Utah began the season thinking they had a realistic shot at making the College Football Playoff.

Instead, after sustaining an unbelievable run of injuries to key players, the Utes find themselves at 8-4, and playing in the Las Vegas Bowl against Northwestern -- and dealing with an unusually large number of players who have either entered the transfer portal or the NFL Draft.

With so many questions swirling about the Utah roster, and what their mentality is heading into Saturday's game, we talked to UteNation.com publisher Alex Markham to get the inside scoop.

Here is our Q&A.