Utah might not know the taste of defeat this season, but three-year starting quarterback Brian Johnson has had plenty of experience with it in the past–so much so that Johnson knows what it’s like for his team to lose to every single team in the Mountain West Conference.
That unfortunate tidbit is just the kind of thing that can keep a player, and a team, from overlooking anyone, particularly an improving team like Colorado State.
“The thing is we’ve lost to every conference opponent since I’ve been here,” Johnson said to Stats LLC. “There’s not a team in this conference that hasn’t beat us before, so we have to know that if we don’t come out and play our game every week that everything that we’ve worked for kind of goes down the drain.”
Johnson and the Utes last lost to Colorado State back in 2005, and while BYU and New Mexico are the only teams to have beaten the Utes twice in conference play since Johnson joined the team in 2004, the team doesn’t want to add the Rams to that list, particularly with what happened in Fort Worth, Texas on Thursday night.
With the entire conference, and a lot of the national media starting to focus on a potential Nov. 22nd clash between two unbeaten and highly ranked MWC teams, BYU floundered under the top-ranked defense in the country and fell from the unbeaten ranks by a 32-7 margin.
While all hopes of a Holy War that would not only determine a conference championship, but almost certainly a Bowl Championship Series bid and a perfect season are out the window, Utah has now taken the lead as the front runner for an outsider trying to bust into a BCS Bowl game. So the likelihood of Utah overlooking Colorado State, looking ahead to an upcoming bye week, or even further down the road at a New Mexico team that has beaten Utah two out of the last three years and heaven forbid, TCU, is as likely as Kyle Whittingham sending Colorado State head coach Steve Fairchild this week’s practice footage.
Utah has got its foot in the door in a few impressive, and one not so impressive place among the entire country. The Utes rank third overall in time of possession, holding the ball an average of 33 minute and 50 second per game. Conference foe TCU leads that national category, amongst others with an average of 36:32. Two other teams in the MWC also rank within the top 12 overall. Air Force is No. 11 in time of possession with a 32:44 average and Colorado State holds the ball for an average of 32:41.
The Utes also lead the country in punt return yards allowed with seven opponents totaling an astounding -4 punt return yards all season, thanks to Louie Sakoda and his golden leg. Sakoda was recently named to the 2008 CBSSports.com midseason All-American team. Joining Sakoda on the team from Utah is defensive end Paul Kruger, who is tied for first in the country in tackles for a loss with 12.5. Kruger is tied with the likes of Illinois’ Brit Miller and Penn State’s Aaron Maybin. Utah is ranked No. 14 in the country in tackles for a loss, with an average of 7.51 per game. BYU is currently ranked No. 9 with an 8.0 average, while TCU is second in the country at 8.86 tackles for a loss per game.
While Utah has certainly cleaned up it’s early-season stigma as one of the most penalized teams in the country, the Utes are now ranked No. 106 out of 119 teams in terms of sacks allowed per game. Utah has given up 19 sacks thus far.
Tyler CobbThe Utah offense was out gained by Wyoming 242-252 on Saturday.