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SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah took a page from the Halloween weekend and showed the world that it isn't dead. It took nearly two months and five games to get their first Pac-12 win and with that they are only two games away from being bowl eligible.
Six wins isn't a lot, but for a team that has struggled going into a new conference with a step up in competition and talent it shows determination and is a big step for the program. The win wasn't pretty, but the Utes hang their hats on defense and the running game and that was what they brought against Oregon State.
In ESPN's Pac-12 blog by Ted Miller, a recap about what was learned from last week in college football, He looked at UCLA and Utah as two teams that were down, but now have a pulse for the rest of the season.
Miller then looked at the possibility of Utah not becoming bowl eligible in his weekend recap.
If the Utes are going to make a bowl game, or have a chance to show improvement for the rest of the season they are going to have to keep their defense playing well. Oregon State head coach Mike Riley knew that they needed to run on the Utes to be competitive, but still weren't able to do it. Cliff Kirkpatrick of the "Corvallis Gazette-Times" wrote, "Riley said early in the week that the Beavers could not abandon the run too quickly because it was going to be hard to run against the size of Utah's defensive line."
Riley said in a teleconference that Arizona will have some success against the Utah defense.
"They are going to move the ball," he said. "Utah has a wide variety of coverage and blitz schemes and all that stuff so I think it's a really interesting game."
The "Arizona Daily Wildcat" talked to Wildcat offensive coordinator Seth Litrell who said, "They're one of the top two defenses we've played all year. They're extremely physical up front; the secondary will try to man you out and beat your receivers up."
If the defense can keep up then the offense will be able to play to their strengths and that is pounding the ball with John White. Miller wrote about the Utes gameplan.
"Run, run, run, then surprise with a Jon Hays pass."
If they can get an early lead and let their defense do what they do best the chances of a win goes up exponentially.
The Pac-12 power rankings have Utah sitting just below the middle of the "Pac." Athlon Sports has them at number six.
"After a slow first 20 minutes of action, one of the Pac- 12's newest members finally got a conference win. The Utes thoroughly controlled the line of scrimmage in a 27-8 win over Oregon State."
The blog "Husky Haul" also has them at number six. Miller has them at number seven in the ESPN blog and explained why they are now above a team they lost to and the team they are going to play.
The lowest ranking was from Fox Sports Arizona who had them at number eight writing simply, "Welcome to the Pac-12 win column."
It's interesting that after a loss two weeks ago they basically stayed from seven to eight in the power rankings, and after a win they are still in the same boat. This may be due to inconsistency of the Utes or the mid level teams in the Pac-12.
Email: onlinesports@ksl.com
