The University of Utah announced on Friday afternoon that Saturday morning’s game against Washington State will mark the end of the 2020 season. Utah welcomes Washington State who has just played three games on the year and is 1-2, beating Oregon state and losing to the two teams that are in the Pac-12 conference championship game, Oregon and USC. It is unknown how good the Cougars are after such a small sample size.
Nevertheless, let’s take a further look at the position battles on each side.
Quarterback
Utah senior quarterback Jake Bentley is not the best quarterback in the conference, nor the most accurate, however, he is a gamer. This was on display last week at Colorado. In the snow, the Utes faced multiple deficits and Bentley kept fighting and led the offense to their best performance of the season. If the playbook is simple like it was last Saturday, Bentley will likely continue to excel. For Washington State, they are starting Hawaii native and true freshman Jayden de Laura. He is experienced with the new offense of head coach Nick Rolovich, however, he has only played three games this year and completed 60% of his passes with four touchdowns and three interceptions.
Running Backs
For the second straight week, Utah running back Ty Jordan, was the best offensive freshman in the conference. Jordan is averaging 7.3 yards per carry and has three touchdowns in four games. Even before the transfer of Devin Brumfield and Jordan Wilmore, Jordan became the featured back and has earned this position. Now, look for Micah Bernard to make more of an impact today with the absence of the other backs on the depth chart. On the Washington State side, they have switched offenses with the new coach and have implemented the run more. Deon Mcintosh has ran the ball well as of late and averages nearly seven yards per carry. WSU’s quarterback will also run the ball in the new offense.
Wide Receivers
Utah’s receivers looked much improved last week and they were featured much more in the offense. Solomon Enis and Britain Covey were both featured much more with the injuries to Bryan Thompson and Samson Nacua. The Utes are improving in this aspect of the game but Washington State has more firepower. They are led by Renard Bell and Travell Harris who both have over 23 catches, 275+ yards and two touchdowns. These two will be a tough test on the outside for Utah’s freshman corners. However, it is up to the freshman quarterback to get them the ball.
Tight Ends
Not a single Washington State tight end has a reception on the year and Utah’s tight ends played their best game of the year last week. Cole Fotheringham and Dalton Kincaid both contributed to the efforts with Brant Kuithe at the tight end position. When this position group is featured in the pass game as they were against Colorado, the offense is much more dynamic.
Offensive Line
One of the reasons for Ty Jordan’s success as of late is the performance of the Utah offensive line. They have been able to make some big holes and the Utes are averaging almost 200 yards on the ground per game. They only allowed one sack against a decent Colorado defense but have a tough matchup against the much improved WSU rush defense. Washington State is only rushing for 132 yards and is in the middle of adjusting from the air-raid offense. They have allowon average two sacks per game and will have a tough matchup against the Utah defensive line.
Defensive Line
Last week, Utah faced one of the conference’s best running backs in Colorado’s, Jarek Broussard and held him to just 80 yards after he was averaging almost 200 in previous games. This group has struggled to put pressure on the quarterback up to this point but are still stout in the run game and have allowed minimal rush yards up to this point. Mika Tafua and Hauati Pututau both have two sacks on the year but the Utah defense needs more pressure on Saturday to disrupt the WSU true freshman quarterback. On the WSU side, they have struggled to stop some of the conference’s top backs in Jemar Jefferson and Travis Dye. They will have their hands full as they will attempt to stop Ty Jordan. Their strength is the rush defense, but that will be put to test on Saturday.
Linebackers
Utah linebacker Devin Lloyd was named as a semifinalist for the Butkus Award, the award for the nation’s top linebacker. He has made the loss of nine defensive starters from last year minimal and has emerged as a great leader for this Utah defense. Alonside Lloyd is Nephi Sewell who is averaging close to 10 tackles per game and has notched two intercpetions, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble up to this point in the season. Washington State has two solid linebackers in fifth year seniors Jahad Woods and Justus Rogers. These two are solid linebackers and each have gotten their hands on a few passes this year.
Defensive Backs
The Utah secondary has seen some growing pains up to this point this year, but their performance up to this point has been better than expected. The inexperience has shown when attacking the football at the point of attack. It seems that they are a bit more hesitant than they need to be and that showed against Colorado when they were beat on vertical routes down the field. Washington State has two corners Jaylen Watson and Chau Smith-Wade who were both unavailable when USC torched the Washington State secondary for four touchdowns in the first half. Watson originally signed with USC and has great experience as a third-year junior. With both of these corners back, this position group is much improved.
Special Teams
One of the bright spots of this abnormal 2020 season, is the emergence of Utah kicker Jaydon Redding. He has yet to miss a kick this season and has expanded his range. He gives much more confidence to the coaches. Also, Britain Covey is back to his old self in the return game and is a constant weapon. WSU has not had much success in the return game and has missed an extra point earlier this year.
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