Indiana will play Utah in the Fosters Farm Bowl on Dec. 28 at 8:30 p.m. in Santa Clara, California, it was announced Sunday.

So, Tom Allen, what do you know about your opponent?

"Absolutely nothing. I don't know if I've ever seen then play this year," Allen said. "I know Coach (Kyle Whittingham) there has done a great job. Every time I've seen them they're very athletic and well disciplined, a good football team. But I have literally not seen them play once this season."

It's hard to blame Allen for not being familiar with Utah. The Hoosiers and Utes didn't share a mutual opponent this season and haven't played one another since 2002. Indiana hasn't played a PAC-12 team of any kind since 2004.

With that in mind, let's dive into getting ourselves familiar with Utah.

The University of Utah is a public college located in Salt Lake City, Utah. The college can be found on the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains that span nearly 160 miles.

The University was founded by Brigham Young on Feb. 28, 1850 but closed in 1853 due to a variety of reasons mostly related to funding. It was re-established in 1867 and has been operating ever since.

The school currently serves a little over 32,000 students and has about 100 majors at the undergraduate level and about 90 at the graduate level. It's in-state tuition is $7,835 and it's out-of-state tuition is currently at $25,057.

Forbes lists Utah at No. 159 on its list of top colleges, No. 34 among public schools. It stands out particularly well as a research institution, where Forbes ranks it No. 74 overall.

Notable alumni include:

--- Nolan Bushnell, the founderChuck E. Cheese's and the video game company Atari

--- J. Willard Marriott, the founder of the Marriott hotel chain

--- Alex Smith, quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs

--- Edwin Catmull, the president of Pixar Animation Studios

--- Larry H Miller, businessman and owner of the Utah Jazz

He's Utah's head coach.

Whittingham has been the head coach at Utah since 2005 and actually got his start as a co-coach with Urban Meyer in the Utes 2004 Fiesta Bowl win. He's got a 103-50 overall record at Utah and has been particularly strong in the postseason where he is 9-1 in 13 seasons.

Whittingham doesn't seem to be going anywhere either. He signed a contract extension through 2020 back in January that pays him an average of $3.3 million per year.

Whittngham played linebacker at BYU before a brief professional career that saw him bounce from the Denver Gold and the New Orleans Breakers of the USFL, the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL and the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL as part of the replacement squad.

His coaching career began in 1985 as a graduate assistant at BYU. He then spent time at Eastern Utah and Idaho State as a defensive coach before joining the Utah staff in 1994 as a defensive line coach.

He was promoted to defensive coordinator in 1995 and took over as head coach in 2005.

WIN vs. Southern Utah, 24-0

WIN vs. BYU, 20-19

WIN @ San Jose State, 34-17

WIN vs. USC, 31-27

LOSS @ California, 28-23

WIN vs. Arizona, 36-23

WIN @ Oregon State, 19-14

WIN @ UCLA, 52-45

LOSS vs. Washington, 31-24

WIN @ Arizona State, 49-26

LOSS vs. Oregon, 30-28

LOSS @ Colorado, 27-22

Utah started out hot as winners of seven games in its first eight tries to climb into College Football Playoff contention before losing three of its last four to close out the season at 8-4.

While the Utes would have liked a more prestigious bowl, the Foster Farms Bowl is in the heart of the program's recruiting pipeline. Utah has 39 Californians on its roster, which might make it feel more like a home game than a traditional neutral site.

Utah had its eyes on playing in one of the New Years Six bowls this time last month but will settle for Santa Clara after slipping on the road to a potential Pac-12 championship.

The Utes went down swinging, losing to Washington by seven, beating Arizona State convincingly, losing to Oregon by two and then losing to Colorado by five. A bowl win against Indiana would be a positive to end what has been a disappointing end to a season full of promise midway through

Interceptions: As a team, Utah picked off 17 passes this year so far, ranking No. 10 in the country. Brian Allen, a senior cornerback, leads the way with four. With IU junior quarterback Richard Lagow's tendency to get a little too careless with the ball at times, the Utes might jump all over the quarterback who already has 16 picks to his credit.

Closes losses: Utah has lost games to California, Washington, Oregon and Colorado by a combined 19 points. This is a competitive team that was a few breaks away from running the table. Four of its wins have come by a single score or less, though. So it might be a close game.

Stout run defense and a sketchy pass defense: Utah isn't a pushover on the ground. The Utes are only allowing 129.7 rushing yards per game, ranking No. 23 in the country. They've also given up just 12 touchdowns to opposing rushers. Indiana might be better off going threw the air where Utah allows 256.8 yards per game, ranking No. 101 in the country.

The Utes are great on special teams: Utah finished the regular season ranking No. 1 in its conference in both Kickoff return average (24.5 yards per return) and punting (44.9 yards per kick). The Utes rank strongly in just about every other special teams area, which doesn't bode well for an Indiana team that has struggled in that phase of the game.

Joe Williams. The junior running back has appeared in eight games this season and has 1,185 yards and nine touchdowns on just 184 carries. That's a per-carry average of 6.44 yards per touch. He had an absolutely ridiculous outing against UCLA, takngi 29 carries for 332 yards.

The University of Utah calls itself the "Utes" in honor of the American Indian tribe that Utah is named after. The Utes were among the earliest native American Indiana groups to learn how to use horses as transport.

The school's mascot is "Swoop," the red-tailed hawk.