Didn't have the heart to do this last week, but here's this week's much more positive rendition. We're down to three serious contenders for the title game, with Utah, UCLA, and Oregon still in the mix and USC looking on and hoping for a lucky break. Interestingly, I ran a couple models looking forward and there's very little rooting interest for Utah fans in the Oregon-UCLA game, with Utah's odds of making the title game barely budging either way.

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Week to week numbers:

News and rumors from the recruiting trail:

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There’s news starting to leak about Tavion’s place on the team going forward. Please be mindful in any comments that he’s a young adult and we all made mistakes as young adults, just some more than others. The fact that some of this stuff hasn’t sunk in with him, just means that there should be genuine care and concern for Tavion, the person. I’ve been told that he says the right things about wanting to change, and knows his actions and attitude have been wrong, but for some reason the actions eventually lead back to his typical habits.

Have we seen the last of him? I can’t fully say that that will be the case because it’s been viewed as a very delicate situation.

I’ve been looking into the situation, but I won’t be surprised if Kyle is doing everything he can to keep a tight lid on this.

Updates on two locals here, one bring Smith Snowden, who I’ll have his interview with me transcribed soon.

https://n.rivals.com/news/recruiting-rumor-mill-power-programs-hosting-key-targets

Brewer gets another bite at the apple today vs The Zoo.

Interesting betting lines this week:

First, the Pac-12:
#9 UCLA +6.5 @ #10 Oregon. This opened at 4 and shot up. Bettors are not confident in UCLA on the road.
CU +23.5 @ OSU. This has been pretty consistent, but yeah, nobody's got the Buffs on the road in Corvalis.
UW -7.5 @ Cal. This one opened at 9.5, so most of the money has been on Cal to cover.
ASU +2.5 @ Stanford. This one's basically just home field, and the money's been a little bit more on ASU, since it opened at 3.

Utah, Arizona, WSU and USC are all on a bye this week.

Top 25 lines of note:

Iowa +30 @ #2 OSU. This actually opened at 21, so all the money's been on OSU.
UT Martin +38 @ #3 Tennessee. These lines are hard to find, because Tennessee can basically set the score.
#14 Syracuse +14.5 @ #5 Clemson. Syracuse getting blown out by Clemson would help Utah move up a spot. Clemson losing won't drop them 10 spots.
#24 MSU +21 @ #6 Alabama. This line hasn't moved much, seems about right. MSU upsetting Bama would probably move them past Utah.
#7 Ole Miss +2 @ LSU. This is interesting. Vegas thinks LSU should be favored, despite how they've looked, over top 10 Ole Miss. LSU is a talented team, if they blow out Ole Miss that could drop Ole Miss below Utah, although that's pretty far to go.
#17 KSU +4 @ #8 TCU. KSU probably jumps Utah if they upset TCU, TCU probably doesn't fall 7 spots if they lose, unless they get blown out.
#20 Texas -6 @ #8 OK ST. Yes, Texas is favored by 6 on the road against a team ranked 12 spots ahead of them. Texas winning might jump them past Utah, but also could drop OK ST below Utah, so this one's probably a wash. Probably best if OK ST wins, but honestly, the remaining Big 12 fans are annoying, so I'm rooting for Texas.
BC +20.5 @ #13 Wake Forest. Wake getting upset probably would cut them from the poll entirely, BC is bad.

If you're interested, the other local teams' lines are as follows:
BYU -7 @ Liberty. Liberty is 6-1 with a 1-point loss @Wake Forest, but the rest of their games have been against pretty terrible teams (14-25 combined record including FCS Gardner-Webb). If I were betting this game I'd bet on Liberty. I'm not sure they have enough to win, but a touchdown at home seems like a lot with how BYU's defense is playing. They're 124th in 3rd down defense (47.5%), 50th in passing yards allowed (215.3), 113th in rush defense (189.1 ypg and 4.53 ypc), 99th in scoring defense (30.29 ppg), 107th in team pass efficiency defense (145.9), and tied for 100th in turnovers created (7).
USU +4.5 @ Wyoming. This opened at 3.5, so the money's been favoring Wyoming a little bit. Both teams are bad (highlighted by USU losing 35-7 to Weber, but USU is on Front Range winning streak, beating AF and CSU the last two games. Wyoming beat New Mexico last week and has only 1 MWC loss right now, so they've still got a shot at the MWC championship game if they go on a little run here.

What I do know is that George Kliavkoff is working on a substantial deal with Amazon currently. This is likely to mean that the Pac-12 Networks will be sold off in it as well adding worthwhile teams and not just angling for all G5 teams.

That would be the goal. Will it happen? Who knows. I’ve definitely heard it would be a substantial Amazon deal, though.

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Well done whoever did that!!!

I just spoke with Smith Snowden, and during the call he talked about how Clark Phillips III has really become a great role model for him. He talked about Phillips “Kobe mentality” and how Smith also feels like he has a chip on his shoulder because of his size.

Both Utah and BYU are the main competition, but Tennessee lingers and wants him to take an official visit.

More to come, but Utah is sitting nicely, right now.

Good to have Nike money. Maybe old, not sure. But loved this.... Few things I do like about the ducks.

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A good Utah nugget in here…

https://n.rivals.com/news/midwest-spotlight-how-things-stand-with-top-uncommitted-prospects

Here’s my article on Mikey Matthews and his Utah visit. It’s safe to say Utah is in the driver’s seat…

https://utah.rivals.com/news/utah-makes-huge-impression-on-wr-matthews

We are in a bye week, but the league will have another chance to make a national impact with College Gameday in Eugene for the Bruins vs. the Ducks.

The loser will join us and USC as one-loss teams in league games, while the winner will be alone atop the conference standings. It may be better for the Utes — and the conference as a whole — to have UCLA win out, since they already have the tie-breaker over us. With no more division, we would play the Bruins in the title game if both of us win the rest of our games. UCLA would likely be in the Top 4 of the CFP (at 12-0) heading to Vegas. I would probably hope for that — if UCLA hadn't decided to join USC and bolt to the Big 10.

Now I'm hoping the L.A. schools lose every game against the remaining schools. So for me, I'm hoping the Ducks win this weekend. Oregon also has tough games remaining at Washington and Oregon State. I could see the Ducks finishing with two league losses even if they beat UCLA on Saturday.

The L.A. schools, on the other hand, have much easier schedules the second half of the conference season. Both of them only have one other really tough game remaining — against each other on Nov. 19, the same day we play Oregon.

Anyway, who do you think will win in the UCLA at Oregon game and why?

I know there are a lot of people who support NIL and believe it's only just to compensate players for the money college football generates. I get it. Nevertheless, I have disdain for it and I never thought it could be relegated with any justifiable parameters other than to create an NWO of college football blue bloods.

Paying recruits is careless. The odds that you get what you pay for are slim like unto NBA Draft picks. And you arm 18 year old young people with a sense of entitlement that isn't good for society.

However, paying recruits and my diatribe thus far isn't the worst part of all of this. The real damage is done within the portal when NIL is the catalyst for movement by elite programs to buy up everybody else's goods. The program destroyer element comes from a small number of blue blood programs who turn the work of other programs into the realm of developers for the ultra rich. It's absolute bullshit to turn good football programs into a farm system and take the hard work done in recruiting and developing, only to swoop in and take the nucleus of a team away by the lure for the lust of greed.

Coach Whittingham is pissed. And I am to. This is corrupt and evil. It's hard to recruit and develop players, only to lose them and start over. I knew that these two factors, NIL and the transfer portal were meant to be combined together. They came out a year apart by sinister design. "Now sir, you tell me the world's changed. Once I made you rich enough. Rich enough to forget my name." (Springsteen).

I’ve heard from multiple sources this week that Tavion hasn’t seemed to learn anything. It’s very real that he won’t play tomorrow, at all.

Dustin breaks down the Utes’ PFF grades from the weekend:

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

Utah just went toe to toe and beat a team that was bought (fairly) through college free agency.

Cam and Dalton, just unreal. 415 yards passing and two touchdown passes, and three rushing touchdowns, plus the two point conversion. Dalton, 16 catches for 234 yards and a touchdown. Those two… man, enough said.

The defense was so bad in the first half, but they really stepped up in the second half.

I’ll have more thoughts later, and I know these are basic, but WOW. Discuss…

I typically don't mind Mondays. However today is really good day after Saturday's festivities. The BYU peeps are more quiet than usual and I just quietly smile away. Let's go win this bye week!

I spoke with Matthews last night, who absolutely loved the atmosphere for the game and all around SLC. Tao Johnson was his host. He said they envision a Covey type role for him. More to come, but he said Utah is the one standing out.

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This buddy check is much more fun. How’s everyone doing? How’s everyone feeling? What are your expectations the last five games?…

And since Patrick Kinnahan called Rising the greatest QB in Utah history this morning, what does everyone think? Has he surpassed Smith or what does he have to do to surpass Smith?

Rising has proven himself numerous times against difficult competition, but Smith never had the opportunity to face difficult competition.

Look, the UCLA game wasn’t ideal, and a lot of faults can be thrown around. It also just shows everyone the beauty of how difficult it is to have a special season. Utah can absolutely still make the Rose Bowl, but it’s going to take running the table now—something they did last year. It can be done folks.

How’s everyone feeling after sleeping off their frustrations—or sleeping through their frustrations?

Halie caught up with Tavion, who seems to be getting locked in again…

https://utah.rivals.com/news/utes-train-ready-to-get-rolling

What a finish… Here are the takeaways. Let’s hear everyone else’s too:

https://utah.rivals.com/news/takeaways-rising-and-no-20-utah-stun-no-7-usc