11 total tackles which led the Jags. Very happy for that guy!

Halie revisits the burning questions for the SDSU game and looks ahead to the start of Pac-12 play against ASU:

https://utah.rivals.com/news/burning-questions-utes-head-into-week-4-1

Great game by the guys tonight!

-Rising connects for a career high 4 TD passes and the best part was that 3 were to receivers.

-When the WRs got open, Rising got them the ball. The suddenly he had more confidence to hit them in tight windows. Props to Vele and Enis.

-Seeing Curry go down, sucked because he’s worked hard and looked great. Tavion got that clean 18 yard TD, but didn’t do much. 3.7 yards per carry isn’t going to cut it. Additionally, Bernard is taking advantage of his opportunities.

-The defense basically had a shutout, had it not been for the fumbled punt and the questionable penalties against them on the TD drive. The Aztecs were 3-15 on third down conversations.-The defense held the No. 4 rushing attack in the country to 113 yards. Impressive performance!

-Now it’s on to Pac-12 play. Let’s hear everyone’s initial reactions…

I know we are only three weeks in but the polls are frustrating the heck out of me. We dominate SDSU while the three teams in front of us lose and we only move up one spot. Meanwhile, Tennessee beats a team similar to the kind of team we played last week where we dropped a spot and they move up 3 and jump us. UW went from not ranked to #18 (good for them) and Oregon went from 25th to 15th.

That said, we are the highest ranked one-loss team.

Auburn only this week (it is after all an Alabama site, they are no doubt enjoying the bitter tears)

We gotta give Harsin credit where credit is due. He’s aligned the Auburn fan base, boosters, media, and students for the first time in 20 years!

I’m a bit worried about our 2 quarterback system. Let’s go with the one that doesn’t trip our running back

We’re back! Dropped pass by Kuithe. 2nd and 10

-Whittingham is definitely in a happy and joking mood today.

-The Utes travel with four RBs, so with the loss of Curry, it’s between Ricky Parks and Charlie Vincent. Curry’s injury is a similar one to what he has experienced on his other ankle in HS.

-He’s fully aware that the game would have been a shutout if it wasn’t for the fumble.

-It’s been very quiet special teams wise, with no real big plays, good or bad. He wants to see them punt the ball better.

-He’s very aware of the slow starts and their making adjustments this week to rectify it. If it wasn’t for a drop on the first drive, the start would have been much different on Saturday.

-He compared the 3-3-5 to having to prepare for the option—meaning it’s rarely seen, so tougher to prepare for.

-You don’t know what to expect with Herm’s firing and an interim coach. They could come out hyped t looking to prove a point.

-Tavion really had an emotional last week, losing his aunt who basically raised him. You could tell he wasn’t his usual self with his personality.

-At defensive tackle, Aliki Vimahi and Simote Pepa have come on really strong, along with Junior Tafuna.

-Whittingham is optimistic that both Clark Phillips and Mohamoud Diabate can play against ASU.

-Whittingham still expects plenty of RPOs from the ASU offense and he says the defense is pressuring less than 10% of the time.

-Kincaid has tried hurdling defenders twice this season, now. You don’t want to coach that out of him, because he is so dangerous and athletic.

More here:

1. Oregon looked very good. Couldn’t have happened at a better time.
2. UCLA eeked one out. Not impressive but better than a home L.
3. Washington State is way better than expected.
4. Colorado is trash.
5. Cal came this close. The yin to uclas Yang this week.

Here are the takeaways from the SDSU game. As always, let’s hear everyone’s as well…

https://utah.rivals.com/news/takeaways-sdsu-at-utah

Here are the position battles for the SDSU game. Tell me where you agree/disagree:

https://utah.rivals.com/news/position-battles-sdsu-at-utah

It’s game day!… Here’s Dustin’s in-depth statistical look at the Aztecs:

https://utah.rivals.com/news/inside-the-numbers-san-diego-state-1

Do you guys ever wonder what the coaches and players think and then say behind closed doors? I'm sure our coaches and players always respect the opposition and they know that upsets are possible, but I can't help but think that they might have a goal or idea of how much they want to beat a team by. For instance, the spread is 21 in the SDSU game; I'm thinking they might be thinking that they should at least cover the spread and some might think that it should be higher and be miffed that it isn't.

If it were me, I'd probably work my butt off in practice or do the things coaches do like film study and fine tuning the players to get them fundamentally sound but I'd also be thinking and saying that we need to dominate them in every aspect of the game and show them who we are. A win is a win, but a dominant win can instill a bit of doubt and fear in opponents we face down the road. What are your guys' thoughts?

Here's my look at San Diego State: https://utah.rivals.com/news/opponent-preview-san-diego-state-1

Current RB commit, Michael Mitchell is out for his official visit, along with RB Christopher Johnson, who was just barely added for the weekend…

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Joseph comes through with another interesting read…

https://utah.rivals.com/news/statistically-speaking-utah-vs-sdsu

Utah is pushing for Zipperer with a planned Oct. 1 official which comes after his Sept. 24 commitment date.

An early look at standouts for the top players in 2025:

Man, Dustin is an animal when it comes to the numbers. He had a lot of guys for PFF to cover this week…

https://utah.rivals.com/news/inside-the-numbers-utah-pff-grades-vs-suu

Roll tide roll crowdsourced it. too long to post here, but here's the link:

Another early look at a weekly Twitter feature- I always liked those maps of the U.S. where better teams accumulated territory as they won, but didn't like the way the creators chose what counties to fill in. So I created a fantasy map for the PAC 12 and imagined the teams as warring factions like in Game of Thrones or similar. I simulated 100,000 seasons using my win probability, and based the size of the territory on each team's rate of reaching the championship game. In the weeks to come, you'll see these boundary lines shift as teams defeat each other and the complexities of our 12-team free for all work themselves out.

Is this nerdy as heck? YES. And that's why you like me.

Note- the percentages at the end don't add up to 100% because two teams make the game each season. So, for example, 7% of Oregon State's simulated seasons ended with them either in first or second.

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Here's an early look at my win projections for the PAC 12 based on performances to date, a few days before Twitter gets 'em. We're starting to see separation among the top tier of teams as we add certainty, with Utah and USC shaping up as the class of the league while UCLA, Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington are within easy striking distance. Arizona, Cal, and Stanford will have to settle for playing spoiler. Colorado... Colorado is a bad, bad football team y'all.

I hate to bring it up every year (maybe someone does every game) but our crowd is pathetic to not be there at first kick. The line to get into the swamp was PACKED 90 minutes before kickoff. Utah “fills in” 20 minutes after kickoff. Utah should dangle the carrot of some kind of concessions discount if you scan your ticket 30 minutes before kick. Or a 5% season ticket discount if you scan every season ticket 30 minutes prior to kickoff all season long. It’s just sad a top 15 team runs out on its first home game to a stadium that MIGHT be 1/2 full. It’s actually comical because the Jumbotron video before they run out has all these quotes about how hard it is to play in RES then they run out to a high school size crowd. It’s laughable….and embarrassing. Ok…that’s the end of my rant and won’t bring it up till next year. Ute fans should be better, but some things never change.

Great bounce back win today. Obviously it was expected, but there really seemed to be no surprises. It was initially a slow start,m, at 7-7 in the first quarter, but the Utes got comfortable and had their way.

-Rising and Barnes combined for 23-29 for 352 yards passing and 4 touchdowns. Most importantly, they both got a lot of guys involved. Each had some really nice passes too.

-Congrats to RJ Hubert on that pick-6. He’s showing why the team has always been so high on him, but he’s been so unfortunate with his injuries. This makes it 19 years straight for Utah with a pick-6.

-Utah had 4 RBs with at least 40 yards. 2 TDs for Thomas and Glover, and 1 for Curry. Bernard didn’t score, but he look dangerous out there. They’re stacked, and Tavion needs to not fumble and stay more locked in.

-The defense stepped up today, although they obviously should have agains the level of competition. SUU had 42 passing yards and 43 rushing yards. The Thunderbirds were 1-12 on 3rd down. Just a suffocating performance.

-The offensive line continued to dominate.

-73 points, with 67 coming in three quarters, that’s impressive.