This article was written by Patrick Kelly, PAC-12 correspondent for College Nation Tailgate Time.

At the end of the 2017 season, Utah could go around the PAC-12 and say that they were the only winners during bowl season. As the Utes gazed out at the south over the offseason they got better while they saw many of their divisional members go through massive regime changes and player losses to the draft, graduation, or transfers. Utah wasn’t immune to these things, but the impact won’t be on the same scale as many of their adversaries.

In 2017 Utah was 1 point away, in a #PAC12AfterDark showdown against USC, that could have meant Utah finishes 2nd in the conference and possibly heads to the Cotton Bowl to play against Ohio State instead of USC. Close losses are nothing new to Utah and they lost 4 last season by 8 or less. A lot of this falls on the offense since they were implementing a new offense, starting a freshman QB, and four freshman lineman. For almost any school not named Alabama this is a major setback.

Kyle Whittingham is entering his 14th season as the Utes head coach, and this could be the year he is able to add another accomplishment to his belt by claiming a south title. Leading his offense is returning starter Tyler Huntley (187-286 for 2246 yards 15 touchdowns and 335 rushing yards 4 touchdowns) who went 6-4 last season due to injury, and looks to improve. While not having his security blankets in Darren Carrington and Raelon Singleton, Huntley will have to rely on talented and hungry youth at receiver to help stretch the field, and he should have a better time getting the ball where it needs to go behind a seasoned offensive line.

In the backfield Zach Moss (194 carries, 1173 yards and 9 touchdowns) returns looking to have another big 1000 yard season. In 2016 Armand Shyne went down with a knee injury and coming into the 2017 season broke his arm, but will return this season hopefully to build on his decent 2016 stats of 78 carries for 373 and 4 touchdowns. Lastly Utah will hopefully be able to get more production out of Devonta’e Henry-Cole (34 carries 279 yards and 2 touchdowns) who saw limited and often times negative play.

A theme with Utah in 2017 linemen who saw their first playing time last season, gave up 38 sacks (9th in the PAC)and only managed to average 164 rushing yards a game (7th in the PAC). If Utah plans on turning the corner and taking the south a big part of it will come from this group, being able to give Huntley time and opening holes for Moss, Shyne and Henry-Cole could be what keeps Utah from a season of 8 point or less games.

At Wide Receiver the Utes lost two big targets, Darren Carrington and Raelon Singleton these two accounted for over 1500 yards. Saiso Mariner was the Utes third leading receiver and will now have to fill in the shoes of Carrington and Singleton and become a reliable target for Huntley. But the weight isn’t all on Mariner’s shoulders as there as also a very large talent pool of young and capable receivers on the outside. Demari Simpkins, Bryan Thompson and Samson Nacua are all ready to go on the outside of the field, while Jaylen Dixon and Jameson Field will manage inside. Utah didn’t go to the tight ends much, but the Utes did lose two senior last season and maybe whoever steps up can be used in a greater capacity than last season.

Defensively Utah has always been stable and sat in the mid-30 to mid-40 range over the last several seasons. That said this defense produced the least amount of sacks in the Whittingham era with only 25. Hopefully that can change this season, but Utah saw the departure of 3 seniors on the line and only return Bradlee Anae who saw 10 games last season on the left side of the line. The right side saw a heavy rotation between Mika Tafua, Caleb Repp and Nick Heninger who all are still competing for the starting spot. In between the ends Utah will utilize Leki Fotu, Pita Tonga, Hauati Pututau and John Penisini all of which should have a larger impact than last season.

The linebacker position may be the biggest question mark for the Utes. Last year Utah graduated 2 starters and moved QB to Safety now LB Chase Hansen, who coming out of the spring has really latched on to the position, but according to staff they aren’t really surprised and have known he could play multiple positions well. Cody Barton, Donavan Thompson, Devin Lloyd and JUCO transfer Bryant Pirtle can hopefully shore up any concerns Whittingham and company may have about the position.

With the move of Chase Hansen to LB Utah will only return 5 of the 6 defensive backs they had last season. Those 5 were all freshmen, and even with the youth at that position Utah managed allow only 56% of pass completions. This depth and experience should help with Utah’s pass rush defense game.

With an overall look at the Utes, it’s time to look at their schedule. The Utes will open up with a safe game against Weber State, then travel to Northern Illinois for some odd reason. It’s safe to say that Washington may be the Utes first loss. Peterson and the Huskies recruit at a higher level than Washington, and also return Jake Browning and Miles Gaskin and a defense that should still be at a high level even with all the players that left for the NFL. Washington does have to travel Rice-Eccles and no one likes playing there, it brings some of the weirdest outcomes, top that with it’s an 8pm kickoff so a very strong candidate for #PAC12AfterDark. This game may be worth staying up for. That said, Utah could very well see a loss in their first 3 conference games, they will travel back to back to Washington State and Stanford, neither of which is a pushover in the north. That said must watch games, besides Washington, will be USC and Oregon both of which are at home, and could be very winnable given the questions both teams have. I could see Utah going 7-5 maybe 8-4, but USC is a must win, everyone else Utah should be able to handle business with everyone else in the south.

Date Opponent Location Chance of WInning Aug. 30 Weber State Rice-Eccles, SLC 95% Sept. 8 Northern Illinois Huskie Stadium, IL 69% Sept. 15 Washington Rice-Eccles, SLC 21% Sept. 29 Washington State Martin Stadium, WA 58% Oct. 6 Stanford Stanford Stadium, CA 20% Oct. 12 Arizona Rice-Eccles, SLC 64% Oct. 20 USC Rice-Eccles,SLC 39% Oct. 26 UCLA Rose Bowl, CA 51% Nov. 3 Arizona State Sun Devil Stadium, AZ 55% Nov. 10 Oregon Rice-Eccles, SLC 50% Nov. 17 Colorado Folsom Field, CO 77% Nov. 24 BYU Rice-Eccles, SLC 87%

Photo credit: Utah Utes Football Facebook page