Utah State comes off arguably one of their best wins ever over a good Utah team and this team continues to gain national respect. Normally I look at a team to have a hang over, but the extra day of prep and the all the issues Wisconsin is having gives me reason to believe they can pull the upset.
Utah State is the real deal behind Chuckie Keeton who is effective passing the ball and running the ball and Wisconsin is a little vulnerable against a dual threat QB like Keeton and not nearly as good as the Utah defense. Against Utah he ran for 86 yards and threw for 216. Now this game is on the road, but this is the same Wisconsin team that struggled and lost at Oregon State and nearly lost to Northern Iowa at home to open the year. Utah State is now tested and they are ready for a national win after nearly upsetting Auburn last year this team is even hungrier for a win here.
Wisconsin should be able to run the ball right? Well they just fired their offensive line coach which is rare during the season especially after losing their OL coach from a year ago and now a grad assistant takes over. I don't see the rushing offense getting any better for Monte Ball who has struggled. Especially without Danny O'Brien opening up any sort of a balanced attack and now he's without his top WR in Jared Abbrederis. Watch out for Utah State's ability to stop the run as they held the PAC 12's best RB from a year ago to just 3.6 ypc and held Auburn a year ago to just 2.6 ypc. Wisconsin is currently last in the Big Ten in running the ball and they are going to have to be stubborn and try to continue to run the ball because O'Brien is no Wilson barely completing 50% of his passes.
Utah will also have the extra day to prepare as they'll host BYU after defeating them 54-10 a year ago on the road. BYU has major revenge and they do have some advantages after Utah lost their starting QB, but this is nothing new with Jordan Wynn out senior QB Jon Hays will step in again. When he did that last year he won 7 of Utah's last 8 games. Going up against BYU should be an ugly game and they need a signal caller that can manage the offense and feed RB John White who rushed for 176 yards against BYU last year.
Utah is getting no credit after losing to Utah STate but as we mentioned above Utah STate is damn good. Utah is still only allowing 15.38 % 3rd down conversions and are led by top 5 draft pick hopeful at DT Star Lotulelei. BYU's star is QB senior Riley Neslon but he's short on experience on the road in this rivalry never playing here and he came in the game last year completing 3-6 and threw an interception. Utah's run defense is there we know, but their pass defense is really under rated as they were #1 in pass completion % in the PAC 12 and were one of the rare teams to hold Matt Barkley to under 2 TD passes. Their secondary has talent, depth and big play abilities that should help decide this game by winning the turnover battle which is something Utah has dominated in this series of late. If that fails Utah is led by one of the best punters and place kicker combos in the nation and will have an edge on special teams where close games are often decided.
