The 2004 Utah Utes football team represented the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

in the

2004 NCAA Division I-A football season The 2004 NCAA Division I-A football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The regular season began on August 28, 2004 and ended on Decem ...

. This team was the original ' BCS Buster', meaning, this was the first time that a team from a BCS non-AQ conference was invited to play in one of the BCS bowl games. The team, coached by second-year head football coach

Urban Meyer Urban Frank Meyer III (born July 10, 1964) is a college football TV commentator and former American football coach. He spent most of his coaching career at the collegiate level, having served as the head coach of the Bowling Green Falcons fro ...

, played its home games in Rice-Eccles Stadium. Utah finished the season 12–0, the fourth undefeated and untied season in school history. The Utes were one of three teams in the top-level

Division I FBS The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). A ...

to finish the season undefeated (the others being the

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ''Trojans'', the women's athletic teams are referred ...

and the

Auburn Tigers The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University, a public four-year coeducational university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Auburn Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Associat ...

.) Utah was the highest-ranked BCS non-AQ team in each poll every week of the season.

Schedule

Rankings

Game summaries

Texas A&M

Arizona

Utah State

Air Force

New Mexico

North Carolina

UNLV

San Diego State

Colorado State

Wyoming

BYU

*Source:''

Fiesta Bowl: Utah vs. Pittsburgh

Depth chart

Season Statistics

2004 Official Stats

Team

Individual Leaders

After the season

NFL Draft

Utah had five players taken in the

2005 NFL Draft The 2005 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 23–24, 2005. The league also he ...

Awards

National

: The Home Depot Coach of the Year Award,

Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year The Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award is given annually to a college football coach by the Football Writers Association of America The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members i ...

, Woody Hayes' National Coach of the Year, Maxwell George Munger Award *

Alex Smith Alexander Douglas Smith (born May 7, 1984) is an American former quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. He played college football at Utah, where he received first-team All-American honors and won the 2 ...

: Heisman finalist (fourth place),

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

National Player of the Year,

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

National Player of the Year, Cingular Sports/ABC Sports All-American, SI.com All-American (first team), CoSIDA Football Academic All-American of the Year, Davey O'Brien Award finalist,

Walter Camp Award The Walter Camp Player of the Year Award is given annually to the collegiate American football player of the year, as decided by a group of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I FBS head coaches and sports information directo ...

finalist * Chris Kemoeatu: Cingular Sports/ABC Sports All-American, SI.com All-American (first team) *

Morgan Scalley Morgan Scalley (born October 8, 1979) is an American football coach who is currently the defensive coordinator at the University of Utah. He also played high school football in Salt Lake City at Highland High School and college football at Utah, ...

: SI.com All-American (second team), CoSIDA Academic All-American (first team), Anson Mount Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Bronko Nagurski National Player of the Week, Pat Tillman Award ( East–West Shrine Game honor) *Steve Savoy: SI.com All-American (second team),

All-American (honorable mention) *Ryan Smith: ''

'' Freshman All-American (second team) *

Spencer Toone Spencer William Toone II (born August 25, 1980) is a former American football player and coach. He played as a linebacker and was selected by the Tennessee Titans in the last round of the 2006 NFL Draft. Toone played college football at the Unive ...

: CoSIDA Academic All-District VIII first team

Conference

*Coach of the Year:

*Offensive Player of the Year:

*Co-defensive Player of the Year:

*All-MWC First team: Alex Smith, Steve Savoy, Chris Kemoeatu, Steve Fifita,

Sione Pouha Sione Sonasi "Bo" Po'uha ( ; born February 3, 1979) is a former American football coach and former defensive tackle. On December 20 2022, Sione accepted the position to be the defensive tackles coach at Brigham Young University football. He prev ...

, Morgan Scalley *All-MWC Second team: Paris Warren, Marty Johnson, Jesse Boone,

Eric Weddle Eric Steven Weddle (born January 4, 1985) is an American former American football, football Safety (gridiron football position), safety who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He played college football at University of ...

*All-MWC Honorable mention: Makai Aalona, Quinton Ganther, Tommy Hackenbruck, Matt Kovacevich,

References

{{Mountain West Conference football champions

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

Utah Utes football seasons Mountain West Conference football champion seasons Fiesta Bowl champion seasons College football undefeated seasons

Utah Utes football The Utah Utes football program is a Power 5 Conference college football team that competes in the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12) of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I and represents the University of Utah. The Utah college footbal ...