Two conference losses and a .500 record notwithstanding, U head coach Kyle Whittingham still says his Ute football team is one of the best in the conference.
“We are, if not the best, one of the best teams in the conference,” he said. “We haven’t got the wins, but we took apparently the two best teams to the last play of the game and could have and should have (beaten) both of them. We’ve just got to figure out how to finish.”
Finishing teams off has been a constant struggle for the Utes this season, as only one of their six games was decided before the fourth quarter. All three of their losses have come down to late-game breakdown, and those mistakes have pushed the Utes (3-3, 1-2 MWC) all but out of the MWC race, despite five games left on the conference slate.
Their latest opponent is San Diego State (2-4, 1-2 MWC), which handily defeated BYU two weeks ago before stumbling to a 13-10 road-loss to UNLV last weekend. The Aztecs and Utes put themselves in similar situations with their losses last week by blowing fourth-quarter leads.
While Utah failed to convert on a potential game-winning touchdown from the 1-yard line against Colorado State, SDSU saw the Rebels’ Sergio Aguayo kick a game-winning field goal with just nine seconds remaining, all but ending the Aztecs’ chances at the conference crown.
“The team that beat BYU was awesome on film,” Whittingham said. “Against UNLV, they were out of rhythm, but when they’re hitting on all cylinders, they’re very dangerous.”
The similarities between the two teams don’t end there. Like Utah, the Aztecs are winless on the road in three tries. This week, they will try to end that streak against a Ute squad that is undefeated at Rice-Eccles Stadium this year.
SDSU head coach Tom Craft said, “We’ll move on and try to correct it and look forward to Utah, because it’s really important that we haven’t played a good game on the road yet. We have to look forward to doing that, because it’s one of the pivotal things that can turn a season around.”
For the Utes, who are coming off two consecutive road defeats, coming back home may be just the ticket to getting the season back on the right track.
“It’s always nice to play at home in front of the MUSS. It’s a great atmosphere here, and they’re behind you 100 percent,” quarterback Brian Johnson said. “I love playing at home. There’s no other feeling like running out of the tunnel and seeing the Sea of Red, so it’s a good opportunity.”
Whittingham points to the Aztecs’ speed and athleticism as one of his biggest concerns for this weekend’s meeting, and one of the primary foci of the Ute defense will be the tandem of quarterback Kevin O’Connell and all-conference wide receiver Jeff Webb.
“They’ve got excellent receivers. The one guy, Webb, is phenomenal,” Whittingham said.
While the Aztecs rank near the bottom of the conference in scoring, they could put up big numbers if the Ute secondary struggles as it has in past weeks. Last weekend, freshman Brice McCain took over for struggling corner Ryan Smith-one of the top freshmen in the conference last season-for his first career start. Both McCain and Smith played relatively well last week, and Whittingham says that both will see playing time Saturday as the Utes try to slow down SDSU’s passing attack.
On the other side of the ball, Utah has a whole new set of issues with the ankle injury suffered by starting wideout Travis LaTendresse. The fifth-year senior, who has 24 catches for 316 yards and two touchdowns so far this season, suffered a severely sprained ankle last week against the Rams and will not play this week.
LaTendresse is the most experienced member of the Utah offense, and his absence will put added pressure on newcomers Brent Casteel, Brian Hernandez and Derek Richards (who caught a touchdown last week after LaTendresse went down) and the new addition of Marquis Wilson.
Wilson, a true freshman out of Juan Diego High School, saw his first action of the season last week and is expected to be even more involved in the offense against the Aztecs.
“Now (acquiring Wilson) looks like an even better move with Travis out. We’re going to need him even more. He’s going to play more and more each week,” Whittingham said. “He just gets better and better. He didn’t have any catches last week, but he ran the correct routes, he didn’t make any mental mistakes. He had eight snaps last week, and we look for that to double or triple this week.”
While Saturday’s match-up is unlikely to have any conference-title implications, it could nevertheless have a huge impact. The Aztecs, on the other hand, would be hard-pressed to snag a bowl berth if they can’t get past Utah. The Utes, meanwhile, have fallen short of rather lofty expectations, but have focused their collective energies on winning their final five games and qualifying for a bowl game.
“We lost two tough conference games, close ones that could have gone either way. We knew the potential was there going in, and we knew what we could do as a team, but we just fell short of our goals,” Johnson said. “We’ve just got to continue to keep playing and never quit, and I have the fullest confidence that this team will never quit. We’ll battle to the end of every game.”