Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Halfway through the season, the calendar shows it's time to hand out midterm grades for the three FBS college football programs in Utah.
Let's start with the most studious of the trio and work down from there.
BYU Cougars
The Cougars are the most surprising team in the Big 12, arguably a distinction that includes all of college football. Nobody had this collective group of unproven talent sitting atop the conference unbeaten in all six games.
Au contraire, all you French speakers.
"It's not anything that we didn't think we could do," said coach Kalani Sitake.
No problem forgiving the double negative there, coach, but come on. From top to bottom in your own program, only a fool would have thought the team that finished last season losing five consecutive games would then follow it up with a six-game winning streak.
Let's be fools together.
In seven weeks, the mindset for BYU has changed from merely becoming bowl eligible to legitimately competing for the Big 12 championship. The way the 13th-ranked Cougars are playing, only a fool would think it's impossible for them to make the conference title game in Arlington, Texas, in December.
Maybe aim even higher than simply playing in the championship game. Dare we even hint at BYU earning the conference's automatic berth into the new 12-team playoff.
If all the Cougars seriously believed a 6-0 start was realistic, then it stands to reason they can back it up with a similar streak from now until Thanksgiving weekend. Any Power Four team that goes through the regular season unscathed likely won't need to win the 13th game to make the playoffs.
Consider that the remaining schedule works in BYU's favorite, which is different than originally anticipated. Of the final six games, only Arizona State (5-1, 2-1) has played better than expected.
As for the midterm grade, think of The Christmas Story in which Ralphie envisions the teacher's response upon reading his theme requesting his desired present. In his dream, she plasters A+++++ on the chalkboard.
Utah Utes
Speaking of sweet dreams, the season hasn't yet turned into a nightmare, but those offseason playoff hopes are just about dashed.
All the goals went up in smoke on a sunny afternoon on Sept. 7, when quarterback Cam Rising crashed into the water coolers on Baylor's sideline in Rice-Eccles Stadium. Without the seventh-year senior, who is done for the season, the Utes go from the Big 12 preseason favorite to middle-of-the-pack.
Credit Rising for trying to play through the obvious pain he endured after suffering a nasty lower leg injury last week early in the loss to Arizona State. Combined with the injury Rising suffered against Baylor, he could not throw or run adequately enough to prevent Utah from an embarrassing loss to a team picked to finish last in the conference.
Beyond a sense of loyalty, which is an admirable trait, it's a mystery why the Utah coaching staff refused to replace Rising with freshman Isaac Wilson. The inexplicable decision was made even worse with Monday's announcement that the Utah medical staff deemed Rising's most recent injury is season ending.
All the attention now turns to Wilson, who has showed enough promise to improve over the final six games and take hold of the position. This assumes Utah won't pursue the ridiculous notion of Rising returning for an eighth year of eligibility.
In the meantime, the Utes have a decent chance of achieving a respectable season. To get there, they need to get back a few injured players on defense and improve the suspect tackling.
For now, though, Utah grades out at a C+.
Utah State Aggies
The season got derailed before it began, the day the coaching changes were made in July. From that point on, the Aggies really had no chance for anything special.
The hope now is an easier schedule over the back half can lead to some success. But this is the same team that lost by 16 points to Temple, which is 1-5.
The offense is decent, but the porous defense offsets all the points the Aggies score. There's no other choice other than to give this team a midterm grade of a D.
