Coming into the 2014 campaign, the one obvious hurdle keeping Utah from reaching the postseason was the strength of its schedule.
At first glance one could see names such as Stanford, Michigan, UCLA and Oregon and already be impressed by the talent each of those teams fields. Seeing them all on one team’s schedule is a tough task.
The Utes took the bull by the horns this season by taking on all of these well-respected programs, and most foresaw another middle-of-the-ballpark type of season. However, thanks to some help from Boston College and Texas, the race for the Pac-12 South division is more open than originally thought.
Coming into the season, UCLA seemed to be the sexy pick to win the division crown, with USC and Arizona State not far behind. After that, depending on who you talked to, Arizona, Utah and Colorado rounded out the bottom three.
Looking at that list, though, Utah is a lot closer to the top three teams than I think anybody thought before the season started. The Bruins just stumbled their way to their third victory of the season, narrowly getting by a Texas team that got demolished at home a week earlier by BYU. It was UCLA’s third straight week where it hadn’t looked like the dominating team people were expecting.
USC, who garnered a big win last weekend against Stanford, closed the gap between UCLA and itself but opened the race right back up when it dropped a game to Florida transfer quarterback Tyler Murphy and the rest of the Boston College squad. USC could not find daylight while running against the Eagles, so how can they endure a season full of Pac-12 defenses?
Arizona State, my original somewhat upset pick to win the South this year, did not look good in its 38-24 win at Colorado Saturday night. In their defense, the Sun Devils looked to be in great shape until star signal caller Taylor Kelly went down with an injury. If Kelly is good to go for the rest of the season, Arizona State will still have my pick to win the division, but if not, the door just opened up that much more for Utah.
Look, I’m still hesitant about getting excited over this Ute squad, but it is starting to get more and more difficult to find glaring negatives about this team. Sure, the easy argument against the Utes is the fact that they have faced inferior talent thus far in the season, but they did what they were supposed to do.
Yes, there were times against Idaho State and Fresno State that left Ute fans shaking their heads, but in the end, this Utah team has done a lot of good in its first two games. Two weeks ago, I would have said there was no chance of the Utes walking into the “Big House” and stealing a game on the road against Michigan, but now, I’m starting to believe they will do just that and then some.
My point is that, although it’s still a very good conference, the Pac-12, especially the South division, was hyped up just a little bit too much during the offseason. While it does contain good teams like UCLA, USC and Arizona State, there is no team in this division that has shown they are the alpha dog. There is no team Utah should be afraid of.
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