Before this season, many of the Utah players who will be honored on Senior Night had never lost more than one home game in Rice Eccles Stadium. Now riding a six-game losing streak, including three at home, the Utes will have to face one of the nation's best pass defenses, and the Big 12 conference's best defense overall.
However, with the added inspiration of Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe being officially honored in what would have likely been their last home game as Utes, as well as the potential of this being Kyle Whittingham's final game as head coach after 20 historic years, Utah should have plenty of motivation to snap their losing streak Saturday evening. The 22nd-ranked Iowa State Cyclones will be a tough opponent, but their season hasn't been so steady over the past four games.
Offense
Redshirt Sophomore QB Rocco Becht has been better than expected this season, throwing for over 2,500 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions. He's also shown the ability to run, rushing for 210 yards on the ground. However, over the past four games, where the Cyclones have gone 2-2 after starting 7-0, Becht has been sacked 9 times, thrown 4 interceptions, and only completed 58% of his passes. That's quite the reversal from the first six games of the season, where he was only sacked 4 times, threw just 3 interceptions, and completed 66% of his passes.
Two significant injuries took place on the offensive line right before the recent slide, with redshirt junior LG Dylan Barrett going down with a lower leg injury against West Virginia and First-Team Freshman All-American TE Benjamin Brahmer suffering the same fate the following week against UCF. This seems to be the main change that could be pointed to as the cause of the sudden change of luck for Iowa State. The rest of the offensive line is full of returning starters, including LT Jalen Travis, RT Tyler Miller, RG Brendan Black, and C Jarrod Hufford. They'll face a strong, motivated defensive front this week, as Utah's defensive line is finally healthy.
The Cyclones have a three-headed monster in the backfield with sophomores Carson Hansen and Abu Sama III doing most of the work. The two both have 90 or more carries and have run for a combined 952 yards and 11 touchdowns. Hansen is the bigger of the two at 6'2" and 220 lbs., which is the ideal NFL running back body, and he is used primarily at the goal line. They also have Eastern Michigan senior transfer Jaylon Jackson, who has 77 carries and 341 yards.
At receiver, they have a pair of dangerous seniors that take in the bulk of the passes. Both are returning starters from last season, and they have excellent chemistry with Becht. Jaylin Noel is the smaller, speedy receiver, who has 56 catches for 935 yards and 5 touchdowns. He has seven games with a catch of at least 40 yards and is a threat to score every time he touches the ball. Jayden Higgins, the 6'4" reliable workhorse, has 68 catches for 860 yards and 7 touchdowns. He doesn't have a single catch that has gone for over 40 yards, but he has at least 6 receptions in eight games this year as the "move the sticks" receiver.
Defense
The defense has been one of the best in the country, only allowing 18.6 points per game, however, that statistic is a bit misleading considering that they have given up 30 points per game over the past four games. All season, the secondary has been completely dominant, intercepting 14 passes (#9 in FBS) and only allowing 153.4 yards through the air per game (#3 nationally). CB Jontez Williams intercepted a pass in four straight games, and Darien Porter has 3 interceptions on the opposite side. Safeties Malik Verdon and Beau Freyler lead the team with 62 tackles each, and FS Jeremiah Cooper has 2 interceptions. All five starters in the secondary have at least one interception and four of the five have at least two. It isn't safe to throw toward any of them, so expect to see the Utes look to tight ends and running backs frequently in the passing game, choosing to test the linebackers rather than the ball hawks in the secondary.
The linebackers are the biggest weakness of the Cyclone defense. Things fell apart quickly in the season opener with a knee injury to Caleb Bacon, who was second on the team with 60 tackles last season. They've also been without LB Will McLaughlin up until last week against Cincinnati, as well as LB Carson Willich. This comes after losing three-year starting LB Gerry Vaughn to graduation. With all the injuries, Iowa State has had to rely on a pair of sophomores, Jack Sadowsky and Kooper Ebel, as well as junior Jacob Ellis, who had two starts last season.
The defensive line has been getting gashed by the run game, surrendering 184.5 yards per game. This comes just one year after finishing second in the Big 12 in rush yards allowed (134.2). They also have struggled to bring pressure on opposing quarterbacks, only getting 12 sacks on the year (#125 nationally), but half of those come from two returning starters, DT J.R. Singleton, who has 4 sacks this season, and DE Joey Petersen, who has 2 sacks.
Unfortunately for the Cyclones, Singleton missed most of last week's game against Cincinnati with an arm injury, and his status is “up in the air” for Saturday, according to Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell. That would be great news for the Utes. Another key run-stopper, DT Domonique Orange, missed the game against Kansas, and he will be relied upon even more if Singleton is out. When Orange was out against the Jayhawks, Iowa State gave up 237 yards rushing, and when Singleton was out against the Bearcats, the Cyclone defense was gashed for 287 yards on the ground. Over the past four games, they have given up over 1,000 yards rushing.
Summary
Injuries are starting to take a toll on Iowa State, especially on defense. It's hard for a team to win games when they give up over 250 yards rushing per game, and that's what the Cyclones have done over the last four games. That's resulted in two losses, a 3-point come-from-behind win, and a 17-point victory in a game they were only up 3 points with 5 minutes to play in the 4th quarter.
Despite all the recent struggles for the Utes, this game is one they could win. The defense is healthy. Isaac Wilson continues to improve. Micah Bernard could have his biggest rushing game of the season. Iowa State impressively started the season, but their dream season is slowly falling apart as the season comes near its end.
