2018 season Recap:
Utah finished the 2018 season at 9-5 after losing their bowl game 31-20 to Northwestern. The Utes started the season 2-0 with victories against Weber State and Northern Illinois. Week 3 was the first matchup of the season between UW and Utah. UW won @ Utah 21-7 behind Myles Gaskin’s 143 yards and a TD. The next week Utah traveled to Washington State, the Cougars won 28-24 sending the Utes to 2-2.
Utah won the next 4 games against Stanford, Arizona, USC, and UCLA. Week 9 Utah traveled to Arizona State, Zack Moss ran for 128 yards and a touchdown but Huntley threw two interceptions before getting injured for the rest of the season. Arizona State got big games from Eno Benjamin and N’keal Harry and Arizona State won 38-20. Utah, without its starting QB was able to win its next three games against Oregon, Colorado, and BYU and clinch the Pac-12 south at 9-3.
Utah and UW met for the second time in the Pac-12 championship and this time Utah was without its starting QB and RB. UW’s offense was only able to score 3 points in this defensive battle. But UW’s defense was able to carry them to victory with 3 interceptions including the game winning interception returned for a touchdown by Byron Murphy. Utah played Northwestern in the Holiday Bowl. They were able to take a 20-3 lead in the first half, but they turned the ball over 6 times in the game. Northwestern scored 28 straight points in the second half and won 31-20.
2018 Offense: 28.1 points per game, 3,021 passing yards, 2,520 rushing yards, 19 passing touchdowns, 23 rushing touchdowns
2018 Defense: 19.4 points per game allowed, 3014 passing yards allowed, 1400 rushing yards allowed, 18 passing touchdowns allowed, 14 rushing touchdowns allowed
2019 Utah Utes:
Head Coach: Kyle Whittingham (Career Record:120-61 )
Offensive Playmakers:
Senior QB Tyler Huntley – 122-167, 1778 passing yards, 10 TD, 1 INT, 229 rushing yards, 3 rushing TD
Senior RB Zack Moss – 728 yards, 10 TD, 6.6 Avg
Defensive Playmakers:
Senior DE Bradlee Anae – 7 sacks, 1 forced fumble
Senior DT Leki Fotu – 7 tackles, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble
Senior DB Julian Blackmon – 20 tackles, 1 forced fumble, 2 interceptions, 4 pass deflections
2019 Results: (7-1)
There were high expectations for the Utes coming into the 2019 season. They returned 8 starters on offense led by Senior QB Tyler Huntley, and Senior RB Zack Moss, and a defense that returned 9 starters that was already one of the best in Pac-12. Utah opened the season on the road against in state rival BYU and won 30-12. They were led by Zack Moss running for 187 yards and a touchdown and the Utah defense returned 2 interceptions for touchdowns.
In weeks 2 and 3 Utah had no trouble beating less talented Northern Illinois 35-17 and Idaho State 31-0. But in week 4 Utah traveled to USC and lost 30-23, Kedon Slovis was injured early in the game, Matt Fink came in for USC and threw for 350 yards and 3 TDs to lead USC to victory. After losing Utah has stepped up to another level on both offense and defense, they have allowed only 23 combined points in the 4 games after playing USC.
Week 5 Utah played WSU at home Tyler Huntley led the Utah offense with his best performance of the season throwing for 334 yards, 2 TDs and ran for 2 TDs while the Utah defense intercepted WSU QB Anthony Gordon 2 times. After a bye Utah played @ Oregon State, Utah dominated that game winning 52-7. QB Tyler Huntley and RB Zack Moss had big games but didn’t need to play much, Huntley threw for 247 and 2 TDs on 17 attempts, while Moss ran for 121 and 2 TD on just 5 carries.
Utah has really gotten on a roll the last couple weeks relying on their strong defense and running game. Week 7 vs Arizona St. Zack Moss ran for 99 yards, 2 TDs and had another 78 yards receiving. The Utah defense held Arizona St. to only 136 total yards and forced two turnovers as Utah won 21-3. Last week Utah hosted Cal and put in another dominant performance by the defense and running game. Zack Moss ran for 115 yards and had 2 rushing TDs for the third week in a row. The defense totally shut down the Cal offense who was down to their third string QB holding them to only 83 totals yards in a shutout.
Utah is 7-1 on the season with their only loss to USC. The team is led by multiple all-conference caliber seniors on offense and defense. Zack Moss is second in the conference in rushing with 728 rushing yards and has 10 rushing touchdowns on the season. The Utes have also been playing the best football of the season the last few weeks. Utah is the team that I was most worried about coming into the season and it looks like this will be another tough test for the Huskies to overcome this Saturday.
2019 Offense: 33.1 points per game, 233 passing yards per game, 219.4 rushing yards per game, 11 passing touchdowns, 21 rushing touchdowns
2019 Defense: 10.3 points per game allowed, 174.6 passing yards allowed, 56.4 rushing yards allowed per game, 6 passing touchdowns allowed, 3 rushing touchdowns allowed
