Utah Utes football: A third team strives for rare undefeated season

SALT LAKE CITY — Twice in the past six years, the Utah football team has reached this point of the season with a record of 8-0, and both times the Utes went on to unbeaten seasons — 12-0 in 2004-05 and 13-0 in 2008-09.

With an 8-0 record heading into Saturday's huge game against TCU, this year's Ute team has a chance to match those teams and go undefeated, although it won't be easy, with the game against the No. 4-ranked Horned Frogs, followed by games at Notre Dame, San Diego State and a home finale against BYU.

So how does this year's Ute team compare with the other unbeaten teams of this decade?

"All three teams had very good work ethics (and) ability to focus one week at a time, which is so critical and one of the primary characteristics to get this far without a loss," said Whittingham. "Each one had their own personality."

This year's team is the highest ranked of the three at No. 6 in the two major polls and No. 5 in the BCS rankings, compared to No. 7 (AP) for the 2004 team at this point and No. 10 (AP) for the 2008 team.

Like the 2004 team, the 2010 team plays three BCS conference teams, while the 2008 team played just two during the regular season (Michigan and Oregon State).

As for margin of victory, the 2004 team won every game by at least two touchdowns, while the 2008 team had four nail-biters, winning three games by three points and one by two.

This year's team has been a mixture of those two with six blowout wins by an average of 40 points and the other two coming by three (Pitt) and five (Air Force) points.

Let's take a look at some of the common characteristics and differences of the three teams:

Running back duos

Both the 2004 and 2008 teams had two strong running backs who shared time, as Eddie Wide and Matt Asiata are doing this year.

In 2004, it was Marty Johnson and Quinton Ganther, who rushed for 802 and 654 yards, respectively.

In 2008, it was Asiata and Darrell Mack, who ended up with 716 and 562 yards, respectively.

Through eight games this year, the two senior running backs are amazingly equal, with Wide gaining 491 yards on 98 carries and Asiata getting 488 yards on 104 carries.

Strong quarterbacks and receivers

Each team had a strong quarterback and a bevy of talented receivers.

In 2004, Alex Smith — who finished fourth in the Heisman voting — had several targets such as Paris Warren, Steve Savoy, John Madsen and Travis LaTendresse.

Brian Johnson, the MWC offensive player of the year in 2008, went to Freddie Brown, Brent Casteel and Bradon Godfrey.

This year, Jordan Wynn has a chance to be the all-MWC QB and has several top targets such as Jereme Brooks, DeVonte Christopher and Shaky Smithson.

Accurate placekickers

Each of the three unbeaten teams have featured kickers who rarely missed their kicks.

In 2004, the Utes used freshman David Carroll, who was perfect on the year, making all five field goal attempts and all 49 PAT tries.

The 2008 team featured all-American Louie Sakoda, who made 22-of-24 field goals and converted on 56-of-57 PATs.

This year, the Utes have reliable Joe Phillips, who is 9-of-10 on field goals after his first missed attempt Saturday against Air Force, and is 47-of-48 on PAT tries with the one miss, which was blocked.