The Utes turned the Fiesta Bowl into such a lopsided affair that ABC turned it into a giant promo for upcoming TV shows and BCS games and a barrage of interviews between plays. Worse, they gave the corny, gushy Brent Musberger — a man who thinks he gets paid by the word — too much free time to talk, which led to gems such as, "If (Pitt) doesn't score . . . they could be in serious trouble."

The Utes, unbeaten in a dozen games, deserved better than Pitt, which finished with an 8-4 record. They deserved to play unbeaten Auburn, USC or Oklahoma. Somebody should say it: They could stand toe to toe with those teams.

But we'll never know. That's college football for you: Ninety percent of it is pure speculation.

Oh, well, Utah can just wait another hundred years or so for a team like this to come along. Oklahoma, Miami or Florida State can expect unbeaten seasons occasionally, but not Utah. The Utes went decades without winning even a conference title before Ron McBride arrived in the '90s.

This was Utah's team for the ages. The Utes were perfect. They did everything they could do. Due to no fault of their own, they never got a chance to play for the national title. They'll always wonder what would have happened if they could have met USC, Oklahoma or Auburn on the field.

The moment the game ended, the team disbanded. The head coach went to Florida. Seven assistants went elsewhere, as well. Quarterback Alex Smith and receiver Steve Savoy could leave school early to turn professional. Paris Warren and Morgan Scalley will be two of 18 seniors to graduate.

They went as far as they could go this season. The only thing that ever stopped them was the BCS.

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E-mail: drob@desnews.com