fans and administration were impatient, prompting Stobart's resignation.
Jim Fassel era (1985–1989) 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.
Ron McBride era (1990–2002) Utah appointed Arizona offensive line coach Ron McBride as their head coach on December 21, 1989. McBride had been an assistant coach for 26 years total and was an assistant at Utah from 1977 to 1982 and later 1985 to 1986. Coach McBride inherited a program that had only had five winning seasons in the previous 16 years, and had not posted a winning season in WAC play since 1985. Later, he said that expectations had dropped so low that Ute fans were content to not be embarrassed–particularly against BYU–and finish in the middle of the WAC.
He didn't take long to turn the program around. In 1991, his second season, he posted a 7–5 record, but a blowout loss to rival BYU kept them out of a bowl. A year later, he led the Utes to the 1992 Copper Bowl, the program's first bowl appearance in 28 years. He took the Utes to six bowl games during his tenure, a noteworthy feat considering the Utes had played in just three bowl games in their entire history prior to his arrival. His teams posted bowl wins over USC, Arizona and Fresno State. During his tenure at Utah, McBride posted an overall record of 88–63 (.582), at the time the second-most wins by a coach in the history of Utah football. The Utes reached their peak under McBride when they finished the 1994 season ranked No. 10 in the AP Poll and No. 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 won a share of its first conference title in 31 years, when it finished in a four-way tie for the WAC title. In 1999, Utah was again co-conference champion, this time finishing in a three-way tie for the first Mountain West Conference title.