Utah Utes football: Team aims to avenge '07 defeat

Utah has done its best to put last season's 27-0 loss to UNLV in the rear-view mirror. Since that "bleak weekend" in Vegas, Kyle Whittingham's Utes have won nine of 10 games. The lone blemish was the painful "fourth-and-18" loss at BYU.

Other than that, everything has gone well on the field. Last week's 25-23 victory at Michigan led to a No. 22 national ranking, something Utah carries into tonight's home- and conference-opener against UNLV.

"You're always striving to get better and do more," Whittingham said. "But I like where we are one game into the season."

The win over the Wolverines is the latest chapter in Utah's turnaround story. After winning their first two games under Whittingham in 2005, the Utes prevailed in just 14 of the 27 contests that followed. The mediocre stretch was capped by the setback at UNLV.

For whatever reason, success followed.

"I can't give you a definitive answer there," Whittingham said. "I just know that we kept working, we kept believing, we kept trusting in each other and it started to come together."

There were several factors that led to the uprising. Whittingham said getting quarterback Brian Johnson back was huge. Johnson started the final nine games last season and earned offensive MVP honors in the Poinsettia Bowl.

"Getting him back coincided with that streak and so that was a major factor," said Whittingham, who also pointed to other variables such as Darrell Mack's emergence as a dominant ball-carrier, how the offensive line paved the way and the consistent effectiveness of the defense.

Whittingham said he hates to use the word "rebuilding," but acknowledged there was a lot of firepower to replace after the undefeated season of 2004.

"It's been a process. I think we've increased our team speed each and every year over the past four seasons. I think our depth has gotten better, and of course that was all tied to recruiting," Whittingham said. "I think our assistants have done a great job recruiting over the last four years, and it's starting to show up."

The players in the program, he continued, have a solid work ethic that is paying off. They come out ready to go each day, study film and live their lives the right way.

"We're not perfect. Never professed to be," Whittingham said. "But we've got a bunch of good kids on our football team."

And they're united in a specific cause — a league title.

"The Mountain West Conference championship has eluded us," Whittingham said. "There are still several things out there that we're trying to attain."

One of those leading the charge is Johnson, a rare two-time captain. The quarterback has overcome injuries to regain the form he showed earlier in his career.