Oregon coach Mark Helfrich congratulates Utah coach Kyle Whittingham Saturday after the Utes crushed the Ducks 62-20 (Associated Press)
Just as the Colorado football program begins to offer hope that it has turned the corner in coach Mike MacIntyre’s third year in Boulder, formerly high-flying Oregon comes to Boulder Saturday looking like a team in disarray.
The Ducks, who reached the national championship game last season with since-departed Marcus Mariota at quarterback, lost 62-20 to Utah at home on Saturday night. It’s a shocking fall for a program that finished in the top five in the country three of the last four years. Before Saturday’s game they were ranked 13th. Now they are unranked for the first time sine 2009.
“We didn’t play winning football in any phase, and that is 100 percent on me,” coach Mark Helfrich said in a media conference on Sunday.
Utah shredded the Oregon secondary and two Oregon quarterbacks — starter Vernon Adams Jr. and reliever Jeff Lockie, who backed up Mariota last year — struggled.
“We will survive, we will be fine,” Helfrich said. “There’s always over-reaction to both positive and negative this time of year. We’ve lost to the No. 2 team (Michigan State) in the country and the No. 10 team (Utah) in the country and didn’t play well enough in either game, or even close to how well we could, should play.”
Helfrich, who succeeded Chip Kelly in 2013, said it would be determined in practice this week which quarterback starts against the Buffs in a nationally televised game at 8 p.m.
“There aren’t wholesale changes necessary,” Helfrich said, “and we’re not going to go away from what we do.”
