Seattle • Utah’s avenue to Rose Bowl or something even bigger became considerably wider Saturday, although a potential detour that anyone would have disregarded a month ago now looms ahead in mid-November.
UCLA? The Bruins are not a joke anymore, having won three-straight Pac-12 games after an 1-5 overall start of coach Chip Kelly’s second season. UCLA is 4-2, one game behind Utah in the Pac-12 South standings. Each team is off until Nov. 16, when the Bruins visit Rice-Eccles Stadium.
That will give the Utes (8-1, 5-1 Pac-12) enough opportunity to take UCLA seriously, even if ESPN’s Football Power Index is unimpressed with the Bruins’ resurgence.