The Utah college football program began in 1892 and has played home games at the current site of Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City since 1927.

[5][6] During those seasons, Utah was a member of the Mountain West Conference, whose champion does not receive an automatic invitation to a BCS bowl.

[9] Utah had its first sustained success when, in 1904, it hired Joe Maddock to coach football, as well as basketball and track.

He has written here to say that his team now holds the championship of Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and the greater part of Colorado.

When he won the hard-fought battle with Colorado College a week ago the Salt Lake City papers said: 'Maddock' is a new way of saying success.

The great Michigan tackle has taken boys who never saw a football before and made them the star players of the Rocky Mountain States.

Quarterback Lee Grosscup caught the attention of the east coast press when he and the Utes had a close 33–39 loss to top ten program Army at West Point, New York.

Grosscup threw for 316 yards against a tough Army defense in an era where most teams seldom passed the ball.

[2] As a reward, the Utes garnered an invitation to Atlantic City to play in the 1964 Liberty Bowl, which was the first major college football game held indoors.

Giddings had previously been an assistant coach at USC under head coach John McKay and brought with him hopes that the Utes football program would be turned around, but an inability to get recruiting going led to on-field issues that essentially prevented any chance of viable football success.

To make matters worse, these years coincided with the emergence of BYU football under the tutelage of LaVell Edwards.

Though the Stobart era wasn't the worst period in Utes football history, it was marked by the continued mediocrity that had plagued the program in recent years.

[26] The lone bright spot of his tenure was a 57–28 upset of nationally ranked BYU to end the 1988 season, which was dubbed by Ute fans as The Rice Bowl.

In 1999, Utah was again co-conference champion, this time finishing in a three-way tie for the first Mountain West Conference title.

Season-ticket sales fell 15% as a result, problematic given the costly rebuilding of Rice-Eccles Stadium, and pressure rose to fire McBride.

[28] Despite the inglorious end to McBride's tenure, he is credited with laying the foundation for Utah's rise to national prominence, which came under his successors.

[40][41] Whittingham served as the co-head coach in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, helping Utah to defeat Pittsburgh.

Thus far, in his 23 years with the program, Utah has compiled a 189–91 record (.675), played in 16 bowl games (winning 14), captured five conference titles, won one Pac-12 South Division co-championship, and finished in the top ten three times.

In 2008, Utah posted a record of 13–0 on their way to winning the MWC Championship, and they were the only undefeated team in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

During the regular season, the Utes beat Michigan on the road and Oregon State, TCU, and BYU at home.

Four of the teams Utah beat ended the season in the Coaches' and AP Polls: Oregon State, TCU, BYU, and Alabama.

4 Crimson Tide and Boise State's loss in the Poinsettia Bowl, the Utes ended the season 13–0 as the nation's only undefeated team.

† Co-championship The Utah Utes have played in 26 NCAA sanctioned major bowl games with a record of 17–9 (.654) through the 2022 season.

The much-anticipated project enclosed the south end of Rice-Eccles Stadium added unique premium spaces to the venue, and increased capacity to 51,444 was announced in November 2018.

[62] Despite not having played each other in nearly 50 years prior to the 2011–12 season, Utah and Colorado maintain a rivalry that was reignited with the admission of both teams into the Pac-12.

[71] Just before the third quarter for each home game, the Utah marching band plays the Blues Brothers theme (Otis Redding's "I Can't Turn You Loose") while a female fan dances in front of them.

[citation needed] Originally, the song was played between the third and fourth quarters, but Utah officials moved it to halftime at the start of the 2012 season.

The tradition was started by "Bubbles", an elderly fan who danced enthusiastically to the song when the band first played it and thereby helped energize the crowd.

"[74] Since 1968, the University of Utah's Army ROTC department has operated a cannon on the sidelines called Ute Thunder.

The tradition was later updated to tribute Aaron Lowe, a Utah CB who was a victim of a fatal shooting during the 2021 football season.