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The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

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Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
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Adams: Utes Still Not Getting the Respect They Deserve

Throwing out all preseason rankings and prior accomplishments, imagine this — two anonymous college football teams with two very different résumés.

Team A is a perfect 6-0 and has defeated two teams in the current AP Top 25, including one many believed to be a darkhorse College Football Playoff contender until last week. Also, Team A has bested two more squads that received AP votes but sit just outside the Top 25, and handed the defending national champion runner-up one of its worst home losses in its storied history.

On the other hand, Team B sits with a modest 3-3 record. While a couple of those losses look pretty “good” — if that’s a thing — on paper, they are three losses nonetheless. This team resides a full two games behind Team A in the conference rankings at fifth place in the division race.

Oh, and Team B lost its head coach midway through the season and is being run by an interim head coach.

Now, if Team A and Team B were to be put on the gridiron to duke it out, who would you put your money on to come out on top in this game?

Team A? That seems like the logical answer, right? Well, that would be the No. 3 Utes. However, heading into its matchup with unranked USC in The Coliseum this weekend, Utah will be playing the underdog, a role it’s familiar and comfortable with.

In its weekly release of betting lines for the weekend slate of college football games, Vegas claimed USC as the three-point favorite over No. 3 Utah, despite the Utes doubling the Trojans’ win total at this point in the season.

I’ll be the first to admit that these Trojans are scary and loaded with talent on top of talent, from top to bottom. Throw in the fact that this game is taking place in Los Angeles, and I understand the reasoning behind Vegas’ move.

Maybe USC is just a ticking time bomb and once that clock is up, the Trojans will truly show why they were viewed as a national title contender prior to the season’s start. But maybe they aren’t. Maybe this USC team just isn’t as good as people thought it could be and it will never meet expectations.

Time will settle that debate for us, but here’s the thing. It’s not so much that USC is favored to win over Utah that gets me. Rather, it’s the fact that the Utes weren’t named the favorite in this game — or any game in the Pac-12 for that matter — that really bothers me.

Until Utah proves otherwise, it is the best team in the Conference of Champions. The Utes are the only undefeated team and, as previously mentioned, boast wins over Michigan, Oregon, Cal and Arizona State. In addition, the way Utah State manhandled Boise State on Friday makes the Utes’ win over the Aggies look that much better with each passing week.

Looking at the rest of Utah’s schedule, name me a team that has a better résumé than that.

You can’t? Didn’t think so.

Is there a chance that the Trojans come out on top Saturday evening? Of course, it’s USC. With a talented senior quarterback, a receiving core that’ll give any opposing secondary nightmares and recruiting classes that have been unparalleled in the Pac-12 the last few seasons, the Trojans have a shot against almost anyone in the country.

My beef is that this Utah team is disrespected. The Utes have battled their way to a flawless record thus far in 2015 only to still be named an underdog to a team with three losses in its first six games.

Although Utah has always loved that underdog role, this time it hurts. Remember the whole cupcake incident with Michigan at the beginning of the year? Well, the Utes certainly do, and following that, they reeled off six straight wins to kick off the year.

Head coach Kyle Whittingham and company don’t like being disrespected, plain and simple. While they’ll downplay the situation (as they should, they do have a game to play, after all), USC better bring its ‘A’ game because the Utes will be out to solidify their status as title contenders come Saturday night.

[email protected]

@GriffDoug

 

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