Patrick Kinahan: Utah did what BYU, Utah State couldn't in football this season


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — Reviewing preseason predictions for the local college football teams, this much is clear: one group exceeded expectations, to the point of almost perfection, while the two mixed positive with negative to produce disappointing results.

Starting with the good, which is actually great, Utah enjoyed its best and most dominant regular-season since beginning Pac-12 play nine years ago. As hard as it is to exceed a forecast of 10-2 overall and 7-2 in conference games, the Utes did it in impressive fashion.

Pretty much, all things considered, the Utes did the nearly impossible. Almost a unanimous pick to win the South Division, they obliterated all but USC in the South and won the division going away.

Anything less than a Rose Bowl bid was going to be considered a disappointment. The Utes fell short, losing to Oregon in the Pac-12 championship, but one postseason game does not diminish the outstanding regular season.

Utah was absolutely sensational on defense, as expected, with seven seniors and junior cornerback Jaylon Johnson fulfilling their collective potential. After failing to execute properly in the loss to USC, the defense keyed an eight-game winning streak to close the regular season.

As expected, Utah dominated the first-team all-conference awards. Five players, including repeat winners Jaylon Johnson, Leki Fotu and Bradlee Anae, were named to the first team.

Johnson, a three-year starter, had the defensive play of the season in the conference. With his team trailing in the third quarter against Washington in Seattle, Johnson returned an interception for a touchdown in a play that changed the momentum of the game and catapulted the Utes to their best conference win of the season.

The play of quarterback Tyler Huntley and running back Zack Moss, along with brilliant play-calling by coordinator Andy Ludwig, led to the offense’s most productive output since joining the conference. Moss was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year, while Huntley was selected as the top quarterback.

BYU

Rebounding from a losing record two years ago, the Cougars went 6-6 last year and made a one-game improvement to finish 7-5 this season. Even with thrilling overtime wins against Tennessee and USC, demolishing Utah State and stunning Boise State, BYU at least should have met my prediction of 8-4.

No way the Cougars should have gone 0-3 against Toledo, South Florida and San Diego State. Losing to the Aztecs isn’t embarrassing, but not getting a touchdown qualifies as unacceptable.

Toledo finished the season losing five of its last seven games, including by a combined 98-37 to Buffalo and Central Michigan. At 4-8, USF was bad enough to fire coach Charlie Strong.

Injuries to quarterback Zach Wilson and three running backs also took their toll. Quarterbacks Baylor Romney and Jaren Hall played well in spurts, but dipping down that far in the depth chart at running back was too much to overcome.

At least the growing pains came with a starting lineup on both sides of the football that listed only a total of six seniors. The team will need more experience to get through a schedule next season that includes seven Power Five opponents in addition to Houston, Boise State, Utah State and San Diego State.

Utah State

The thought that Utah State would end at 9-3, 6-2, was not close, as it went 7-5, 5-3. Even with an impending bowl invitation, the Aggies disappointed this season.

Blowout losses to Air Force, BYU and Boise State were particularly unsettling. Fortunately, the Aggies got one-score wins over San Diego State, Fresno State and Wyoming.

The most surprising aspect of the season was the play of Jordan Love. The junior quarterback had 16 interceptions to go with only 17 touchdown passes.

The preseason favorite to win Mountain West Conference Player of the Year, Love was not named to either the first-team or second-team postseason list. He already has declared for the upcoming NFL draft.

In the end, after losing the bulk of the starting units off an 11-2 team last season, the Aggies were respectable enough but fell short of their goals.

Most recent Sports stories

Related topics

SportsBYU CougarsUtah UtesUtah State Aggies
Patrick is a radio host for 97.5/1280 The Zone and the Zone Sports Network. He, along with David James, are on the air Monday-Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.

ARE YOU GAME?

From first downs to buzzer beaters, get KSL.com’s top sports stories delivered to your inbox weekly.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

KSL Weather Forecast