Utah football sneaks into coaches poll following blowout win over West Virginia

Utes reclaim spot in coaches poll after 34-point win over Mountaineers

Utah Utes players celebrate after defeating the West Virginia Mountaineers at Milan Puskar Stadium. | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

Coming off a lopsided loss, the Utah football team got back on track Saturday with a blowout win of its own.

Spearheaded by a career-high four touchdown passes from Devon Dampier, the Utes dominated in all facets of the game against a banged-up West Virginia squad to pull away for a 48-14 victory over the Mountaineers.

The bounce-back outing from Dampier and company gave Utah some much-needed momentum heading into the bye week after getting thumped by Texas Tech the week before, as well as a spot in the latest US LBM Coaches Poll.

The Utes checked in at No. 25 in the coaches poll that was released Sunday, less than 24 hours after their 34-point triumph in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Utah received 104 votes from the panel, placing it right behind a pair of Big 12 teams in No. 23 BYU (221 votes) and No. 24 Arizona State (136). The Cougars managed to move up one spot with a 24-21 win over Colorado.

The Sun Devils, who visit Salt Lake City after Utah's bye week, pulled off a come-from-behind victory over TCU to remain undefeated in league play. Arizona State, which trailed by 17 early on, tied things up with under 2 minutes to play after Sam Leavitt connected with Jordyn Tyson for a score. TCU fumbled on its ensuing drive, setting up Arizona State kicker Jesus Gomez for his second clutch field goal in as many weeks to give the Sun Devils a 27-24 win.

Arizona State will pay a visit to Rice-Eccles Stadium on Oct. 18. Utah is idled next weekend.

"You don’t want to sit on a loss ever, but to sit on it for two weeks is double the torture," said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham after the game. "And so it’s really big to be able to end that, what, first half, almost first half of the season on a positive and get some guys healed up hopefully, and gives us momentum into the next contest."

Here's a look at the rest of the latest coaches poll.

Coaches Poll Top 25 (post-Week 5)

1. Ohio State (4-0) [58 first-place votes]
2. Oregon (5-0) [6]
3. Miami (4-0) [1]
4. Ole Miss (5-0)
5. Texas A&M (4-0)
6. Penn State (3-1)
7. Texas (3-1)
8. Oklahoma (4-0)
9. Indiana (5-0)
10. Georgia (3-1)
11. Alabama (3-1)
12. Iowa State (5-0)
13. LSU (4-1)
14. Texas Tech (4-0)
15. Tennessee (4-1)
16. Georgia Tech (5-0)
17. Vanderbilt (5-0)
18. Missouri (5-0)
19. Florida State (3-1)
20. Michigan (3-1)
21. Notre Dame (2-2)
22. Illinois (4-1)
23. BYU (4-0)
24. Arizona State (4-1)
25. Utah (4-1)

Schools Dropped Out

No. 22 USC, No. 25 TCU

Others Receiving Votes

Memphis 88; Louisville 83; Virginia 63; South Florida 29; USC 17; Maryland 17; Auburn 12; UNLV 11; Navy 9; Mississippi State 9; Tulane 8; Washington 7; North Texas 7; TCU 6; Nebraska 4; Duke 4; Iowa 3; Houston 1