Statistically Speaking: ASU

Utah heads into the second half of the season riding high, having thoroughly thumped two consecutive North teams. Their first opponent of the home stretch is the Sun Devils, a disciplined, well-coached team built around an excellent running back. Sound familiar?

The current balance of the South race is that Utah is the dominant force, but is under significant pressure to hold serve and win out so that they can capitalize on the reasonable projection of a USC loss or two. Arizona State represents a real threat to that narrative- if they are able to knock of the Utes this week, they will have completely disrupted the paradigm.

On the surface, ASU looks like a real threat to the Utes. Utah is ranked 13th at 5-1, ASU 18th with the same record. ASU's brand this season benefits from two wins over ranked foes- MSu was ranked 18th and Cal 15th when the two teams met. Utah doesn't have a marquee win, but they have dominated some respectable opponents like BYU and Washington State.

Then of course there's the current situation with this series- since joining the PAC 12, Utah has managed to win just two times and have produced some of their least memorable performances (or at least the ones you wish you could forget!) against the Sun Devils.

As a result, this game has a lot of Ute fans very, very nervous. Heck, it has me nervous. I'll tell you what isn't sweating it though—my spreadsheet.

Utah looks to have this game locked up. They've been outperforming ASU at every turn throughout the season, and the 'Devils have barely eked out wins against teams that didn't turn out to be as good as advertised. There's not a lot to go off of in like opponents, but that 4 point win vs. WSU looks pretty soft compared to Utah's 25 point beatdown. I'm feeling very confident about Utah waking up on Sunday morning 6-1.

Utah 33, ASU 23