Colorado State and Utah to play in this year’s Las Vegas Bowl

By Case Keefer (contact)

Published Sunday, Dec. 7, 2014 | 2:23 p.m.

Updated Sunday, Dec. 7, 2014 | 5:30 p.m.

Two of the West’s most resurgent programs will meet in the 23rd annual Las Vegas Bowl.

Neither Utah nor Colorado State were bowl eligible as recently as two years ago. They managed near 180-degree turns in 2014, staying in their respective conference championship races until late in the season to ultimately lead to a pairing in the 2014 Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl.

“Two teams that had tremendous seasons,” said John Saccenti, executive director of the bowl.

The game between Colorado State (10-2) and Utah (8-4) is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 20, at Sam Boyd Stadium. It’s a matchup that, on the surface, pits a prolific offense against a stiff defense.

The Rams had a conference-high four players receive first-team All-Mountain West offensive honors — quarterback Garrett Grayson, wide receiver Rashard Higgins, left tackle Ty Sambrailo and tight end Steven Walker.

Sambrailo is a projected first-round pick in next year’s NFL Draft. He’s protected Grayson well enough to enable the fellow senior to rank second in the nation in passing efficiency. Higgins, a sophomore, leads the nation with 17 touchdown catches and ranks second with 1,640 receiving yards.

Most of Utah’s gaudy numbers come from the other side of the ball. The Utes are first in the nation with 52 sacks, led by 17.5 from senior defensive end Nate Orchard.

“We’re going to have huge problems,” Colorado State interim coach Dave Baldwin said on a conference call. “They’ve caused everyone problems as the year went on, and we know that. We’re going to be excited to challenge that. That’s what the last game should be about.”

Baldwin stressed multiple times that Las Vegas was the program’s top choice for its postseason destination. His senior players told him they were hoping for this game when they met last week.

The promise of a postseason bid has served as a welcome distraction from what Baldwin called a “circus” created by the departure of third-year coach Jim McElwain, who took the vacant job at Florida. Baldwin said the players were happy for McElwain but ready to get back to their normal routine.

“They have a lot of excitement for Coach Mac,” he said. “They knew it was his dream, and they’ve been classy about sending him on his way.”

There was little suspense surrounding Colorado State winding up here. The Las Vegas Bowl has the first choice among eligible Mountain West teams, though the Fiesta Bowl exercised its right to pluck conference champions Boise State for the New Year’s Eve game in Glendale, Ariz.

With the conference’s second-best record, Colorado State was an easy selection.

Five bowls pick ahead of Las Vegas in the Pac-12, leaving Utah more unaware of where it would end up heading into the weekend. The Utes also targeted Las Vegas, though not necessarily for the same reasons.

Utah’s basketball team plays UNLV at the MGM Grand on the night of the bowl game.

“Utah made a strong pitch to keep their staff together, keep their fans together and take over Las Vegas for that weekend,” Saccenti said. “We’re pretty excited about it.”

Colorado State has never appeared in the Las Vegas Bowl. Utah will make its fourth trip, going 2-1 in the first three, though losing 26-3 to Boise State in its most recent stop.

Two weeks ago, the Utes were still alive with a chance to win the Pac-12 South division. A 42-10 loss to Arizona knocked them out of contention and erased the possibility of reaching a major bowl game, but the Utes aren’t treating Las Vegas as a consolation.

“We’ve been out of the postseason for a couple years now, so our guys are just anxious to be involved in postseason play,” Whittingham said. “It’s great for our seniors to go out on a positive like this.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.