What do Joseph’s numbers say this week, especially with the loss of Brant Kuithe…

https://utah.rivals.com/news/statistically-speaking-utah-vs-oregon-state-2

In Kuithe's 3 full games, he had 28 targets or 9.3 per game. It will be interesting what Ludwig does with those 9 targets. Here is my .02 worth...

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RBs
Micah Bernard 2

TEs
Kincaid 1
Yassmin 2

WRs
Money Parks 2
Solomon Enis 1
Devaughn Vele 1

The last non-conference week is in the books and the stage is set for a thrilling race to the title game. ASU's chances of winning collapsed after an embarrassing loss at home that cost Herm his job, Washington is establishing itself as a contender, and Utah's odds of making the title game dwindled to less than 2/3; not so much because of any problems on the Utes' end but instead because the PAC 12 is loaded at the top.

I'm pretty excited to see how this week's games impact the map. Will Oregon swallow Washington State, or will the tiny scarlet and grey island in that sea of green grow? Will USC cross the strait and seize territory from Oregon State, or retreat and cede ground to both the Beavers and Utah? It's gonna be fun.

Oh, and to make it nice and easy for you, the odds of making it to the title game (arrows show movement from last week) are:



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Halie answers last week’s questions and looks ahead to the battle against Oregon State…

https://utah.rivals.com/news/burning-questions-utes-head-into-week-5

As always, NSFW...


Georgia:

See y’all later, gonna re-watch the Oregon game to bleach my eyes

Oklahoma:

Still time to pull out of that SEC thing??

Arkansas:

They could not have scripted this game better to describe life as an Arkansas fan.

Here’s the breakdown on what it means for Katoa committing to the Runnin’ Utes for the class of 2024…

https://utah.rivals.com/news/what-it-means-katoa-commits-to-the-runnin-utes

No huge changes this week as favorites largely held serve. Washington and UCLA are coming on strong. Utah is now slightly more likely to win 10 games than 9, new territory for them since the loss to Florida. Colorado's most likely result is now 0-12, and Arizona State is in free fall as projections struggle to keep up with just how badly they've been playing.

USC's rosy season numbers disguise increasing uncertainty in their bid for a trip to the title game; that'll be the focus of tomorrow's conference projection post.

Here’s how the Utes graded out with PFF for the Arizona State game…

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

The Florida loss and how the Gators have done since, continues to hurt the Utes with minimal movement:

This is an interesting one. Katoa had a Utah football offer, early on as a freshman, but then he transferred to his current school, that only has basketball.

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Matthews will visit Utah for the USC and he had some really positive things to say:

https://n.rivals.com/news/wr-mikey-matthews-taking-visits-staying-patient

Former Utah baseball stand out CJ Cron passed the 100 RBI mark this weekend. This is the first time he has reached that level and he is having a terrific season with the Rockies.

-This year’s team has already spent a lot of time together which was intentional with 8 new guys.

-There’s a lot more physicality to this group and a lot quicker to the ball. He expects them to be a lot better rebounding team.

-This year’s team has more room to make mistakes and recover from them.

-Leaders have been: Anthony, Carlson, and Brenchlet. Gavin Baxter has been great even though he can’t play yet. Of the young guys, Lazar is really trying to be vocal as a leader.

-He talked about just focusing on being 1% better each day. He said he took a long trip recently that allowed him to watch all of their practices and the incremental improvement in each practice was really evident.

-They’re really excited to have Chris Burgess on the staff. He feels like that hire is already paying off.

-He has a really tight staff with camaraderie and chemistry. It’s okay to disagree and be respectful about it. He also talked about, as a staff, what it’s like to learn the league.

-They should have the versatility to play a lot of different ways.

-They’re always going to have their core, culture, and what they believe in. But, then you need to adjust to your personnel.

-He echoed what Carlson and Anthony said without being told what they said about the new guys. He said they’re all doing great things—and different new guys step up each day.

-They’re coming into the season with one open schedule. It’s not a philosophical thing.

-Boston Holt recently got cleared to play. Baxter is close to being cleared in about 3-4 weeks.

-Smith won’t say any one specific guy who did better improvement wise than any others. He did say the freshmen don’t look like freshmen. He won’t say it’s all roses though, either.

-Because of the transfer portal, it’s tough to really know which opponents are going to be good.

-Unlike Larry K, Smith is insistent on playin BYU every year.

-He thinks the fans will like the product. Smith likes it, says he doesn’t completely love it, but it’s great for where they’re currently at.

This was the pickup we were discussing last week. I really like Jonah’s film and with Utah’s development on the defensive line, he could grow into a force…

https://utah.rivals.com/news/what-it-means-utes-land-bishop-gorman-hs-de-lea-ea

-Both say there’s a lot of good things happening and that the team put in a lot of good work over the summer.

-Neither would pick a newcomer to watch out for. They both acknowledged that all of the guys do different things great in unique ways.

-Year two is great because they all know the culture now. (Anthony)

-Carlson and Chris Burgess go way back and it’s been great having him here and learning from him.

-The entire team just loves playing basketball and they’ve already done a lot of pickup games. (Anthony)

-According to Anthony, the physicality is what will set this team apart. He also said he’s been on an NCAA Tournament team every year but last year, and he said this team feels like it can reach that point. They’re a lot bigger, stronger and faster. He doesn’t believe they’ll get bullied more.

-Carlson was down to 205 at the end of last year because of his appendicitis attack. He’s put to 220 now.

-Anthony says he wants to get to the free throw line a lot more. In the offseason, he stayed in Utah and got a lot more shots up.

-Last year’s team seemed to focus on the future, while this year they focus on the day that they’re in.

Bishop Gorman DE

This sucks.

This sucks for Brant, this suck for the offense. This sucks for the fans.

Whittingham did say Kuithe can come back next season, but he’s already flirted with the NFL twice… Let’s dedicate an appreciation thread to one of Utah’s all-time great playmakers.

Here are the takeaways from Utah’s Pac-12 opener. Let’s hear everyone else’s takeaways, as well:

https://utah.rivals.com/news/takeaways-utah-at-arizona-state-1

Any of you insiders hear anything yet?

That was a thumping, and that defensive effort was unreal. Cole Bishop might just be the Utes’ second-coming of Eric Weddle. The reversal on the targeting was the correct call. Utah is extremely fortunate for that. And that goal line interception was one of the more impressive ones we’ll see. Oh and let’s not forget the sideline hit. He had one helluva game.

Rising adjusted well when they lost Kuithe. Everyone needs to await for official word, but it doesn’t seem like it’s good. Yassmin gave everyone a glimpse of his ridiculous talent, but Kuithe would be a giant loss. Also, his INT he threw was because of Solo.

10 receptions from the receivers tonight was necessary, but it was a nice improvement to see. They still dropped

Gabe Reid is exceeding expectations. He had another great game.

Everyone on the defense was just so locked in.

I wasn’t a fan of Tavion’s body language in the first half. If he can take the punishment and use it as motivation, Utah will benefit from it, but that could be asking a lot, to be honest.

Micah looks like he’s on a bit of a pitch count because of the cramps that he had dealt with through fall camp and the first couple games.

Glover showed glimpses, but needs time. Ja’Quinden showed more than his 3.5 yards per carry indicate. It wouldn’t be surprise to see him assume a Kuithe type role.

Let’s hear everyone else’s initial reactions…

Let’s get this thing rollin’!!!

Tavion had yet to be on the field. Ja’Quinden has been running with Glover and Bernard just got out there, too.

It is obvious you’re vaguely alluding to something specific here, so who and what exactly are you referring to, Alex?


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Here are the position battles for the AaSU game. Let us know where you agree or disagree…

https://utah.rivals.com/news/position-battles-utah-at-arizona-state-1