Editors Note: I started a preview and prediction for each Utah game and then got away from it after a series of holidays. Here are links to the previous seven and the preview and prediction for Cal.
In case you missed them:
Game One: Utah Vs Northern Colorado August 30, 2012
Game Two: Utah at Utah St. September 7, 2012
Game Three: Utah vs BYU September 15, 2012
Game Four: Utah at Arizona St. September 22, 2012
Game Five: Utah vs USC October 4, 2012
Game Six: Utah at UCLA October 13, 2012
Game Seven: Utah at Oregon St. October 20, 2012
If you’ve been playing along at home, you know that I have the Utes at 7-0 at this point in the season.
Game 8 is against the Cal Bears. As we covered during the UCLA week, the University of California Berkley is where the state of California sends its very smart yet not as attractive students. Think of it as ugly UCLA. Also, the angry conservatives among Utah’s fanbase will want to make hippie jokes. Stop it. It may still be 1967 in Utah but Berkley is mostly full of smart kids who want to get rich, but see the point of driving a Prius.
Also, Cal was where I really lost hope with Jon Hays. I thought after the Pitt game last year we’d be alright, then we were terrible at Cal and Jon Hays was the terriblest. Now John White saved our season which has led some of you to think that Jon Hays isn’t terrible. Stop that he’s really really terrible and if he takes meaningful snaps for us this season, we’re screwed.
So What Is Going to Happen?
Can someone explain Cal to me because I don’t get them. Jeff Tedford is supposed to be a great coach. But somehow Cal ends up at 7-5 every season. Is that great for Cal? Is Tedford a robot programmed to go 7-5? Is it all just a Cal thing I don’t get? See this is where I feel behind the curve while looking at Pac-12 games.
What I think I’ve gathered is Cal actually has some talent coming in. But that they are similar to UCLA in that this will not be the season that talent shines through.
So I’m going to go on this. Kyle doesn’t take having his ass handed to him like a hat very well so every game we lost last year will be circled. I think we came out kind of flat last year and hadn’t completely found our way with John White. None of that will happen this year (as always these predictions depend upon Utah staying generally healthy, especially Jordan Wynn). The Utes come out and take control in this one. The Utah defense controls the line from the start. The Ute offense is really finding itself and this will look like the best over all game Utah has played.
It won’t be a drubbing but this one won’t really ever be in doubt.
34-13
(as a side note I think by now we’ll all see that this edition of Utah Defense is really special)