Utah gets a huge boost with the return of John White this week and they are 8-0 when he rushes over 100 yards. After rushing for 85 last year he should be on his away against Arizona State as Utah seeks revenge after losing 35-14 at home a year ago to the Sun Devils. Last year was a unique situation because it was the first game QB John Hays was thrown into the fire at QB after Wynn got hurt. This year it is Hays again because of a career ending injury to Wynn and he's much more prepared. Utah led last year 14-13 with 5 minutes to go in the third quarter it was Hays 3 interceptions that sparked Arizonas State's victory as Utah was -5 in turnover margin and Brock Osweiler was able to keep a balanced offense.
Well Osweiler is off in the NFL playing for the Broncos and Arizona State has a new coach and he's not a very good one in my opinion in Todd Graham who will run an uptempo offense and use two QB's. That's going to be a major issue going into this game because Utah's defense is the real deal led by Star Lotulelei, the defensive line should get push and pressure with just a 4 man blitz. That will create issues for sophomore QB Todd Kelly and I think the turnover advantage will be flipped in Utah's advantage. Make no mistakes about it Utah will make Arizona work for their first downs and points as they are 14th in 3rd down conversion defense while Arizona State is 79th and their offense despite putting up some points has only converted 26% of their opportunities.
In ugly games like this it comes down to who can play better special teams and create turnovers and I give that edge to Utah who is led by two senior kickers including punter Tom Hacket who is fresh off his PAC 12 special teams player of the week award. As far as turnovers go, I think they are in the rearview mirror for Hays he completed 67% of his passes last week and has 2 TD's 0 interceptions on the year. Add in that Arizona State is sacked 8.2% of their drop backs and I think we have a recipe for some opportunistic plays from the Utes defense.
Hawaii is a tough team to beat at home and Nevada is more aware of that than any other team. Now these teams face off as part of the Mountain West and Nevada tries to avoid an 8th straight loss on the road to Hawaii. I'm not sold on this Hawaii team this is a team that lost at home to South Florida, a team that had to travel across the country. Their secondary has been shredded over the last 5 quarters for 584 yards. Even though Hawaii will feature a more pro style offense under Norm Chow the ability to score points will be there especially with what looks like 3 weeks to prepare.
Hawaii had a bye week after week 1 at USC and then faced Lamar at home. There is no doubt in my mind that his staff has spent time preparing for Nevada, a conference opponent and he was able to get in some work with the new look rushing attack in the scrimmage against Lamar. Hawaii was actually solid at USC allowing just 81 yards rushing and held USC to 4-14 on third down. Nevada's high octane rushing attack will have trouble moving the ball against Hawaii a bit who is very aggressive and athletic and able to get into the backfield. Hawaii was among the best in sack % at 7.46 and that should play huge dividends as we saw against USC in their ability to get off the field on third down. Watch out for Hawaii's LB Art Laurel who is a terror at making plays in the backfield.
