BYUtah Insiders

By Corey Hickman, BYU Correspondent 

BYU’s emotionally stable fan base has called for Bronco Mendenhall’s job periodically throughout his tenure. Usually this dynamic flares up as fans search for a scapegoat after tough losses in the rivalry game or against ranked opponents. However, this sentiment has increasingly festered as fans watched Bronco pledge undying devotion to a limited, albeit lionhearted quarterback. Certain enraged fans are gathering on Cougar Board, sharpening their pitchforks and preparing to run Bronco out of town as the succession plan for the next coach that will take BYU back to the promise land. My caution to such fans is what many a wise individual has uttered, “Be careful what you wish for…”

There is no question that Mendenhall’s support of Riley Nelson has legitimately shaken the faith of many Cougar fans (myself included). However, I have failed to come across an argument that has compelled me to believe that BYU would be better off without Bronco. Let us look at the numbers. Bronco’s win-loss record is 73-29, which is roughly a 72 percent winning percentage. Bronco has led BYU to a bowl game in every post season while he has been the head coach. Bronco has also led BYU to several national rankings including a defense ranked number three, this very year. I won’t discount detracting arguments recognizing Bronco’s record against ranked teams, his record in the rivalry, and his lack of a BCS appearance. However, few can argue that Bronco hasn’t set the bar relatively high. Personally, I enjoy and prefer rooting for a team that wins more than loses.

Bronco’s departure seems rather looming due to a few developing issues in play. Bronco has reportedly entertained other coaching opportunities; most recently at Colorado. Bronco has also stated that he does not plan on becoming a BYU lifer like Coach Edwards. Another contributing factor is the conspicuous disdain for BYU fans that can be seen on Bronco’s shirt sleeve; a stain that seems to be increasing with time. What might come as a head scratcher to some, the fact remains that several notable institutions value Bronco’s abilities at a much higher rate than his current employer.

As the reality sets in that BYU’s marriage with Bronco Mendenhall will end in divorce, sooner rather than later, BYU fans need to brace themselves. The fear of the unknown is warranted. Success at the highest level of college football is difficult to achieve and even more difficult when one plays by the rules of the NCAA, as well as those of the BYU honor code. BYU nation has yet to render a name of a coach that will first take the job, and second, excel at BYU. I indeed hope the talent pool of LDS coaches who are willing to come to Provo is deeper than the puddle I have conceptualized. However, I have serious doubts that anyone currently out there will be able to surpass the bar set by Bronco Mendenhall.

In my humble opinion, Bronco deserves more time to transition into life with BYU as an independent program (since that probably isn’t going to change, but that is another topic for another blog post). Only time will tell and little remains certain at this point. Change could certainly come with some rather scary consequences. Beware Cougar Nation, beware!

By Corey Hickman, BYUtahInsiders Contributor 

Call me Captain Obvious, but it is fair to say neither team has lived up to this year’s preseason hype. Several fans and sports writers had Utah competing for a PAC 12 title as well as the Cougars clawing at a possible top 10 ranking. Neither of these team’s hopes were realized this year as each team had injury issues at QB and offenses that struggled to find their way. The Cougars punched their ticket to the post season and the Utes suffered their first losing season in a decade. If there were such thing as an unbiased fan, it would be easy to say that BYU has more hope moving forward. But, in the sometimes obnoxious words of Lee Corso… “Not so fast!” As much as BYU fans would like to forget the fact remains that the Utes have bested the cougars the last 3 seasons. There are additional factors in play that must be considered before we draw conclusions about which fan base should have more hope for the future.

UTAH

By The Numbers: Utah finished the season 5-7 and the Utes will be missing a bowl game for the first time since Urban Meyer showed up and implemented phrases like “the team down south.” Ute fans are justifiably disappointed in their team’s defense as they finished the season ranked 35th in total defense. However, the Utes’ offensive numbers are probably even more surprising and are down right disgusting. Even with a first year OC and their senior QB going down in the second game no one expected the Utes to finish the season ranked 105th in total offense. While no fan base wants to see their team ranked in the triple digits in any statistical category, it should be noted that the Utes faced a schedule that was much more challenging than expected. The USA Today Sagarin rankings have the Utes strength of schedule at 26th. The same rankings have Utah finishing the season 50thoverall, which isn’t as bad as one might have previously guessed given the losing record and the terrible numbers on offense.

The road doesn’t get any easier: The problem for Utah is that the Pac-12 is getting better and Utah is arguably getting worse. Next season the Utes play 9 teams that became bowl eligible in 2012 (USU, BYU, OSU, UCLA, Stanford, ASU, Oregon, USC, and Arizona).  5 of these teams finished the season with a top 25 ranking in the BCS (Oregon, Stanford, OSU, UCLA, and USU). With a schedule that challenging it will be a tall order for the Utes to make a dramatic improvement next season.

Hope for the Future: Although the Utes lose their defensive MVP the good news is they won’t have to listen to commentators butcher the name Star Lotulelei anymore. If Brian Blechen made it back from Boulder without stopping at the medical marijuana clinics he should lead his team to a solid year defensively. I believe the Utes will reload on defense and come back very competitive on that side of the ball next season.

Offensively the Utes have nowhere to go but up. Losing John White IV won’t help this team, but Kelvin York should be able to pick up where White left off. York will more than likely continue to consistently hit the century mark in rushing yardage. The biggest thing providing hope for next year is that the Utes finally have a durable, albeit humongous QB. If Brian Johnson and Travis Wilson are worth their salt, the Utah offense should improve markedly in year two of Johnson and White leading the offense.

BYU

There are 3 essential ingredients for success as an independent team, and going down the list it looks like this: 1. Exposure – check, 2) Schedule – check, 3) Win big games – well, not so much. BYU’s best win on the season was a 6-3 victory over the Utah State Aggies, for crying out loud. The Cougars had three opportunities to beat ranked teams and failed in each attempt. Therefore, this season will go down as “the season that could/should have been.” The old adage “defense wins championships” is wasted on this team as the BYU offense found several ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, shoot themselves in the foot, and underachieve. Cougar fans have never seen a BYU defense this good, but it wasn’t enough for that special season fans and players have been longing for.

Senior Laden Defense: BYU’s defense finished the regular season ranked 3 in total defense. They really have nowhere to go but down as the Cougars lose several key defensive players to graduation. BYU graduates two very stout senior middle linebackers, Kavenga and Ogletree, not to mention losing Zac Stout another middle linebacker due to the famed Rancheritos incident. There is also the chance that Kyle Van Noy will likely turn pro, which would leave the BYU linebacking corps with only one returning starter. BYU also loses a couple of key contributors on the D-line. No one will forget the team’s top pass rusher Ezekiel Ansah, the freak of nature from Ghana, who will likely be an early round NFL lottery pick. Preston Hadley also graduates this off season. Hadley is arguably the best cornerback BYU has seen in the Bronco Mendenhall era. Corners like Hadley rarely arrive at BYU let alone live up to their potential. Regardless of Mendenhall’s skillful leadership of his defense it will be very difficult to come close to the performance fans saw during the 2012 campaign.

Free Taysom: It will be hard to find a BYU fan without the last name Nelson or Mendenhall that is not happy to see Riley leave along with his wounded back and wounded duck passes. BYU fans are filled with venom toward Riley as they watched him turn the ball over, miss open receivers, and fail to get in the end zone. BYU fans are excited to see how high the ceiling is for sophomore Taysom Hill. Fans can hope for a season free from QB controversy as Hill already has 2 very solid starts under his belt and seems to have all the tools to return the BYU QB position back to prominence. The major challenge will be for Brandon Doman to call plays that will keep Hill healthy instead of sidelining him with more injuries. Although Riley Nelson is gone, most fans are left with diminished faith in their head coach who continued to start Riley at what seemed to be the detriment of the offense. Of course no fan was privileged to all of the information at Mendenhall’s fingertips, but most fans pin this season’s failures squarely on the shoulders of the coaching staff.

Scheduling: 2013 will finally provide season ticket holders with some worthwhile home matchups. BYU will play Texas, Utah, Georgia Tech, and Boise State all at home. The Cougars road schedule isn’t much easier with BYU traveling to Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Utah State, Houston, and Virginia.  It will take a lot of improvement offensively to improve on this year’s total of seven wins.

Bottom Line

Both teams have some legitimate question marks on both sides of the ball and in key coaching positions. It is still hard to say which team will have the better 2013 season. The bottom line for Utah is that they have to improve next year or they will receive some major criticism. If Utah fails to go bowling in back to back seasons, critics and Cougar fans will begin to argue that Utah does not belong at the big boy table in the Pac-12. The argument will also be made that Utah was better off staying put in the MWC where they could consistently contend for an undefeated season. For BYU, the Cougars need to do more than be competitive in big games. Success in 2013 means winning the rivalry game and beating not all, but a few of those schools on the schedule that are perennially ranked in the top 25.

One thing is certain; neither fan base should buy into any sort of preseason hype. Everyone should dial down their expectations for next year. But then again, this is college football and anything (besides not having an SEC school in the BCS championship game) is possible.

By Trevor Amicone, Founder and Editor

Utah fans are still trying to figure out how to not go to a bowl game. BYU fans have popped open tubs of Rocky Roads and planted themselves in front of a TV playing 1984 highlights. Utah State? Logan has exploded, we don’t quite know what has happened in Cache Valley.

Here are my takeaways from the weekend:

• Welp, BYU is headed to the Poinsettia Bowl (which we knew two months ago), but now we know they are probably going to play San Diego State. Both teams have now lost to San Jose State. Marshall Faulk and Ty Detmer are shaking their heads.

• There are only two ways to explain Bronco Mendenhall’s continued confidence in Riley Nelson: either James Lark is worse than we could possibly imagine, or Bronco has an unhealthy man-crush on Riley.

• Kyle Whittingham has repeatedly said that this is the most talented team he’s had since he’s been the head coach at the University of Utah, outside of the 2008 Sugar Bowl team. If that’s the case, when is it time to start blaming the coaches for the underachieving?

• If your starting quarterback is a true freshman and your offensive coordinator is 25-years-old, you are going to have some growing pains. Why we didn’t all see that coming is a little embarrassing.

• So what about those growing pains? Are they actually producing growth? It is obvious that Travis Wilson has gotten better over his time as the Utes’ starter. The Washington game was a big step back, but I put the blame on Brian Johnson for that one … speaking of growing pains. Johnson’s growing pains are slightly more concerning. Utah makes running an offense look like trying to land a human on Mars. There were some things that weren’t working that Johnson took out of the offense (i.e. quarterback draw), but there are still some things that need to be taken out (i.e. the slip screen that hasn’t worked since Urban Meyer was at Utah, the two-yard out route to the tight end). Part of the spread offense is spreading the field to allow the playmakers to get open downfield. Johnson isn’t giving them a chance as much as he needs to. I think he will, but it will take time. I guess that’s why they call them growing pains.

• The Aggies’ victory over 19th-ranked Louisiana Tech was filled with excitement, stress, worry, anxiety then ecstasy. Once that all dissipated, there was that awkward silence where everyone tries to take everything in. Then there was that guy who started with great enthusiasm before fading into a mild disappointment. “We just won the WAC! Now we get to … go play … in … the Famous … Idaho … Potato … Bowl.” What?! How does that happen? The best team in the state of Utah wins its conference and plays in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Well, usually the WAC champs go to the, you got it, the Poinsettia Bowl. But this season, they go to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl because BYU took the WAC’s spot in the Poinsettia Bowl this season.

• BYU and Utah fans have been complaining all year about how close they have been to successful seasons. We get it, BYU could have beaten Utah, Boise State and now number-one Notre Dame. We get it, Utah was in every game they played in except Arizona State. But make way for the kings of almost. Utah State fans are celebrating today, but they’re also playing the ‘what-if’ game. The Aggies were one chip-shot field goal away from beating Wisconsin and four points away from beating BYU. Those two losses are all that now keeps Utah State from a BCS Bowl. Utah State going to a BCS Bowl before BYU? Mayans …

• Do you think that Utah State fans are still angry about Riley Nelson choosing to go to BYU after he got home from his Mormon mission?

• After this weekend, my final in-state power rankings:
1. Utah State
2. Jordan High School
3. Utah
4. BYU

By Corey Hickman, BYU Contributor 

BYU fans were traumatized yet again by the offensive output of their awful senior QB and more questionable coaching decisions.  BYU went on the road and lost to a team that will likely finish 3^rd in the WAC, a conference they owned once upon a time. It is debatable which collective group experienced the greater meltdown tonight, BYU’s offense or the BYU fans on twitter.

This blog post is dedicated to the fans, which were far and away more entertaining than BYU’s performance this past weekend. I submit to you my Top 10 tweets of the night. These tweets express the shared sentiment of BYU fans more than any blog post, column, radio show, etc. They also provide an unparalleled raw analysis of what took place on the field.

1)     Cody Hoffman has done more to bail out Riley Nelson, save Jesus only, than any other man that has ever lived.

2)     Chlamydia >>>> Riley Nelson

3)     It isn’t Riley’s fault our receivers are not 8ft tall. #broncothoughts

4)     I wish Riley Nelson had gone pro after last year’s Armed Forces Bowl.

5)     Sit out Nelson, have some respect!!!!!

6)     My love for BYU football is like a bad marriage. I know I should get out and not look back, but got too much invested to leave them

7)     Well BYU FANS that was the pickle on top of the S#%! Sandwich of a Season!

8)     That awkward moment when you talk about how great the Wash St. game was. #byu #utah

9)     Two remaining BYU games, eh? Does anyone have Tonya Harding and her boyfriend’s phone number handy?

10)  Trap game! BYU gets caught looking past San Jose State to New Mexico State and the Spartans make em pay!

I believe this is a list even David Letterman would appreciate if he followed the comedy of errors this season of BYU football has resembled. My hat is off to the BYU fans across the twitter-verse, I am forever grateful that you provided me with a meltdown this exceptional. They say laughter is the best form of medicine; thank goodness twitter was at my fingertips instead of a bottle of codeine.

By Parker Lee, Utah Correspondent 

Aside from John White’s performance, not much went right for Utah against Washington. Travis Wilson’s accuracy took a step back, the receivers dropped balls all over the field and the Utes converted just 1-of-13 third downs. Defensively, Utah was dominated on the line scrimmage and the Utes made the quarterback/running back/receiving combo of Keith Price, Bishop Sankey and Austin Seferian-Jenkins look like Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin.

In the wake of that debacle, Utah is choosing to forget it rather than dwell on it. Instead, the Utes are trying to emulate what they did in the previous two weeks.

“We have to get back to what got us the wins against Cal and Washington State,” Utah passing game coordinator Aaron Roderick said. “In those games, we took care of the ball, we ran the ball efficiently, and we threw the ball efficiently. That’s really all it comes down to, just making the routine plays.”

Failure to make the routine plays has crippled Utah throughout the season. Against Oregon State, receiver Devonte Christopher let a pass go through his hands that got picked, which led to a Beaver touchdown. Later in that contest, Christopher fumbled the ball on a reverse at the Oregon State 5-yard line on what would have been an easy touchdown.

Going back even further, a pick-six thrown by Travis Wilson against USC ultimately made the difference. Wilson has also shown that he can be productive and he has the potential to lead the team to victory, but he has to make good decisions for that to happen.

“He has already shown that he knows how to win, but he has got to prove,” Roderick said. “It’s not just him. Everybody, the whole team has to prove it.”

Physically, Utah is capable of being in every game. The wild card is the mental side of the game. When the Utes are mentally sound, they are just fine. When they aren’t, they take themselves out of games. That will be the thing to watch on Saturday night.

Utah cannot afford any of those mistakes against the Wildcats, especially defensively. Arizona quarterback Matt Scott was injured last week against Colorado, but he is expected to play against the Utes. He leads in the Pac-12 in passing yards per game with 316. In the backfield, Ka’Deem Carey is coming off a record-breaking, 366 yard rushing performance last week. Carey is the conference leader in rushing yards and he is second in the nation. With Scott and Carey running like a well-oiled machine under Rich Rodriguez’s scheme, Arizona is sixth in the nation in total offense and 20^th in scoring offense. Utah has to be virtually flawless to slow down the Wildcats.

The bottom line is really quite simple. If Utah plays smart and takes care of the ball, it will win. If the Utes make bone-headed mistakes, they will lose and will be eliminated from bowl contention for the first since the Ron McBride era.

By Trevor Amicone, Founder and Editor 

New Arizona head football coach Rich Rodriguez believes that the Utes are every bit as good as the team experts believed would compete for the Pac-12 South championship this season. In fact, Rodriguez went even further.

“I remember early in the year that they were projected to be the team to win the Pac-12,” he said in his weekly press conference on Monday. “They are a veteran team. They’re a big, physical team with a lot of playmakers. I see that same team.”

Although no prominent expert picked Utah to win the Pac-12, the Utes have definitely not lived up to preseason expectations. Rodriguez, however, believes that Utah is as good as any team the Wildcats have faced this season.

“They’re playing their best football in the last couple of weeks,” he said. “It’s going to be their last game at home so it’s going to be a really, really tough environment. We try to prepare our players for that. They’ll watch film and see the guys and remember them from last year.”

The Wildcats are as bad as the Utes are on the road, if not worse. Arizona has only played three road games this season and the Utes will be the Wildcats’ last road test of the season.

Arizona has lost 59-0 at Oregon, 54-48 in overtime at Stanford and finally 66-10 at UCLA. Rodriguez acknowledges that those three teams the Wildcats have faced on the road have been high quality teams.

“People will say that we haven’t won on the road but we got beat by three teams that were better than us,” Rodriguez said. “The Stanford game we played a bit better at times. We will win on the road when we are better.”

Rodriguez acknowledges that Utah’s home crowd and the weather will test his Wildcats.

“They have a great home environment and the crowd will be into it,” he said. “It will be a little cooler than what we are accustomed to.”

On the field, Rodriguez recognizes his team’s biggest mismatch is up front.

“We already know our issues with being undersized,” he said. “We didn’t play very physical at all the last game (against Colorado), and if that happens Saturday, then we will be in trouble.”

Like clockwork, Rodriguez joined every other coach in the Pac-12 to gush over Utah defensive tackle Star Loutlelei. Rodriguez is worried about his team’s inability to prepare for a player like Lotulelei.

“We don’t have any players that are similar to his size, strength and speed to emulate it in practice,” Rodriguez said. “He has been a dominant player in this league for a couple of years and he will be a first round draft pick. They will move him around as well and he won’t be lined up on the same person each time. Our guys up front have to watch the film and play with great leverage and intensity.”

Arizona running back Ka’Deem Carey set a Pac-12 record last week against Colorado, running for 366 yards. He averaged an astonishing 14.6 yards per carry. So what adjustments are the Wildcats going to make in the ground game against Lotulelei and the Utes? None, according to Rodriguez.

“It’s too late in the season to change what we are doing,” he said. “We really just need to play well up front. We have not gotten a lot of push at the line of scrimmage this year so I wouldn’t expect to do it against Star and their front. They are bigger and stronger than our previous opponents. The key for us is to have great leverage.”

Carey is now the nation’s second-leading rusher, so the Utes will be tested. However, the Utes rank 18th in rush defense making them the third-toughest run defense the Wildcats have faced this season.

As optimistic as Rodriguez is about his own running game, he is also worried about how his team will stop Utah’s run game, specifically John White.

“He’s a very fast guy and shifty,” he said. “I think he’s one of the best backs in the Pac-12. He’s extremely explosive. He’s not real big but he’s not small. He’s a strong runner and has great explosiveness. He’s a really great football player.”

The Utes will have to deal with some unknowns on Saturday. Arizona’s starting quarterback Matt Scott was out last week due to a concussion suffered against USC two weeks ago. In the Wildcats’ 56-31 win over Colorado last week, backup quarterback B.J. Denker was 12-for-14 for 136 yards through the air.

Rodriguez doesn’t know whether or not Scott or Denker will be start on Saturday night. He believes that will help his team going into its game against the Utes.

“It has some advantages,” he said. “More particularly if there are two different styles of quarterbacks, where one is more of a runner. If teams know which one will take the most reps then they can maybe prepare and practice against a certain style.”

The Utes and Wildcats will take the field on Saturday night at 8 p.m. If the Utes can pull out a win over the Wildcats, they will just need one more win to get bowl eligible with a road trip to Colorado looming.

The Utes will be playing a hard-nosed Washington team on Saturday night at one of the toughest places to play in the nation. Here’s my line upon line predictions for the game.

Over/Under on John White carries: 19.5. At the beginning of the year, offensive coordinator Brian Johnson fell into the trap that many offensive coordinators make when trying to run the spread. He subconsciously believed that running the spread offense meant throwing the ball all the time. As he’s grown into his big offensive coordinator shoes, that has changed. For any spread offense to work, the run-game has to get established consistently. White only carried the ball 14 times against Arizona State, 13 times against USC and 11 against UCLA. This is the Utes best playmaker, Johnson now realizes that. Over

Over/Under on mispronunciations of ‘Star Lotulelei’: 263.5. Yes, the Pac-12 network and the rest of the media has had two months to figure it out. They haven’t. Heck, even Kyle Whittingham has said it wrong a couple of times at press conferences over the year. It’s frustrating, but don’t expect it to change. Over

Over/Under on Jake Murphy receptions: 4.5. For the Utes, it needs to be over to be consistently proficient as an offense. Part of the problem is there is no place in the traditional spread offense for a tight end. Johnson has had to be somewhat innovative to get the ball to Murphy, the Utes’ leading receiver, but don’t expect that to change. Over

Over/Under on Reggie Dunn 100-yard kickoff returns: 0.5. Reggie Dunn returned another 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, the fourth of his career. No one else in the history has ever done that. Dunn is fast, and if he is going to take on to the house, it is going to have to be over 100 yards because Washington is going to try their best to just kick it through the end zone. Under

Over/Under on Keith Price scrambles for first downs on third down: 3.5. The boiling point of frustration for Ute fans this year was when they gave up 10 third-down conversions to UCLA, six on third-and-long. A lot of those UCLA conversions came on mobile quarterback Nick Hundley’s scrambles. If the Utes have learned their lesson from that game, this will be under. I don’t think the Utes have to keep this under to win, but it’ll be tough to leave Seattle with a win if Price gets loose. Over

Over/Under on Travis Wilson passing yards: 175.5. Washington’s pass defense is the second-best in the Pac-12. Wilson has only thrown for over 200 yards once this season. I don’t believe that the Utes will give Wilson enough of a chance to get near that output Saturday. Under

Over/Under on John White rushing yards: 99.5. The Utes are 11-0 when White runs over 100 yards. Washington has the third-worst run defense in the Pac-12 and the Utes know that. As I wrote earlier, I believe that he’ll get enough carries to get to that pivotal benchmark of 100 yards. I’m going over with this one and that’s a good sign for the Utes. Over

Over/Under on new penalties invented by the Pac-12 officials during the game: 1.5. It’s no secret that the Pac-12 referees are the worst in the business. Inside college football, coaches and players are obscenely frustrated with the Pac-12 officials’ reticence to throw flags. They seem to get so much enjoyment from throwing their flags. They’re the closest thing college football has to NBA referees.—egotistical enough to think we all paid good money  to go to the game and watch them instead of the athletes. They seem to also take special pride in enforcing rules that aren’t widely enforced anywhere. Sex outside of marriage is still on the books in the state of Utah, but no one actually enforces that law. Pac-12 referees are the police officers who would. Over

Over/Under on Washington points: 21.5. We all saw the quality of Cal’s defense a couple weeks ago when the Utes put up 49 points against it. Washington struggled to put up 21 against it last week. Utah’s defense is playing better and better every week. The Washington weaknesses fit well with Utah’s strengths. It’s a good matchup for the Utes’ defense. Under

Over/Under on Utah points: 23.5. Utah averages 26.6 points per game this season while the Huskies give up 26.3 points per game. Utah’s offense is becoming more effective as the weeks go by. Utah should be able to run the ball against Washington, but that would require giving White the ball enough to make it happen. If the Johnson calls White’s name enough on Saturday night, it will open up the pass game for Wilson. Washington’s defense is still a work in progress and I like the Utes to be more effective against the Huskies than they were against UCLA and Oregon State. Over, but barely

Final Prediction. This is simply a good matchup for the Utes. In review, Utah has established a strong run game with the re-emergence of John White. Washington’s run defense is terrible. Washington’s pass offense typically makes too many mistakes on its own to be effective, and that’s the Utes’ weakness on defense. The Utes stop the run as consistently as any team in the country. If Washington is going to win, they need to run the ball well. Don’t expect that to happen. So matchup-wise, the Utes look good in this one.

However, there are two wildcards in this game. First, Keith Price. If he runs loose when plays break down to create big plays, the Utes are in trouble. Second, CenturyLink Field. When full, it’s one of the loudest stadiums in the country, for college football or professional football. If the Utes score first and run a little no-huddle, they should be able to keep the crowd relatively out of it.

The crowd will be a factor, but the Utes have managed crowd noise pretty well this season. It won’t make a difference in the outcome. If anything does, it will be Price’s mobility. I’m counting on the Utes to have made adjustments from the Hundley fiasco a month ago at UCLA. Utah 24, Washington 17