Are any Beehive State college football programs among the 25 best of the 2000s?

Last week, in recognition that 25 years of college football have been played in the 21st Century, Stewart Mandel of The Athletic took a look back at the top programs from the time period and then ranked the top 25.The Utah Utes cracked the list, coming in at No.

22.

To determine his rankings, Mandel used nine different metrics:Win percentageNumber of BCS/New Years Six bowl appearancesNumber of national titles wonNumber of conference titles wonNumber of Top 10 winsNumber of Top 25 winsNumber of times ranked in the top 10Number of times ranked in the top 25Number of losing seasonsThe Utes have a win percentage of .555 during the time period, have been to five BCS/New Years Six bowls and have won four conference championships.

They also have 17 top 10 wins, 42 top 25 wins, have spent 9.7% of the time ranked in the top 10, 40.1% of the time ranked in the top 25 and have had five losing seasons.Utah, then a member of the Mountain West, posted undefeated seasons in 2004 (under Urban Meyer) and 2008 (under Kyle Whittingham) before moving up to the Pac-12 in 2011, Mandel wrote.Whittingham has led the Utes to four double-digit-win seasons since then, with Pac-12 titles in 2021 and 22, but theyre more often an eight- or nine-win team.The 5 most important players for Utah in 2025ESPN ranks Kyle Whittingham as No.

9 coach in the nationPerhaps coincidentally, the Utes are sandwiched in Mandels rankings around two other programs whose head coaches have been there for a long time, as Iowa is at No.

23 and Oklahoma State is at No.

21.Along with Whittingham, Iowas Kirk Ferentz and Oklahoma States Mike Gundy are the three longest tenured coaches in college football.In Mandels rankings, Ohio State is No.

1 and Michigan State rounded things out at No.

25.TCU is the only other current Big 12 Conference team in the rankings beside Oklahoma State and Utah, coming in at No.

19..

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