Utah Football Named Nominee For 2021 Courage Award

DALLAS – The University of Utah Football team has been named a nominee for the 2021 Capital One Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award, it was announced today.

The Utes beat the UCLA Bruins on Saturday, Oct. 30 in front of a Rice-Eccles Stadium record 51,922 fans, officially retiring the No. 22 to honor teammates Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe, both of whom died within the past year. Utah scored 44 points in the game, which signified 22 points for Jordan and 22 points for Lowe.

Along with retiring the No. 22, Utah has made Lowe and Jordan a permanent part of the field at Rice-Eccles Stadium with a logo in the southwest corner being placed on the field to honor them.

The Courage Award was first presented by the Football Writers Association of America in 2002 with a select group of writers from the FWAA voting on the winner each year. The award is given out to someone who has displayed courage on or off the field with the award being included in festivities during Capital One Orange Bowl week.

Against UCLA, Utah retired the No. 22 in between the first and second quarters with the Utes scoring on the first play after the celebration in honor of Lowe and Jordan. Between the third and fourth quarters, the video honoring the best friends from Mesquite, Texas, played with fans celebrating in a moment of loudness for Lowe and Jordan, once again scoring on the first play after the emotional tribute.

The video that Utah plays at home games before the fourth quarter is narrated by head coach Kyle Whittingham and urges fans to live the way that Jordan and Lowe did – to smile, and to be 22-percent better every day. The Utes have turned that into their motto this season, to honor their teammates and make themselves better on and off the field.

Utah, who currently leads the Pac-12 South, returns to action on Nov. 5 when they travel to Stanford for a Friday night matchup. The game is set for an 8:30 p.m. MT kick on FS1.