Utah
Luke Bottari’s winding road leads to first FBS start, win for Utah over Colorado
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SALT LAKE CITY — The set of circumstances that brought University of Utah quarterback Luke Bottari to Saturday afternoon, his first FBS start, and a 23-17 win over Colorado can only be described as unorthodox.
A fifth-year walk-on, Bottari spent the 2022 season and 2023 spring practice with the Utes, but seeing that the quarterback room was solidified, he opted to transfer to California in search of some playing time.
Bottari went through the first half of fall camp in Berkeley, but it quickly became apparent that the situation there wasn’t going to be better. Bottari hopped back into the transfer portal, where the rules are less stringent for graduate transfers.
By the time Utah entered the waning days of its own fall camp, Bottari was back, but no one could have predicted he would have been needed to the extent he was Saturday.
Cam Rising never played a down this season. Bryson Barnes is injured and was unavailable Saturday. Redshirt freshman Nate Johnson intends to enter the transfer portal. Another redshirt freshman, Brandon Rose, is being tracked for a medical redshirt from the NCAA after a fall camp injury.
So, in came Bottari, having never taken a Division I snap, having not taken a game rep of any kind since 2021 when he was playing at College of San Mateo, not from where he grew up on the San Francisco Peninsula.
The fact Bottari finished just 6-of-10 for 61 yards and a pair of rushing touchdowns belies the fact that he succinctly managed the offense on a day where, frankly, Utah needed him if the Utes were to secure an eighth regular-season win for the fifth consecutive non-COVID season.
“We welcomed him back because he’s a great kid, great teammate, and it turns out we got to him and we needed,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. “It was good for us in that respect.”
Added Bottari: “I would say earlier in the week, I had a pretty good idea I was going to get the start, but the main goal was just to win a game, whatever we had to do. Rushed for I don’t how many yards, pass the ball, but the main goal at the beginning of the week when I found I was starting was to get the win.”
With its fifth-string quarterback starting in what amounted to an emergency situation, Utah (8-4, 5-4 Pac-12) left little to the imagination in terms of what it wanted to do on offense.
The Utes’ first drive of the afternoon went eight plays for 58 yards, with all of it coming on the ground. Once Ja’Quinden Jackson and Jaylon Glover combined to get the Utes down to the Colorado 10-yard line, there was a holding penalty to set up first-and-20.
From there, it was a direct snap to Jackson, Sione Vaki along the left sideline for 19 yards, and finally, Bottari on a 2-yard touchdown run in which he rolled to his right, surveyed the situation, then took off for the goal line.
Utah, the Pac-12’s fifth-ranked rushing offense entering the day at 178.8 yards per game, finished with 268 yards and a touchdown on 53 carries, good for 5.1 yards per carry.
Bottari did not attempt a pass until Utah’s 11th play, which came early in its second drive, a 14-yard completion to Mikey Matthews on third-and-3 early in the second quarter. Bottari’s second pass didn’t come until the Utes’ 21st play, a 10-yard connection with Munir McClain just past the midway point of the second quarter.
By no means was Bottari asked to do a ton, but nobody can say he didn’t make the most of those limited opportunities.
“First opportunity to quarterback at the Power Five level, and he’s 1-0,” Whittingham said. “He did what we needed him to do. He didn’t throw the ball a bunch, but he did a great job of managing the offense. He got us in all the right checks. We have a lot of checks at the line of scrimmage based on the looks that we see. He was flawless and did a phenomenal job with that.”
The point is now moot, but had Bottari needed to come out of the game for injury or any other reason, Whittingham indicated that Jackson and Rose were both prepared to enter with a small play package. It stood to reason, though, that Rose, given his medical redshirt hopes, would not have actually seen the field, although he did dress on Saturday.
Utah will not know its bowl destination until Dec. 3, with the Las Vegas Bowl (Dec. 23) and Sun Bowl (Dec. 29) as the likely options. Whittingham offered optimism that Barnes will be ready to go by the time the bowl game arrives, but Bottari now stands as a healthy alternative after Saturday.
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Welcome to the NHL On Tap, a daily look at the games on the NHL schedule. There is one game on the schedule for Sunday, which will be televised nationally in the United States and Canada.
Game of the day
Utah Hockey Club at Toronto Maple Leafs (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, TSN4, NHLN, Utah16)
Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares have all stepped up for the Maple Leafs (12-6-2) in the absence of captain Auston Matthews and look to continue the trend against Utah (8-9-3) at Scotiabank Arena. Marner has 12 points (four goals, eight assists), Nylander nine points (four goals, five assists) and Tavares eight points (four goals, four assists) in the seven games without Matthews, who is out with an upper-body injury. Toronto has won three in a row and is 6-1-0 without Matthews, who skated prior to practice Saturday and said he could return from an upper-body injury this upcoming week. Marner leads Toronto with 26 points (six goals, 20 assists) in 20 games and has points in six of the seven games Matthews has missed. Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Wall made 31 saves in a 3-0 win against the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday for his first shutout of the season and second in the NHL. Utah is playing the second game of a back-to-back for the first time in team history and will look to build on a 6-1 win at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday. Dylan Guenther had two goals and an assist, and Clayton Keller had three assists, helping Utah end a three-game losing streak. Goalie Jaxson Stauber could make his Utah debut after being recalled from Tucson of the American Hockey League on Wednesday; the 25-year-old has not played an NHL game since Feb. 22, 2023, with the Chicago Blackhawks. No. 1 goalie Connor Ingram has missed the past two games with an upper-body injury.
It takes a complete football team to win a championship. Iowa State is finding that out with each passing week.
Seemingly left for dead in the heated Big 12 Conference race, the Cyclones now find themselves one win away from competing for the league title following a thrilling 31-28 victory over Utah Saturday night.
Iowa State (9-2, 7-2) reached the nine-win mark before a bowl game for the first time in program history, and could end one of the longest droughts in NCAA history by reaching 10 wins. The Cyclones and Vanderbilt are the only remaining Power 5 programs to never reach 10 wins, as Indiana did earlier this year.
After taking a 24-13 lead on Utah midway through the third quarter, the Cyclones needed a rally, scoring the game-winning touchdown with 91 seconds to go. The defense forced a missed field goal to seal the win.
Here are three stars from Iowa State’s win over Utah:
Known for his power running, Carson Hansen showed off his arm on a key third-down trick play that led to his second rushing touchdown. Hansen, a sophomore, took a halfback pass and found Gabe Burkle for a 26-yard completion.
That put the ball at the Utah 3 and Hansen would plow his way into the end zone on the next play for the game-winning points. He finished the night with a team-high 57 yards on 14 carries to go along with the 26-yard pass while also catching two balls for another 28 yards.
At 6-2 and over 220 pounds, Hansen is the thunder to Abu Sama’s lightning. He now has 11 rushing touchdowns on the year to go along with 560 yards after rushing for just 67 last season as a freshman.
Anytime Rocco Becht needed to make a big play in the passing game, he looked in the direction of Jayden Higgins. And Higgins stepped up for his quarterback, who was not quite as sharp as he typically has been.
Higgins finished with nine receptions for 155 yards and a touchdown, surpassing 1,000 yards for the season. The 6-foot-4 senior out of South Miami became just the seventh different Cyclone to reach the number after missing out last year with 983 yards.
With at least two, and maybe more, games to go, Higgins sits sixth on the school’s single-season list for yards with 1,015. Hakeem Butler is first with 1,318. Higgins and teammate Jaylin Noel, who has 976 yards, are set to become the first Cyclone teammates to eclipse 1,000 yards in the same season in school history.
Higgins is also just two yards away from becoming just the 10th Iowa State receiver to reach 2,000 career yards, joining the likes of Allen Lazard, Xavier Hutchinson and Charlie Kolar, along with Noel.
It’s been a difficult season in regards to injuries on both sides of the ball for Iowa State. But the defense has really been hurt with Malik Verdon out.
Verdon, a junior, recorded a team-leading 12 tackles including a sack, as the Cyclones held Utah to just 99 yards of total offense through three quarters.
And while the Utes were able to finally put together sustained drives in the fourth, when they needed to make a play, Iowa State did. Verdon went out for a short time after appearing to reinjure his arm that has a cast due to a hairline fracture, but would return to the field later in the fourth.
The Iowa State football team has two weeks to solidify themselves and possibly land a spot in the Big 12 championship game in December.
Part one of the two-piece series starts Saturday night, as the Cyclones (8-2, 5-2) make a visit to Salt Lake City to play Utah (4-6, 1-6).
Sitting a game behind co-conference leaders BYU and Colorado, Iowa State is in position but on the outside looking in for the time being. They also have red-hot Arizona State to contend with, as the Sun Devils have quickly climbed the standings and sit tied with ISU.
Utah has dropped six straight since starting the season off 4-0 as preseason favorites to win the Big 12. Of those six losses, four have been decided by eight points or less. Last Saturday, though, they suffered a 25-point setback to Colorado.
Along with several tough losses, the Utes have been without star quarterback Cam Rising since the losing skid began. Rising is out for the season following multiple injuries, as Isaac Wilson – the brother of NFL QB Zack Wilson – has replaced him.
Iowa State and Utah have a bit of a history, playing each other five times between 1970-2010. The Cyclones won the first four meetings between the two while the Utes won the most recent, claiming a 68-27 victory. Utah was undefeated and ranked 10th in the country during that encounter.
The oddsmakers have the Cyclones set as a 6.5-point favorite. ESPN’s FPI puts them at just over 63 percent to win the game.
Here are the details on how to watch, stream and follow Iowa State’s game at Utah on Saturday night:
Iowa State at Utah TV Channel, Live Stream, Odds
Who: Iowa State at Utah in a Big 12 football game
When: 6:30 p.m. CT | Saturday, November 23
Where: Rice-Eccles Stadium | Salt Lake City, Utah
Live Stream: Stream Iowa State-Cincinnati live on fuboTV (Start your free trial)
TV Channel: FOX
Betting Odds: Iowa State is favored by 6.5 points. Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportbook
Our Prediction: Iowa State 24, Utah 10
Live Updates, Highlights: Follow the game on Iowa State on SI for live updates, in-game analysis and big-play highlights throughout Saturday’s matchup.
* Latest betting odds for Iowa State
* Matt Campbell talks up the Utah defense
* Cyclones right back into contention in wild, wild Big 12
*Three stars in Iowa State’s win over Cincinnati including Stevo Klotz
*Complete game recap of Iowa State’s win over Cincinnati
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