This is an old rivalry game, perhaps the biggest ever. They called it the Holy War which should make this game pretty interesting for your standard early bowl. This one also will be played in Las Vegas, and a lot of sharp money is coming in on BYU. Couple things going on here with Utah who probably is not excited to be going back here, but when they are in bowl games Kyle Whittingham has had a lot of success especially playing defense. BYUâs Bronco Mendenhall also not a stranger to success, but is leaving for Virginia after this game. Itâs hard to get a real feel for how his players are going to respond in his last game as coach. On average these are grown men so you expect them to respond pretty well or at least better than an 18 or 19 year old would.
Strength of schedule is no comparison as Utah clearly faced a tougher schedule, but the 4 common opponents they faced 3 of 4 at home while BYU had to travel in 3 of the 4. I truly feel like Utah is going to have a difficult time moving the ball against BYU without Devonte Booker who is out for this game. Without Booker this offense has really struggled scoring just 29 total points in 2 games combined at home against teams allowing 31.6ppg on the road and 23. BYU is only allowing 21.8 ppg and has the front 7 to continue to stop Utah who likes to run the ball 60% of the time. Even though Joe Williams was effective down the stretch this is not a dynamic offense to begin with and I see them struggling against a highly motivated BYU team.
For BYU, I think their offense is going to struggle against this pas defense of Utahâs. The last 4 meetings with Utah they have scored 13, 21, 10, and 16. Utahâs last 5 bowl games (dates back to 2008), they have held opponents well under their season average in each game by an average of 13 points per game which puts BYU around 21 for this game. BYUâs offense is definitely a bit over rated based on who they have played and when matched up with a good defense the offense has struggled. I see no reason why the same wonât happen in this game given the intensity of this rivalry.
