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SALT LAKE CITY -- On a college football weekend that cleared away some of the BCS gunk, there was a lot to be learned. Locally, it was a rude awakening for the Utes while the Cougars cruised over humorously weak competition. Meanwhile, up north the Aggies gave up on their season while Weber State essentially ended theirs. Here’s what I learned from this past weekend of college football:
Local action
They were who we thought they were: Going into the season, we knew that the Utes were in trouble if Wynn got hurt. Teams are beginning to load the box against the Utes trying to force them to throw the ball, and there is nothing they can do to move the ball. Here we are, more than half way through the season, and the Utes are both Wynn-less and winless in the Pac-12.
It may be “what if” for the Utes: If you flipped the Arizona State and Washington games, the Utes would have played the hardest part of their Pac-12 schedule to the easiest in order. Granted, they don’t have to play Stanford or Oregon this year, the two best teams in the conference.
However, the order has not helped the Utes in the confidence department. Flipping the Arizona State and Washington games, the order would be USC, Arizona State, Washington, Cal, Oregon State, Arizona, UCLA, Washington State and Colorado. That descending order may have taken the Utes’ heart from them to the point that they now might not be able to recover. One can only wonder if the order had been reversed or mixed up a bit what the Utes’ confidence might be looking like heading into the second half of the season.
That said, if ‘ifs and buts’ were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas. Instead, the Utes are on the verge of giving up. One more bad loss and they might not win another game this season. No excuses — the Utes have played terrible, but if things will ever get better it will be in the next five weeks against the worst teams in the Pac-12.
BYU fans are over the rivalry game: After a game like that against a bad FCS team, it’s hard to say if we learned anything about the BYU football team, but we did learn something about BYU fans over the weekend. It’s clear Cougar Nation is over their devastating loss to the Utes over a month ago. Comment boards and radio talk shows were full of comments and calls from Cougar fans about how bad the Utes are playing.
One of my favorites: “One thing the Utes and Cougars don’t have in common: the Cougars have a win against a Pac-12 team this year.” Though that may be true, but Ute fans are loving the new schedule slot for the rivalry. Having already played the game this year, their response: “Another thing these two teams don’t have in common, when they played each other on the field, one team scored 54 points and the other scored 10.”
Only Utah State could find a way to lose on an illegal punt: Somewhere between a botched onside kick in Auburn, Alabama, and an illegal kick last week in Logan, Utah State’s dreams of playing in a bowl game this year were lost. Somehow the Aggies keep finding ways to lose despite having the sixth-best rushing offense in the country. A season that looked so promising has ended before it ever got off the ground.
Weber State and Southern Utah may have a budding in-state rivalry: The Thunderbirds pulled out a thrilling 35-28 victory over the Wildcats on Saturday in Ogden, a year before they will join Weber State in the Big Sky Conference. Southern Utah effectively knocked the Wildcats out of the FCS playoff race. Weber State would have to win out to make a playoff bid. The odds of that are small, seeing as how the Wildcats still have third-ranked Montana State and tenth-ranked Montana left on the schedule.
With this game being played every year, maybe the Weber State-Southern Utah rivalry has a brighter future than the Utah-BYU one does.
National action
Wisconsin had no business beating Michigan State anyways: After Wisconsin got out to an early 14-0 lead, the Spartans dominated this game. Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins outplayed Heisman Trophy candidate, Russell Wilson. The Spartans drew no penalties, a far cry from the 13 they had against Michigan last week. Mark Dantonio outcoached Bret Bielema — the most glaring Bielema mistake coming with under a minute left when Dantonio was conceding overtime and Bielema called a timeout trying to get one last chance to score before the end of regulation. A couple plays later, Cousins made the play of the year, finding Keith Nichol for the Hail Mary touchdown. If these two teams can make it to the conference championship for a rematch, it’d be awfully hard to pick against the Spartans.
LSU looks more impressive by the week: I’ve been picking Alabama all year in its game against LSU in two weeks, but LSU’s ability to overcome two injuries to two key players and still throttle 20th-ranked Auburn has me contemplating changing my mind. The competition for the starting quarterback job between Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson has become more than healthy. They are both looking incredibly sharp as they prepare for the game of the year against Alabama in two weeks.
Andrew Luck is running away with the Heisman: Nobody is willing to admit it, but everyone is already voting for Luck for Heisman. He had essentially already won the trophy before the season even started. All he has to do is stay healthy and he will run away with it. Luck leads the second-highest scoring offense in the nation and although his numbers aren’t all that impressive, the experts are so enamored with him that they may have already mailed him the trophy.
It sounds crazy, but this might be the year Boise State gets its shot at the national title: I know, I don’t know if I believe it either, but the BCS standings have the Broncos ranked fourth. All it might take for the Broncos to sneak into the big game would be a Sooner win over Oklahoma State and an Oregon win over Stanford. Clemson may also have to lose at some point, but after this past weekend, those possibilities could be more like probabilities. I don’t know if it will happen, but this may be the best chance the Broncos have had yet.
On the other hand, Oklahoma might get its rematch with Boise State: After Oklahoma slept through its alarm clock (and the first half) Saturday night, the Sooners may be consigned to another trip to the desert to play in the Fiesta Bowl. If they beat rival Oklahoma State and staved off the Cowboys’ national championship hopes, they’d likely also kick the Cowboys out to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, leaving Boise State for the Fiesta Bowl and a rematch of the 2007 masterpiece with Boise State.
Trevor Amicone is the sports director at 88.1 Weber FM "Ogden's Radio Station" and host of the sports talk radio show, "Fully Loaded Sports with Trevor Amicone". Find more of his blogs at TrevorsTopTens.com. Follow him on Twitter at @TrevorAmicone
