No. 11 Utes Take on Idaho State

The University of Utah football team sings the Utah fight song following an NCAA Football game vs. The Northern Illinois University Huskies at Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019. (Photo by Kiffer Creveling | The Daily Utah Chronicle)

By Sammy Mora, Sports Editor
September 13, 2019

The non-conference schedule will come to a close for the No. 11 University of Utah Football team (2-0, 0-0 Pac-12) this Saturday as they take on Idaho State Bengals (1-0, 0-0 Big Sky) at Rice-Eccles Stadium. This is the first time since 2014 that the two teams will meet on the gridiron. Utah won the last meeting between the two schools 56-14.

Scouting Utah

The Utes are coming off of a strong win against Northern Illinois 35-17. In the victory, quarterback Tyler Huntley was 14-19 for just over 200 yards with one rushing touchdown and another through the air.

Sophomore Jaylen Dixon lead the team with four receptions. He had 46 total yards and one touchdown. Sophomore Bryan Thompson was second in receptions with two for 66 yards. He also had the longest reception of the day, a 38-yard reception from Huntley.

Senior running back Zack Moss rushed for 80 yards and had two touchdowns in the victory. The other touchdown came on a jet sweep play to Demari Simpkins who rushed it 13-yards to the endzone.

The Utah special teams’ game showed improvement last week as well. While he didn’t see much action during the game, freshman punter Ben Lennon averaged just over 45-yards per punt, with his longest of the day being a 62-yarder. Freshman Jadon Redding wasn’t asked to kick any field goals, however he was perfect with PAT’s during the victory.

Junior Britain Covey had two punt returns during the game, and his longest was 23 yards.

The Utah defense was out in force against NIU. Senior Bradlee Anae had three sacks in the game along with a forced fumble that was recovered by NIU. Senior Julian Blackmon added another INT to his tally for this season.

Moss leads the team with three touchdowns heading into week three, Dixon is in second with two and multiple players on the team have scored one during the season.

Rushing Record Watch

Moss only added another chunk of yards to his career total after last week’s game. On the season Moss has rushed for 267 total yards. He is still in third place in the career rushing yards, only 77 yards behind Tony Lindsay who holds second place. He needs 301 yards to take the record out of the hands of Eddie Johnson.

Scouting ISU

Idaho State is heading into the game 1-0 after taking down Western Colorado 38-13 last weekend. Junior quarterback Matt Struck threw for just over 400 yards on 23 completed passes. He threw four touchdowns, one interception and was sacked twice during the game.

Senior Ty Flannagan lead the team in rushes with 96 yards. Junior wide receiver Tanner Conner was one of the top two receivers in the game with 173 total yards and two touchdowns. The other leading receiver for the team was senior Micheal Dean who put up 163 yards and one touchdown.

Utah is the highest ranked team that the Bengals have played since they faced the then-No. 17 Washington in 2013 — they lost the game 56-0.

Mascot Head to Head

Idaho State is the home of the Bengals. Their mascot’s name is Benny, and while the concept of a Bengal as a mascot is fun, why is a school in the middle of Idaho’s mascot a exotic tiger?

Anyways, while Benny is cooler than Cosmo, he can’t quite compete with NIU”s Mission the Husky.