True. However Ohio state was the best offense in the country and utah played their butts off and nearly pulled the upset. Great showing. BYU lost a close game that they should have won but I think they were pretty disappointed in the bowl, the city they played in, and the opponent plus had a monsoon hit right before the game. Everything I heard from BYU fans who made the trek to shreveport was that shreveport is a **** hole and the weather was horrible and it was just a depressing place to be. I think the players felt that way too.
Utah state on the other hand wasn't supposed to have a chance against SDSU in the championship game and they beat the odds and balled out and brought emotion and momentum into their bowl game against a middle tier pac12 opponent in a very down year for the pac 12.
Ohio State is good, and it showed with the high level of play with 24 scholarship players out including four key starters opting out to avoid injury for the draft. It almost feels unfair with how much talent some teams get.
Still, Utah controlled most of the game and had a good showing.
As far as BYU, no excuses, they didn't step up. Playing the bowl they didn't want (losing reinforces their bowl placement) or complaining about the location is weak sauce. Simply a bad loss.
USU beat a SDSU team without a lot of players due to COVID, but dominated the game to win thr MW championship they were lucky to get to due to Boise losing to SDSU.
They won their bowl game against a team that beat Utah early on with Rising playing, but it was before Utah really clicked. They also did it with their third string QB, who had never thrown a pass in a college game.
Sometimes losses like what the Utes experienced with SDSU and Oregon State are what a team needs to focus and get where they need to be. For Ohio State those losses were Oregon and Michigan, which kept them out of the playoff, with the Rose Bowl being the consolation.
If USU hadn't lost to Wyoming, I'm not sure they would have had the focus to beat SDSU and Oregon State. My hats are off to them as the MW was pretty strong this year.
