Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham accepted the endorsement of his team as a College Football Playoff finalist, after ESPN analyst Lee Corso showed his projected bracket Saturday on the first “GameDay” program of the 2019 season, staged in Orlando, Fla.
Corso forecasted Utah as the No. 3 seed, upsetting No. 2 Clemson and then facing No. 1 Alabama in the championship game, Jan. 13 in New Orleans. That would be a rematch in the Superdome, the site of Utah’s 31-17 victory in the 2009 Sugar Bowl.
In that scenario, a Utah-Clemson matchup likely would come in the Fiesta Bowl in suburban Phoenix, with Alabama meeting Ohio State closer to home in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.