Bye Week Blues

This happens to me every year. I hate bye weeks. I seriously go through Utah Football withdrawals. In order to keep my mind off the fact that we don’t play again until Nov. 1, I have been trying to focus on the teams that are playing this week. In a perfect world, here’s how it would play out:

*****DISCLAIMER*****
The following does not reflect my actual opinion of who WILL win each game, but simply my opinion of who I would LIKE to see win each game.

#12 Boise St. @ San Jose St.

If SJ State can pull off an upset in this game, that would ease my mind a little. I actually really like BSU, but if they are our toughest competitor as far as crashing the BCS goes. They play in a very weak WAC conference, so there aren’t many teams with even a slight chance of beating them. SJ State is one of them.

#8 Texas Tech @ #23 Kansas

The obvious pick here is Kansas. A loss to Kansas would probably allow us to jump Texas Tech. Kansas would definitely go up in the polls, but it’s unlikely that they would rise high enough to jump us.

#4 Oklahoma @ Kansas State

Rule Number One: Any time a high-ranked team is playing an un-ranked opponent, an upset is the best case scenario. Good luck Wildcats.

# 10 Florida vs. Kentucky

See rule number one. Go… Wildcats.

#21 BYU vs. UNLV

Eh... I don't really care. A win for BYU won't push them up in the polls unless some teams ahead of them lose, which would also move Utah up. I mean, I love seeing the Cougars lose, but it would help Utah a little if BYU was still at least ranked when we play them in November. So, Rebels, Cougars, fight it out amongst yourselves.

#1 Texas vs # 6 Oklahoma State

This is going to be a good game. I am rooting for Texas in this one, and I hope it’s a blow-out. Why? Because an OK State loss might be enough for Utah to jump them. Admittedly not an extremely likely scenario, but it could happen.

#7 Georgia @ # 13 LSU

I’m going with the Georgia Bulldogs on this one. An LSU win would propel them past Utah in the rankings. (Although, it would probably also drop Georgia below Utah at the same time, thus leaving us exactly where we are now.) Scratch that. I don’t care who wins this game.

# 16 South Florida @ Louisville

As per rule number one, I’ll be rooting for Louisville.

# 14 TCU vs. Wyoming

This is an important game for Utah’s strength of schedule. A loss to Wyoming would be devastating to TCU’s credibility. I actually don’t even mind if TCU jumps Utah in the polls between now and November 6th. It will only help us as long as we beat them. Go Frogs.

# 15 Missouri vs. Colorado

Rule number one gives Colorado my support in this one.

# 2 Alabama @ Tennessee

See rule number one. Go Volunteers! (as a side note, I beat the Tennessee Volunteers 67-7 in the Sugar Bowl last night. Gotta love NCAA football for PS2.)

# 3 Penn State @ # 9 Ohio State

Here again, I’m hoping for a blowout win. I’m going with Penn State in this game. If they blow out the Buckeyes, we could potentially jump OSU.

# 6 USC @ Arizona

As per rule number one, Arizona gets the nod. Although, this game also has implications towards Utah. If USC loses, Oregon State’s win over them looks less impressive, and so does our win over Oregon State. HOWEVER, it would also give Oregon State the opportunity to win the PAC-10, so that would make Utah’s win over them seem pretty good.

So there you have it. If I could decide the outcome of this week’s games, that’s how it would all play out. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Utes Stuff

Oh man, I’ve got so much to say right now. I shall do so briefly:

1. Thank you TCU. That was definitely the most enjoyable game I have watched this season, that didn’t feature the Utes. See, a lot of people said they wanted the U and the Y to be undefeated come 11/22, but my heart was never in it. Now, the Utes still have a quality ranked opponent on the schedule (TCU), and I don’t have to listen to any more ridiculous notions of BYU going to the BCS National Championship game (although, there are still incredibly naive cougar fans who think that BYU is going to a BCS bowl game. See here – no wonder they call themselves “Cougar Crazies”). Anyway, thanks again Horned Frogs. We shall beat you on Nov. 6th, and I will be there on row 9 in the Red Zone to watch it happen.
   
   
2. I found this really cool Utes blog. Check it out here.
   
   
3. The first official BCS rankings were released on Sunday, and the Utes are ranked at # 11 right now. You know what that means? It means a guaranteed BCS game as long as we win out. That’s pretty freakin’ awesome. The first school to bust the BCS will likely be the first school to do it twice!
   
   
4. So, I know there’s still a lot of football to be played, and this is just estimation right now, but CBS Sports released their latest bowl predictions. If you followed the link, then you know why I am so excited by this. They are predicting Utah vs. Florida in the All-State Sugar Bowl. Why is this significant? Because Urban Myer, the coach of the 2004 Utes (which went undefeated and played in the Fiesta Bowl), jumped ship after that season and went to coach the Florida Gators. How big would that be if Utah could go into the Sugar Bowl and beat their former coach?! That would be SO awesome! I seriously hope this happens. I know there’s no way to really predict right now, but it really got me excited.
   
   
5. So, we’ve got a bye this week, and I hope we use it well. We need to prepare for New Mexico – the Lobos looked good against BYU, and they absolutely massacred San Diego State (70-7). I know the Utes are leagues above SDSU, but still, that game was just unreal.
   

Ok, that’s all for now. GO UTES!!

Utah vs. Oregon State -- 10/2/2008

There was a lot of hype surrounding this game. The Beavers had just knocked of USC, previously the # 1 team. Running back Jaquizz Rodgers rushed for 180+ yards in that game, and scored 2 TD's. This made them a much more legitimate opponent for the Utes and their strength of schedule.

RECAP: The Utes did not look anywhere near as sharp as I hoped they would at the beginning of the game, but still held a 20-15 lead going into half-time. They allowed a quick score by OSU to start the third, making the score 21-20. Neither team scored again in the third. In the fourth quarter Jaquizz Rodgers broke loose on a big run, going all the way to about the 3 yard line. They scored the touchdown momentarily, making the score 28-20. At this point there was only about 2 minutes left in the game. And that's when it happened. The Utes took less than a minute to complete an 80 yard scoring drive, making the score 28-26. They of course went for 2 points. Their first attempt failed as a result of a pass interference on the part of OSU. On the second try, Brian Johnson ran the ball in for 2 points. Tie game. OSU then displayed the most ridiculous use of clock I've seen. They used about 23 seconds on three passing plays (thus stopping the clock each time). Utah got the ball back with plenty of time to win the game. They moved the ball up the field, and when they were satisfied, they let the clock run down to 2 seconds and took a time out. Sakoda came in and knocked the 38 yard field goal straight down the middle of the uprights, and it was all over. Eleven points in about 2 minutes of football. So that's the story, in case you missed it.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Defense. Our defense spent WAY too much time on the field, particularly during our abismal 3rd quarter. Still, they kept OSU from running away with the game and did a great job out there.
• TD pass from Johnson to Freddie Brown. I'm not sure if there was anyone within 15 yards of Brown when he caught that pass. He was literally standing still in the back of the endzone and didn't even have to move to catch the ball. That's when you know they bought into the misdirection.
• Battling back from what seemed like an impossible situation at the end of the game.
• Sakoda. I don't need to say anthing more here. He is the man.

LOWLIGHTS:

• Andy Ludwig (utah's offensive coordinator). Can we say PREDICTABLE?? I swear at one point, Whittingham was glaring straight up at Ludwig in the booth. This guy needs to shape up if he wants to have a job next year.
• Brian Johnson. This guy just plain had a rough night. 1 int and 2 fumbles. He single-handedly spotted OSU 14 points. I have to admit, I was begging for Louks or Manis during that third quarter. Still, Johnson semi-redeemed himself during that amazing comeback.

So we remain undefeated on the season. We've got Wyoming @ Laramie this weekend, and I think it will be interesting to see what happens after last years 50-0 beatdown. I'm not terribly worried, seeing as how Wyoming is worse than the Murray Spartans, but still... any given Saturday...

GO UTES!