The regular season of college football has now come to its conclusion. It’s time to dive into what we learned from each team this year and look ahead to two great championship matchups within the state. This is the week ahead.
Utah
Utah will play in the third Pac-12 title game appearance the team has been in over the past four years. Notably, they haven’t won either of the previous two. This is the best shot the Utes have had at winning a title.
They will face an Oregon team which they embarrassed at Rice Eccles Stadium just two weeks ago 38-7. This championship game will not play out that way though. Mario Cristobal will not allow his team to be bullied up front the way they were against Utah the first time around. Oregon is built to win like an SEC team through dominant trench play.
Utah will need to be able to pass the ball as well, defensively Oregon’s number one priority will be to limit Tavion Thomas and a tremendously deep Utah backfield on the ground.
Cam Rising is coming off one of his more impressive performances as a passer though, even though the box score might not show it. Against Colorado Rising made several incredibly impressive throws, including a strike to Brant Kuithe for a TD and a beautiful sideline bucket drop to Britain Covey.
Utah’s defense will be it’s most known quantity in this matchup. A defense that has played incredibly well down the stretch and that held Oregon to just a touchdown. The Oregon offense has not changed much though, Oregon State is simply a much worse defense. I do not expect their attack to suddenly become dynamic against a Utah defense that just dominated them two weeks ago.
This game will play out like a defensive slug fest one would imagine. At the end of the day, I trust Cam Rising more than I do Anthony Brown. Kyle Whittingham has exercised his big game ghosts once this season, can he do it again in the biggest of games?
Utah State
Blake Anderson is a miracle worker. Exactly 0 people in this country, and heck, even 0 people in the state of Utah expected Utah State to be here at the end of the year. The Vegas over under for the Aggies was 3, they won 9. If it weren’t for a fluke game against Wyoming, they would have won 10.
Win or lose, this year has been a tremendous success for Aggie football, but Utah State has designs only on winning against San Diego State.
A SDSU team that came back from down 10 to beat Boise and secure the Aggies a Mountain division title. Characterized by a great defense and an offense that is hot and cold.
If the Aggies can get into a shootout they should have the game in hand but that will be difficult against the best defense they have faced all year. This is not a game where you can get down multiple scores as the Aggies are one to do this year.
Logan Bonner must protect the football. Something he hasn’t been great at doing this year. That said the young man has been a spectacular passer tying the all time single season passing TD record, held recently by Jordan Love.
Devin Thompkins remains one of the best weapons in the country and Derek Wright has been on a hot streak catching the ball over the past three weeks. The Aggies have the weapons, it will be a matter of limiting turnovers and playing from in front if the Aggies hope to win the Mountain West, if they do so, they should finish the year as a top 25 ranked team.
BYU
Put the USC game aside. It’s not worth spending a ton of time on, however, the only critique that can be made about BYU is that down the stretch the defense fell apart a little bit. That’s it though, the only criticism I have for this Cougars team is that.
What a tremendous year for BYU. Get into the Big 12, beat almost every P5 team on your schedule, dominate your rival. This rightfully should end BYU as the highest ranked team in the state. It’s a shame they won’t play in a bowl game of significance.
Jaren Hall should be considered the best QB in the state going into next year. The current holder of that title is Logan Bonner. Next year though this BYU offense could be even more explosive than it was this year. That despite losing Tyler Allegiers one of the best running backs the university has ever seen, to the NFL draft likely.
BYU continues on an extremely positive trajectory, if they can put up another year like this next year but avoid dropping games to teams like Boise the Cougars should be in the conversation for new years six bowls and playoffs in 2022. Kalani Sitake needs another massive extension, this program is fast becoming one of the best in the western United States, and is about three years away from becoming a real contender on a national scale when they enter the Big 12.