Every Thursday or Friday we will sit down to take a look at the weekend ahead, in the weekend preview, in the worlds of college and professional football. Here is our weekend preview for week 1 of the college football season.
The doldrums were getting to me. The dog days of summer had begun to sit too heavy on my chest and I was beginning to lose interest.
Baseball, baseball, baseball, a wise friend of mine said the only way to consume baseball is by listening to it. Well, I listened to a lot of baseball, and I got sick of baseball, as one does. Nothing against baseball or those who are a part of baseball, I am just not a baseball guy.
As a result my attitude started to suffer. Suffer badly, a bad attitude is a sure-fire way to kill a good work ethic, so I’ve been working on changing my attitude. Then it hit me, maybe it wasn’t baseball driving me crazy, maybe it was a lack of football.
Sure enough, I fired up football last night, and watched two tremendous brawls, Pittsburgh and West Virginia, and Purdue Penn State. I fell asleep to football, to Fresno State, man I like watching the Mountain West.
It clicked last night though, football, football could fix all my problems. Even though it might take more doing this year, more effort, more iPad watching more expensive television options, well I just have to do that.
You see, sometimes you need to exert maximum effort to find ways to do what makes you happy. I have known this for a long while but one of the things that makes me the happiest is watching football. When football is not on, there is an emptiness inside me, a moan of sorrow that beats to its own drum, and it was beginning to overtake me.
Here we are now though, SEO learned, takes percolating, I do believe it is time for some football. Let’s begin the weekend preview.
Utah
Hard to have a bigger opener than Utah does. Florida, no matter how downtrodden they may be as a franchise have three very important letters tacked onto their names that make them extremely valuable, valuable above all else in college football.
Check out the Pioneer Pigskin podcast Sunday after all three games to hear immediate reaction before the weekend recap on Monday.
Hell, I don’t like it, I do not think it should be this way, but the fact Florida has the letters S. E. and C. attached to their program make this the biggest game for Utah’s program in a half-decade.
Florida is the type of win you can cash into a college football playoff spot, even if you have a weird Pac-12 loss, which trust me you will have.
SLC 🛫 Gainesville pic.twitter.com/6yi5eazFoR
— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) September 1, 2022
Florida is powered by athletes, Anthony Richardson is an athletic beast of a QB that can give any defense in this country fits, this is an S.E.C program, they have athletes up front, Utah can usually bully the trenches, it is yet to be seen whether that will be the case against Florida.
I am less concerned with volume and humidity and more concerned with the caliber of players Florida have, which has been criminally underlooked in the lead-up in coverage to this game.
I think Utah can and will win this game, but there is a real chance that this game is much closer than some Ute fans would like to lead on. Florida, no matter how down they are, have a powerhouse. This will be a tremendous early test for a Utah team that believes they have aspirations of being a college football playoff team.
BYU
This trip to USF is about pride. No one, and I mean absolutely no one liked the way last year ended. Losing to UAB in a bowl game, I could care less if it’s the sisters of the poor game, Kalani Sitake has set a higher standard than that in Provo.
BYU’s defense must improve. They ranked as one of the most middling groups in the country last year, middling might be kind for a team not put into the top 50 even by its defensive front.
20 sacks last year, 20, that is a number that cannot be allowed to develop into a pattern. This is a team going to the Big-12 next year, while the conference isn’t known for defense if you want to compete immediately then you need to have one.
📍 Tampa, Florida pic.twitter.com/JewE1ep5OV
— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) September 2, 2022
I have no concerns about BYU’s offense, they may develop into one of the most explosive groups in the country but if you cannot stop the other team from scoring, then guess what, you aren’t going to win 8 football games this year.
8 wins is the absolute floor for this group. Anything less is a major disappointment.
It’s time to show what you’re made of a year before heading to a power conference.
Utah State Weekend Preview
It’s Alabama, I know this. I really do.
42 is too big a number though, and an absolute shot at one of the best coaches in the country Blake Anderson. He will take that personally.
The Aggies will be ready to play, they will avoid stupid mistakes, and hopefully emerge out of Tuscaloosa healthy and ready to begin the Mountain West season.
Keep an eye out for defense in this game from the Aggies, do they fill holes correctly? Are the blocking assignments correct? Execution points.
Utah State is getting out of Bama with no bigger than a 30 point loss, if they do, something went terribly wrong.
(Editors note: It could also just be that Bama is Bama, I will never question coaching or player effort when playing against Alabama, the team simply plays a different sport from the G5.)