Utah vs Utah State

Utah State vs. Utah

Here is a game that has a lot of importance to the BCS.

Recall if you will one of the teams that was a thorn in the side of the BCS, that being this team, Utah. It’s odd that there are several games to kick off the season that remind us of old rivalries played at the end of the season. But this game is important in that it is the first steps for Utah to try to get back to where they were.

Utah comes out of the Mountain West Conference, while Utah State comes out of the Western Athletic Conference. This game comes on tonight, but because I am on the east coast, I am likely not going to be able to see it. Might be a pretty good game.

Let’s recap these two teams and see what they’ll look like this year:

We’ll start with Utah State, who had a pretty rough year in 2008. Nowhere close to a bowl, the Aggies finished 3-9 and was out of any chance of a post season bowl before Halloween (how’s that for scary). A loss to UNLV to start the season, then a devastating defeat at the hands of Oregon 66-24 seemed to set the tone for the Aggies.

They would then lose to Utah 58-10 before rebounding in a win over Idaho. But from there playing and losing to foes like BYU and Fresno State ended up dropping 4 losses to them, and pretty soon it just looked like the season was over. A good win over rebuilding Hawaii seemed to spark interest but playing Boise State and losing big seemed to cap off the season, although winning the last game of the year vs. New Mexico State.

I’ll be honest, this could be rough for Utah State, granted they played Utah, BYU and Boise State as well as Oregon, those are four tough games. But two of their wins was against teams with 4 wins combined…something has to change. The schedule starts out very rough, playing Utah, then Texas A&M and BYU, all inside of 4 games…ugggh!

If there is any hope for Utah State to make this a successful season (meaning wining 6 games) it has to start with S. Utah. No, it’s not much, but it is a win, and maybe they can repeat the performance by beating New Mexico State, Nevada and maybe Louisiana Tech. Getting 5 wins will be hard, and it won’t start tonight.

Utah on the other hand, Utah Utes look to punch a hole in the BCS, and it starts with a beat down tonight. As you know, the Utes went 13-0, sweeping every opponent in their sights. A perfect 8-0 in the conference and topped off the season with a 31-17 spanking of SEC foe Alabama.

What do you do for an encore? What else…shoot for the BCS Championship.

But how much credit will they give Utah? Beating Michigan last year seemed cool, but turned out to be something a half decent high school team could have done, considering how terrible Michigan was. I don’t blame Utah for that, they played the opponent and won. But much has been said for the strength of schedule, that Utah’s foes have not really been of high quality. Of their first 5 games, only the Air Force game was credible.

But how can you deny wins over Oregon State, TCU and BYU? Clearly this is an excellent team, and to me, very deserving of the credits any top 10 team should have. This year they have Oregon and Louisville on the schedule, and they have to see TCU and BYU again. To me, if they sweep, they must be given STRONG consideration for the BCS, but I did not say it should be automatic.

Clearly, Utah is the heavy favorites, and my money’s on the Utes. The real drama for them will play out over the next few months. Can they go undefeated…hmmmm……