One reason Utah has been back in the conversation for a college football playoff bid is the team’s dynamic in the locker room, he said. I understand that subjective bias will inevitably play a role in the four-team selection (the committee is made up of human beings, after all), but the fact that they openly include the “eye test” as a part of their criteria tells me that they view subjectivity as something to be embraced, not minimized… and that concerns me. Each week BlockU will breakdown three games that Utah fans should watch and who they should cheer for. All the top six teams won and all the bottom six teams loss. Expected to be among the nation’s worst power-conference programs last season, Oregon State instead emerged as a pleasant surprise. ESPN’s College GameDay will broadcast from Waco for the game. Only four rotation players return from last season’s 33-win Elite Eight team, yet the arrival of four promising freshmen and three impact transfers give Miller the deepest, most offensively gifted roster he’s had since coming to Tucson. But two of those wins were to top-10-caliber Utah and top-25-caliber Washington State. The “eye test” plays a role when you are comparing teams with similar records, particularly when they took different routes to those records. It was one of his team-high 10 tackles, including one for loss.
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Coming off of a performance where he forced two turnovers at Washington, Paul is more confident than ever in his abilities to get the win.
The rain let up going into halftime, and so did the Utes. They can score with Baylor. It’s senior night, and their last game at home, so the emotions will be running high. Running the ball and controlling the clock can keep Baylor’s offense off the field. Baylor has talent on defense, but they have not proven they can stop a potent offense yet. An Oklahoma win would mean that only Oklahoma State would be left undefeated in the Big XII with games against Baylor and Oklahoma still looming (both at home). If Baylor wins, it would be a nice win to add to their resume. We just didn’t execute when we needed to”, he said, “So we’ve been doing both for a little bit, and I think our guys kind of expect when they are not doing everything right that we’re going to stay on them but the same time they gotta know that we still believe in ’em.
Because no team would prevail head-to-head – as in one team beating the other two tied teams – the No. 2 tiebreaker would apply: Record in games played within the division.
Arizona has been No. 10 Utah’s kryptonite the past few years. Utah, on the other hand, has a good defensive unit and an average offensive unit. Alabama’s defense will face a good quarterback in Dak Prescott, but they have been playing well. The SEC will nearly assuredly get a team in the CFP. Booker is third in the Pac-12 in rushing at 124 yards per game.
4 USC (6-3, 4-2; last week: 3) Now Ronald Jones II is starting to get the “next Reggie Bush” treatment, and for once it doesn’t feel quite so hyperbolic. 500 with a win in this one. It’s not must-win yet for Washington, but losing to the Sun Devils will put the Dawgs’ backs against the wall, which they can’t afford with the Apple Cup looming at the end of their schedule.
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In one of the more intriguing matchups of the week, OR (6-3, 4-2) will take on #7 Stanford (8-1, 7-0) in Palo Alto, California. Stanford has a giant target on their backs as the unquestioned leaders of the Pac-12 and OR has nothing to lose. The Wildcats have been inconsistent this season, but still have a unsafe offense and are 3-1 against Utah in Pac-12 games. If Alsadek and Tagaloa are scratched or compromised, it’ll create huge problems on the interior that the Utes will exploit with Lowell Lotulelei and Filipo Mokofisi.
