Utah Utes football: Gritty Sun Bowl comeback turns Utes' blahs into hurrahs

EL PASO, Texas — Tony Bergstrom's stare came from afar, beyond the sun-baked streets and across the Rio Grande. Clearly, it was nowhere near the interview room at Sun Bowl Stadium.

"Ohmigosh!" the Ute offensive tackle said and he stared blankly at the floor.

At first he spoke softly, then whispered, then mouthed the words.

"Omigosh!"

"Oh. My. Gosh."

Yes, well, sometimes words fail.

The University of Utah wrapped up its season Saturday with a 30-27 Sun Bowl victory over Georgia Tech. It was a game the Utes rallied to win in overtime after trailing by two touchdowns with under eight minutes remaining in regulation.

There they came, riders on the wind, in a town once populated by gunslingers and horse thieves. Isn't there a little of both in this year's Utes? It was a familiar scenario: A strangely calm quarterback who had no serious business executing the final drives. A half-pint running back who began the year as a third-stringer. A piecemeal team with 10 key or starting players out with injuries.

A win when it should have been a loss.

"Really," coach Kyle Whittingham said, "it was a microcosm of our season."

So what of this season? Not quite miraculous, but certainly attention-grabbing. How else do you describe a year in which the aforementioned won four Pac-12 games, beat two Atlantic Coast Conference teams (Georgia Tech and soon-to-be-included Pitt), and won a bowl game — without its starting quarterback?

"We can't come all the way to El Paso the whole week to lose," receiver Reggie Dunn said. "We came for one reason: to win the game."

Saturday's contest wasn't a remix of the last time these teams played. In the 2005 Emerald Bowl, the Utes caught a disinterested Georgia Tech with a couple of quick strikes and it was over. But that Utah team included an NFL-bound Brett Ratliff at quarterback and an aggressive, quick-strike offense. This offense was the Pac-12's least productive, despite a record-setting career by 5-foot-8 running back John White.

Saturday the Utes found themselves in the tenuous position of trying to manage another game, not seize it.