The AP No. 16 ranked Utah Utes (8-3, 7-1) have the chance to go perfect at home Friday against the Colorado Buffaloes (4-7. 3-5).

The Utes are 23.5 point favorites, a monster spread, one of the biggest of the college football weekend.

As the Utes have already clinched both the Pac-12 South and an appearance in the Pac-12 Championship Game, this game is fairly low stakes. Colorado can’t go to a bowl, nor can they play true upset to the Utes as they have in seasons past.

Both teams will simply have to play for pride.

A team never wants to lose a game, regardless of how their season is going. Colorado will want to win for winning’s sake, and, as it is Colorado’s last game of the year, their seniors will have that added motivation.

Utah will want to win for winning’s sake, too, as Coach Kyle Whittingham is very competitive. It is also their Senior Night, their last home game of the season, so seniors like S Vonte Davis, WR Theo Howard, S Brandon McKinney, and OL Bamideli Olaseni will be seeing their last action at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Also, and maybe this is just me, but if Utah loses, they will be more poorly ranked than BYU as an almost certainty.

It would be easy to say that Utah, who just rolled Oregon, would be able to beat up on Colorado without any thought, but Utah’s lost this exact game before, but with even more on the line. So, what’s the plan?

Utah’s Gameplan (According to Me)

Colorado is a weird team offensively. They average 19.3 points a game and have only scored 25 touchdowns in their 11 games, but they were able to score 29 points on Oregon. Against Arizona, they scored 34 points. The week after they smacked Arizona, however, Colorado only scored a paltry three points against Cal.

Basically, their offense is inconsistent at best. Throughout the season, they’ve been good through the air, as they do have a special connection between QB Brendon Lewis and WR Brenden Rice. That said, Rice is out against Utah with a hamstring injury. That means Colorado’s air attack will rely strongly on TE Brady Russell, who’s caught 25 balls for 250 yards this season.

Colorado might want to try running the ball frequently, as they have a solid RB duo in Jarek Broussard and Alex Fontenot. However, if I’m Colorado, I wouldn’t want to test LB Devin Lloyd, who could be one of the first defensive players taken in the draft.

Colorado should attack Utah through the air, trying to create one-on-ones and let Russell find space in the field. Utah will be heavy with the blitz package, and so Lewis will have to throw the ball quick.

As far as Utah’s offense goes, they really can’t go wrong with the tried and true formula of beating the defense with a sledgehammer. It worked against Oregon, it worked against Stanford, and it worked against Arizona State. RB Tavion Thomas has become an absolute star, becoming one of Utah’s best backs we’ve ever seen.

QB Cameron Rising can take advantage of easy throws down the field created by the run-heavy scheme, and try to find TE Brant Kuithe often, just like he did against Oregon. The offensive line for Utah has been playing out of their minds lately, and it would be wise for Whittingham to take advantage of it.

The Crystal Ball

As always, we can look to the crystal ball for some predictions of what will happen in the game. It’s not always accurate, nor consistent, but the ball is the ball, and we’re going to see what happens.

  • Utah Covers the Spread. Good teams win, great teams cover. Utah is playing like a great team, and Colorado is injured. The ball says the Utes cover.
  • Utah Runs for 250+ Yards. The ball seems to lean on this one a lot, having used a similar rushing total in the last few weeks. But hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t change the prediction.
  • Utah Holds Colorado to Under 250 Total Yards. I’m assuming the ball is talking about yards of offense here, but it seems safe either way.
  • Colorado doesn’t Score a Tuddy Until The Second Half. The use of the word Tuddy means that the ball has been listening to me. Like Amazon Alexa, or the NRA.
  • Tavion Thomas scores Two Touchdowns. This may seem conservative, but I bet the ball is counting on Thomas resting much of the game.

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