Transitioning from the Mountain West to the Pac-12 was tough for the Utah Utes. Kyle Whittingham brought them through the transition as best he could, but he still went into last season on the hot seat. A 9-4 season with a legitimate chance to win the Pac-12 South title for most of the year was more than good enough for Whittingham to keep his job, but he still has work to do in 2015.
2015 SCHEDULE
9/3: vs. Michigan
9/12: vs. Utah State
9/19: at Fresno State
9/26: at Oregon
10/10: vs. California
10/17: vs. Arizona State
10/24: at USC
10/31: vs. Oregon State
11/7: at Washington
11/14: at Arizona
11/21: vs. UCLA
11/28: vs. Colorado
Utah had a lot of the really tough games in the Pac-12 last year at home. This year, many of those same games are on the road. The fact of the matter is that this is the year of getting five home games in conference instead of just four, which will help out, but those games at Oregon and at USC look particularly ugly.
SEASON WIN TOTAL
After a nine-win season last year, it's almost a bit surprising that Utah's season win total is sitting on just seven. Still, this is a scary non-conference schedule with games against Michigan, Utah State and Fresno State, and the Pac-12 schedule doesn't really give a lot of reprieve either, save for home games against Oregon State and Colorado State.
OFFENSIVE OUTLOOK
Travis Wilson had a rough season last year for Utah, throwing for just 2,170 yards in 13 games. He did do a nice job taking care of the football, tossing just five interceptions, but only throwing 18 touchdowns won't cut it in this conference.
Wilson will hopefully show some improvement as a senior, but we're not all that sure that he hasn't hit his ceiling.
The good news is that there are a total of eight starters back on this offense, including Devontae Booker, who might quietly be one of the best running backs in the nation.
Booker rushed for 1,512 yards and 10 TDs a year ago, and he was tied for second on the team with 43 receptions as well.
DEFENSIVE OUTLOOK
There are eight members back from last season's defense, one which played a lot better than the 393.5 yards and 24.9 points per game allowed suggests.
The Utes have this team concept of defense, which makes up for the fact that there isn't a legitimate NFL prospect on the unit. There are only three senior starters on this side of the ball as well, so men like Lowell Lotulelei, Marcus Williams and Justin Thomas could all be stars in the making.
SEASON PREDICTION
The Utes weren’t supposed to be all that great last season, but they were able to upset UCLA on the road and USC at home. They beat both Stanford and Oregon State in overtime, and they were beaten by Arizona State in OT as well.
That's a heck of a lot of close calls. Unfortunately for the Utes, that just isn't going to continue this year.
At the tail end of the regular season, Arizona and Oregon both came to Salt Lake City and blew the Utes out. We just can't see the Utes beating either of those teams on the road this year, nor can we see them beating USC in the Coliseum.
That leaves Utah needing to go 8-1 the rest of the way to beat the posted season win total, and we don't see it happening.
The Utes have a 150 to 1 price on their head this year to win the National Championship. Winning the Pac-12 South is the ceiling for this club, and that would be a really, really high goal to reach.
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