Utah Schedule Pt. 3

Utah at Washington

Easily Utah’s toughest game. Not sure there is anything else close. Take all of the reasons above, plus add coming off of a physical game against Cal, plus consider Utah’s history against Washington, plus consider it is a road game in November. Also consider it is the only game Utah is not favored in my S&P+. And then also consider that Utah doesn’t get it’s second week off until after this game, whereas Washington will be coming off its second week off.

I just don’t see how Utah wins this game.

Utah vs. UCLA

I think this is also a sneaky difficult game for Utah. Again, I like that it is at home and that UCLA will likely still be having a down year, but I think that with health they could be a much better team than many are expecting them to be.

Both utah and UCLA will be coming off their second week off, but UCLA will have played Colorado beforehand while Utah played Washington. Even after an off week, Utah may have lingering injuries from playing a physical road game two weeks earlier. The games following Utah for UCLA are USC and Cal, whereas Utah finishes with Arizona and Colorado.

Utah at Arizona

On paper I am not at all worried about this game. Utah is favored by over a touchdown according to the analytics, Utah will have a great defense to stop Arizona’s running and passing games, and Utah shredded this team last season. Utah also comes off of UCLA at home while Arizona plays Oregon on the road. Utah plays Colorado at home the following week while Arizona plays on the road for the Territorial Cup against ASU. This should be a scheduling advantage for Utah no matter how you look at it.

That said, there is something about November games in Arizona. There is a good chance that at this point Utah has already all but locked up the South, or is close to doing it, but Utah has been in that position before in Arizona. I don’t want any part of this football game.

Utah vs. Colorado

Once again, on paper this game is nothing to worry about. The final (home) game of the season, ideally having already locked up the South, and playing a Colorado team that is finishing it’s gauntlet second half and just played Washington. If the South is still in question and Utah is part of it, I’m sure Colorado will want to once again play spoiler in Salt Lake City, but Utah should be the much better team and has the preferable schedule heading into the game.

The season is won and lost on the field, but it’s important to consider how much of a team’s on-field success is because of the logistics that are put together behind a desk at conference headquarters or over the phone between athletic directors. Good teams lose to bad teams all the time in college football, and a lot of times the reasons are because of schedule losses. Utah is the beneficiary of a favorable schedule, and for the most part benefits from being on the bad side of its opponents schedules as well, and it is an underappreciated reason why the Utes are set to have a great year.