Texas Football: 5 reasons the Longhorns will upset Utah in Alamo Bowl

4. This is not where Utah envisioned they would be in bowl season

The question of which team is more motivated in respective big time Power Five bowl games always surfaces. Especially when a team like Utah just misses out on the College Football Playoff by falling short in something like a conference championship game, there can be a question of how much they really want to be in a lower-tier bowl game than anticipated.

Utah fell short of College Football Playoff contention by losing to the Oregon Ducks in the PAC-12 Championship Game in convincing fashion, by the final score of 37-15. Since Oregon came into the PAC-12 Championship Game with two losses, they were effectively already eliminated from College Football Playoff contention and landed in the Rose Bowl.

That meant that Utah didn’t get into the two postseason games they were really hoping for entering the conference title game. They didn’t get a slot in the Rose Bowl, against the Minnesota Golden Gophers out of the Big Ten.

Even though the question of Utah’s confidence and motivation will be there in the Alamo Bowl before kickoff, Texas can’t come in with the mindset that they’ll walk over a team with no momentum. Senior star quarterback Tyler Huntley and All-PAC-12 running back Zack Moss are still going to pose real threats to the Longhorns.