The long journey of Utah’s 2023 season led us here.
In the final Pac-12 game Rice-Eccles Stadium would ever see, fifth-string quarterback Luke Bottari got the starting nod against Colorado.
With Cam Rising out for the season, an injury to Bryson Barnes, Nate Johnson informing coaches of his decision to enter his name into the transfer portal on Monday, Utah wanting to preserve Brandon Rose’s impending medical redshirt and freshman Mack Howard not trusted with the keys yet, the Utes went with Bottari.
Bottari went on his own journey to get to this point, suiting up as Utah’s starting quarterback in the regular-season finale.
“Main goal was just to win the game, do whatever we had to do,” Bottari said.
And what the Utes did was rush the ball. A lot.
That plan to keep the ball on the ground worked, and the Utes closed out the regular season victorious, beating Colorado 23-17 in Utah’s final Pac-12 game.
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