Utah

I am feeling less confident about Utah. I think initially I was focused on our positives ex. Coaching, defense, etc.

I was listening to Phil Steele yesterday and Utah is pretty legit. He ranks their special teams as #1 in the country. We have new kickers to break in and from some accounts last night it may be an adventure for us.

We have a good defense. Utah too has a good defense. I still give our defense the edge here. Ranked 10th in the country last year. I expect them to be improved this year.

Offense is a struggle. Deveon Smith is the leader at RB according to some last night. I think he is capable. I am disappointed Green and Isaac can't win the position and not look back. I believe they have the highest ceiling's but can't seem to live up to their hype. I think our o-line will be good. Our issues are at receiver. Last night did they did not impress anyone. I believe Darboh sat out so maybe there is hope. Our best hope may be a true freshmen playing the slot. Not sure I feel warm and fuzzy about that. Butt is our only real threat IMO until someone else emerges. Utah is starting a new QB. Their running game is solid and they have some receivers that can make plays. Advantage Utah.

A win would be big for us. First game and on the road. My biggest concern is can our defense give our offense time to get up to speed. They won't have it the first game. I am going to go 21-17 Utah.

Defense will be the key.... can they pressure the QB .... can they create turnovers .... I agree that our offense will not score many points .... Ruddock should at least have a calming influence on the offense , but can his Wrs get separation can the Rbs hit the hole with speed ... I agree that the closer to the season we get the reality kicks in ... Jim is our coaching saviour but can or should we expect miracles right off ... Go Blue !!!!!

First, our defense, IMO was not 10th best in the country last year- that is based upon total yardage given up. That stat was skewed by how slowly we ran our offense (one of the slowest in the country, typically using up nearly all of the game clock before the snap. This hurt our offense because it permitted opponents to get the last shift, which we could not adjust to.

However it helped our defense because they faced fewer plays against them. That made our total yardage given up stats look better. We forced few turnovers and we gave up a lot of key 3rd and longs.

FEI which ranks overall defensive efficiency, had us about 40th in the country. That said, I do think our defense will be BETTER this year in reality, whether it ranks 10th or better in yardage or not.