Editors Note: I was looking at the calender and I saw how very far away Utah Football seemed. So I thought I’d start doing game by game previews and predictions for the teams we’re playing. If I do one each Monday, by the time I get to Colorado, we’ll be at fall practice. As always these are for entertainment purposes only please no wagering, unless of course you really want to.
Game Two: Utah at Utah St. September 7, 2012
In case you were curious, Utah State University is located in Logan, Utah and their mascot is the Aggie (whatever the hell an Aggie is… And haven’t you always wondered that?). Their enrollment is around 28,000 but that includes distance learning, regional campuses and anyone who has ever uttered Utah St. Their mascot is known as Big Blue and their color is known as Aggie Blue or also BYU blue.
Offense: Most of the time you start with who the team has but for the Aggies its best to start with who they lost, 2/3 rds of their running back corp, which accounted for 2400 of their 2900 rushing yards. That means that the running back position will fall to Kerwynn Williams. And thus the Aggies will “Ask Kerwynn Williams” to do a whole lot more (I’ll be here all week folks be sure to tip your waitress and try the veal). The more interesting question is how they will handle their two headed QB issue. Chuckie Keeton looked good but so did JC transfer Adam Kennedy when he went down. This will be interesting to follow as well. They also lost 3 starters on the offensive line.
Defense: The star of the Aggie Defense, Bobby Wagner is gone, having been drafted in the second round to the Seattle Seahawks. And while we could spend a lot of time debating who the Aggies have coming back and what other positions, this is actually a pretty simply equation. Unless you’re a very good program, you aren’t going to be better off for having lost a 2nd round draft pick. And when you’re a school like Utah St., that will be magnified. While Gary Anderson is a talented defensive coach, the defense will take a step back.
Predicition: Now if you were asking me how Utah St.’s entire season will go, I’ll easily say that Utah St. will not be as good as they were last year. Schools like Utah St. don’t have three players drafted and get better. But we’re talking about the Utah game. Gary will have the Aggies ready to go for Utah and the Utes have the final meeting with BYU coming in a week. Utah is vastly better than the Aggies so I expect the gameplan will still be somewhat vanillia. I expect the game to go something like this.
The game will be close early, Utah will take a 17-10 to 21-10 halftime lead. Utah will explode for a short burst in the second half jumping to a 35-10 lead and then throttle back. Utah St. will score twice late and the final will be something like a closer than it was 38-24. And while the game will have never been in doubt, there will still be fretting in Ute land as we head towards the final Holy War. In fact 1-1 BYU, fresh off their stomping of Weber St., will do a great deal of talking and Ute fans will be wondering aloud if Brian Johnson is in fact too young.