Friday’s regular season finale for Utah football was a culmination of everything the Utes had done over the offseason to move past last season’s disappointing ending.

One play in the fourth quarter of Utah’s 31-21 win over Kansas embodied the turnaround Kyle Whittingham and his staff strove to achieve since the conclusion of their 5-7 finish to the 2024-25 campaign roughly a year ago.

Needing a first down to close out what had been a slugfest against the Jayhawks, New Mexico transfer Devon Dampier faked a quarterback draw play, stepped back and let a deep ball rip down the field to Larry Simmons, a transfer from Southern Mississippi who earned quite the reputation as a big-time playmaker as of late, for a 48-yard touchdown to put the Utes up by double-digits with just over 3 minutes to play.

“That’s something we’ve been working for a long time,” Simmons said of the play after the game. “And we finally got the chance to call it and we was able to execute it.”

It was even a longer wait for offensive coordinator Jason Beck, who originally drew up the play during his five years at Virginia (2016-2021) and had been patiently awaiting an opportunity to dial it up for the Utes.

The rest of the afternoon wasn’t smooth sailing for the Utes offense, though it got help from some big-time plays in the red zone from its defense. Three players from last season’s 5-7 squad — Smith Snowden, Jackson Bennee and Scooby Davis — picked off Jayhawks quarterback Jalon Daniels on three separate drives that went as deep as the Utah 25-yard line, preventing Kansas from capitalizing off its effective rushing attack.

Bennee’s interception early in the fourth quarter helped set up a 4-play, 80-yard drive that was capped off by a 28-yard touchdown from Simmons’ putting the Utes back in front, 17-14, with just over 12 minutes remaining. Davis extended the lead not long after with a 97-yard interception returned for a touchdown, making it 24-14 with just under 8 minutes to play.

Kansas, which rushed for 290 yards and came just shy of eclipsing 450 total yards of offense on the day, responded with an 8-play, 93-yard drive to make it a 3-point game again.

Looking to put the game away, Utah delivered the final knockout punch with the deep ball to Simmons, keeping the Utes’ College Football Playoff and Big 12 title game hopes alive in the process.

Regardless of how the ensuing weekend slate played out, Utah doubled its win total while, at the very least, clinching a bowl game berth after missing the postseason entirely a year ago.

Here’s what Dampier and Bennee said after the game.

“First off, that was [offensive coordinator] Jason Beck. He does a lot of things week in, week out. We’ve been holding on to that play for a long time now, so the situation just presented itself. They got a little heavy to stop that run game and man, put Larry on the deep post, he’s gonna come down with it. So it’s kind of how that play just came up in that situation.”

“I think we held ourselves back multiple times; whether it was loss of yardage on the down, or penalties that put us in very bad third down situations. We hope to be more efficient than we were, but I mean, that’s what happens in football. Not everything’s gonna be perfect. It’s how you respond, and I think the offense did a great job of getting on top of that and helping the defense.”

“That’s a tremendous play that could have been useful for them and would have made it harder for us to come back.”

“Again, I’m proud of our defense. They were on it all night. Our offense was like, ‘Alright, defense been going out all game, it’s for us to go out there and do what we got to do.’”

Dampier: “It’s huge. For our goals at the beginning of the year, we hoped 10-2 gets us to what we want to do. But just from my standpoint, when I got here in January, we were not happy with how last year went. A turnaround needed to happen. We demanded it. Every day, coaches demanded out of us; players, we demanded it, and captains and all that stuff.”

“Just happy it all came together. We finished strong and saw that work we put in.”

“It just wasn’t our ball last week. Everybody knows that we just didn’t play our best football at all. But today, we just wanted to leave it in the past and continue with how we know how to play defense and gap, sound assignment, sound defense, and I thought we did well with that today.”

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Kansas State has one final chance to become bowl eligible. That’s Saturday against visiting Colorado.

The Wildcats have tremendous motivation to defeat Colorado and become bowl eligible. K-State has never won three straight bowl games, something that could be in play with a win over the Buffaloes as a starting point.

Another goal: K-State hasn’t had four consecutive Big 12 seasons with a winning record since 2011 to 2014. A win over Colorado would improve the Wildcats’ conference record to 5-4.

“We’ve got to try and win for these seniors,” K-State coach Chris Klieman said at a news conference this week.

“I’ve been a part of it and have seen it where you don’t win your Senior Day game, and that’s a tough locker room.

“Been a part of it where you win that game, whether it’s the last game of the season or not, and that lasting effect for those kids to be on the field and come into the locker room where they’ve spent so much time with some euphoria of winning the game is something special.”

Last Saturday, 13th-ranked Utah outscored the Wildcats, 30-16 in the second half, and scored the final 16 points of the game in the final seven minutes to take the victory. Final score: Utah 51, Kansas State 47.

Kansas State is 5-6, 4-4 Big 12. Colorado is 3-8, 1-7. Kickoff is 11 a.m. CT. K-State is a 17.5-point favorite.

For every game, we will give you three reasons the Wildcats will win, and three reasons they won’t.

In a season gone sideways, the Wildcats have plenty to play for, as mentioned above. K-State started the season ranked 17th in the AP Top 25 Preseason Poll. Ambitions ran high, with a possible Big 12 title game berth, a shot at the College Football Playoff.

That’s all gone, but K-State has plenty to play for, and before a big home crowd Saturday, the Wildcats will get the job done.

The sophomore running back was awesome against Utah. He rushed for 293 yards, a school record, on 24 carries. He had touchdown runs of 66, 80 and 24 yards. He was named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week, and the Wildcats’ offensive line was named the Big 12’s offensive line of the week by the conference.

“It was next level,” Klieman said. “It was something that hadn’t been done to that group at Utah for a long, long time.”

Jackson broke the school record, by one yard, owned by Darren Sproles against Louisiana in 2004. Sproles is elite company.

The Wildcats rushed for a school-record 472 yards, the most by a Division I team in a losing effort since Army ran for 534 against North Texas in a 52-49 loss on Nov. 18, 2017.

K-State is tied among Power 4 teams with seven one-score games. But the Wildcats have only won two of them. Last season, the Wildcats won 4-of-6 one-score games. 

When these teams met last season at Boulder, K-State scored on a 50-yard touchdown pass from Avery Johnson to Jayce Brown with 2:14 to play. Then, the defense stopped the Buffaloes for a 31-28 victory.

K-State has fresh memories of last season’s thrilling victory. Those emotions, plus superior talent should carry the Wildcats to victory.

Colorado was 9-4 in 2024, as Deion Sanders hype overtook the nation. This year, with quarterback Shedeur Sanders and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter in the NFL, it’s back to reality for the Buffaloes. And a hard reality it is.

Colorado is coming off a 42-17 loss to defending Big 12 champion Arizona State. 

The Buffaloes have lost 6-of-7 games, the only win over No. 22 Iowa State, 24-17. Iowa State has had a rough second half of its season but the Buffaloes’ win shows they still have the capacity to pull an upset. 

Colorado will start Kaidon Salter, who was the starter at the beginning of the season. Julian Lewis started the last two games but he decided to take a redshirt.

Switching quarterbacks to one with less experience often is asking for trouble. In Salter, the Buffaloes have a seasoned hand at the position.

Salter has thrown for 1,242 yards, 10 touchdowns and six interceptions. He has completed 113-of-178 passes (63.1 percent). He provides a threat to run the ball, too. He is the Buffaloes’ second-leading rusher with 293 yards and has the most rushing touchdowns with five.

Sanders is known as a master motivator. It’s Colorado’s final game of a lost season. Deion will pull out every motivational tactic he has gathered over a two-sport career in the NFL and Major League Baseball.

Maybe the Buffaloes can keep the score close in the second half and come out blazing in the season half.

The winner: Kansas State should be too much for a struggling Colorado team. K-State 34, Colorado 17.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.

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