With the holidays just around the corner, the Utes were in a giving mood Saturday on the road against Washington State. Utah quarterback Adam Schulz gave the Cougars two pick-sixes in the first quarter and the Ute defense surrendered 35 points after that. At contest’s end, Utah handed Washington State its first chance at a bowl since 2003 by dropping the game 49-37.

While the Cougars will potentially go bowling this season, the Utes definitely will not. Saturday was a must-win for Utah to keep its postseason hopes alive, and the team now knows it will be staying home for the holidays for the second straight season.

“I’m pretty disappointed,” said Utes’ senior defensive end Trevor Reilly. “I spent five years in the program and the last two, no bowl game. I feel sorry for the fans and the alumni more than anything that we let them down again.”

Reilly and the rest of Utah’s defensive front never found a way to stop Washington State on Saturday. The Utes came into the game leading the nation in sacks but failed to bring down Wazzu quarterback Connor Halliday, who finished 39-of-62 with a whopping 488 passing yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions in the high-scoring affair.

“Coach [Mike] Leach’s scheme is tough to defend in the throw game,” said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham. “We couldn’t cover them in man. We were thinking going into the game that we could match up man-to-man enough to play a dose of it, but it was very apparent that we were not matching up … Their quarterback is very good. I think he’s an NFL guy, personally.”

Halliday’s outing overshadowed a nice day from Schulz, who finished 21-of-46 with 347 yards through the air and three touchdowns in his second career start. His early struggles wound up being the difference maker on the scoreboard, though.

“Giving the team two pick-sixes off the bat is obviously not helping the team,” Schulz said. “It’s completely on me, on my shoulders, all of it. There’s not much of a worse feeling than disappointing everybody.”

Despite finding themselves in a 21-point hole in the first quarter thanks in large part to those interceptions, the Ute offense clawed its way back to within one score on two different occasions but couldn’t ever overtake the Cougars.

“We battled back, and from that point on I thought our offense did some really good things,” Whittingham said. “This is a resilient group, and they’ve done that all year long. Still, we’ve got to get Ws. That’s the bottom line.”

At 4-7 with just one more game to play in 2013, Utah will finish with a losing record for the second consecutive year. This Saturday will be the last time the Utes’ seniors will suit up.

“It’s a huge disappointment for the seniors, not personally,” Whittingham said. “I want to get into a bowl game for the seniors. It’s all about the players, not the coaches. It’s about the players, and it’s hard to deal with when they’re not going to be able to go to a bowl game.”

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