Last season, much was made of the Utes’ anticipated showdown at The Big House in Ann Arbor. Utah was playing in one of the greatest collegiate venues in the entire nation, and the Utes went in there and weren’t intimidated.
A few hours of rain later, Utah, and its fans, took over The Big House on its way to a convincing 26-10 victory in the first of a home-and-home series with the Wolverines. The second half of that series concludes this Thursday when Michigan travels west and Rice-Eccles Stadium becomes The Big House 2.0, at least for a week.
All eyes will be on Salt Lake City to start the college football season as Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh makes his most-anticipated return to the collegiate ranks. Much of the country probably doesn’t even care about the result of this game and simply look forward to the antics that come with the Harbaugh Show.
But for the Utes, it’s not about Harbaugh. Instead, with this many college football fans tuning in to watch them take on Harbaugh and the Wolverines, Utah has the opportunity to make a national statement right from the beginning.
Sure, the Utes have had big games before, and against bigger opponents than this, too. Last season, Utah traveled to Pasadena to take on a top-10 team in UCLA, taking down the Bruins in dramatic fashion to put its name on the national scene in the Rose Bowl. In 2013, the Utes took down then-No. 5 Stanford in RES, as students rushed the field and had a sense of hope moving forward for this program.
Some may counter that statement by saying it’s the first game of the season, or that the Wolverines don’t even sit in the same conference as the Utes, and those people are absolutely right. A loss to Michigan won’t have any effect on Utah in the Pac-12 standings, and it’s very possible that the Utes could lose this game and still go on to have an impressive campaign.
But I don’t see it that way.
Instead, I believe this game immediately sets the tone for the rest of the season. Fans and analysts alike have been trying to predict how many wins this Utah team can produce in 2015, and, to me, beating Michigan is the difference between a six-win season and a nine-win season. By winning this game, the Utes would be in prime position to have their best season in the Pac-12 to date.
The difference between this game and other big games is that all college football fans around the country will be glued to their televisions for this one, and though it may not be for the reasons Ute fans might like, they’ll still be watching nonetheless. Everybody is excited to see what Harbaugh can do at Michigan, and with the head coach being so secretive about his depth chart and who will start at quarterback, this is the first glimpse the nation will get at the Harbaugh-led Wolverines.
Utah hopes people will start to watch because of Michigan but that they continue to watch because of the Utes. The stage is set perfectly for them to make a national statement with fans of the sport all over the country watching, and whether Utah can do that or not will determine its fate for the rest of the season.
The countdown is near complete, and a long, long season away from football is finally over. This season starts with a bang for the Utes, and depending on the outcome of this contest, 2015 could end up being a special year for them.
@GriffDoug