To cap off a truly unique and adversity filled 2023 season, the University of Utah welcomed Coach Prime and the Colorado Buffaloes to Salt Lake City on Senior Day.

While it wasn’t the prettiest game between these two schools, the Utes relied on their next-man-up mentality to the fullest extent and pulled off an impressive eight-win season despite a revolving door of injuries.

Here are the takeaways from the latest edition of the “Rumble in the Rockies”.

Ja’Quinden Jackson is a warrior

How can you not appreciate and love what Ja’Quinden Jackson did for the program this season? Not only did he continue to embrace his position change for an entire season, but he battled week after week despite being banged up consistently.

Nearly every single game, Jackson was either limping off the field or being checked out by the medical staff. But that didn’t stop him from suiting up every opportunity and giving his all on each and every down.

For the season, Jackson finished with 742 yards and four touchdowns.

If he can remain healthy next season, Jackson could very well reach 1000+ yards and 10+ touchdowns. Another reason to be stoked about 2024.

Jaylon Glover is starting to figure it out

After somewhat of a slow start to his Utah career, running back Jaylon Glover appears to have made a lot of progress over the past few weeks and may have finally figured things out.

“Nice to see Jaylon Glover. Jaylon had his breakout game as a Ute. By far his best game, over a hundred yards, got a game ball,” Coach Kyle Whittingham said.

While we’ve seen a few impressive moments from Glover the past two seasons, Colorado was arguably the most complete game of the Florida native's young career. With multiple jaw-dropping fakes that shook defenders out of their cleats, it appears that Glover may have acclimated to the college game.

For the day, Glover finished with a career-high 107 yards on 17 attempts (6.3 average).

“The more opportunities come, the more I’m going to be prepared…I compete against the best of the best Monday through Friday…” Jaylon Glover explained.

Bottari did enough to get the win

I don’t even want to know what the chances were that Bottari would take a snap this year when the season began, but here we are. It’s also important to note that Bottari was not even with the program during fall camp as he’d transferred to Cal. However, he made the decision to return to Utah and was clearly ready for whatever they asked of him.

"I love this program with all my heart, obviously why I came back. I was ready for anything when I came back, to play or not play. Whatever they asked me I was ready to do,” Botarri said.

In his first ever start for the Utes and the only action he’s seen at the college level in years, Bottari finished 6-10 for 61 yards and 11 yards on the ground with two touchdowns.

Sure, there’s an argument that he wasn’t asked to do a lot in terms of passing but he made the most of his opportunities, put points on the board, didn’t make any mistakes, managed the game very well, and got the win. What more can you ask?

CBs struggled, but Smith Snowden is as advertised

Given the situation and the fact that Utah wasn’t missing any key players at CB against the Buffaloes, it was a pretty poor effort.

Overall, the Utes surrendered 225 yards to Colorado’s backup QB and nearly gave up two touchdowns to Travis Hunter, the first of which there was no defender in sight. Luckily for the defense, Hunter dropped the ball and the touchdown was overturned.

Here’s the caveat: nobody advertised this position group as elite this season. In addition to losing Clark Phillips, the room has experienced some turnover and is very young.

However, they’ve still have some playmakers and few guys with a lot of potential. Players like CJ Blocker, Tao Johnson and Smith Snowden are extremely talented and have made a few nice plays early in their careers. Over the past few weeks, Snowden has demonstrated a lot of promise with his positioning, tackling ability and nose for the football.

Against Colorado he finished the day with two tackles.

So let's be realistic here. The CB play was never going to be elite this season and was poor at times, but the group is young and still did enough to help Utah win eight games.

The Utes won't three-peat, but eight wins is a remarkable achievement

The previous two seasons were magical for the University of Utah. Back-to-back conference titles, two Rose Bowl appearances, and several first round NFL Draft picks. So to be left out of that title race and incapable of receiving a New Year's Bowl invite seems strange and unsettling.

However, while whatever bowl game Utah ends up in cannot replicate that magic, to win eight games this season with the amount of injuries and adversity they endured is a remarkable achievement and there was certainly magic along the way.

Bryson Barnes’ bomb to Money Parks for a touchdown against Florida, the comeback against Baylor, the emergence of Sione Vaki on both sides of the ball, College Gameday in Salt Lake City and a Pig Farmer outplaying the former Heisman Trophy winner. This season had some incredible moments and EASILY could’ve gone a different way.

But talented programs rise to the occasion. They overcome adversity and that's exactly what Utah did this year. Deposit the expectations coming into the season, Utah fans should be proud of the way the team battled no matter what. Plus, a lot of these guys are coming back next season and Utah looks poised to make a serious title run in their new conference.

Take the wins where you can, and for Utah, they secured eight in an injury riddled season.

“It was a tremendous year for the Pac-12 as far as talent and teams. All four of our losses were to top 20 teams…you add Florida and Baylor to that, it was a pretty rigorous schedule. Given the guys that went down it was like a revolving door every week. But the next man up mentality was never more in play than it was this year,” Whittingham said.