Utah Football 2024 Preview | 2024 College Football Picks, Predictions and Best Bets

our number 19 team the Utah UTS filming this on July 23rd let's take a look at the current odds as of today to win the national championship they are 60 to1 to win the Big 12 they are plus 320 to make the college football playoffs yes minus 220 Excuse me yes plus 220 no minus 300 their season win total sits at 9 and a half the over minus 145 the under plus 125 to go undefeated yes plus 475 no minus 700 and cam Rising their Heisman quarterback candidate 45 to one we always want to take a look back at last year's team to see how they compare coming into this year if they're up or down a lot of close wins a lot of turnovers and looking back at 2023 the Utah Utes went eight and five straight up 66 and one against the spread and five and eight over under yards per game diff they were number 79 poor plus only 0.12 yards per play listen to these offensive numbers yards per game number 94 points per game Number 96 the defense number 13 yards number 18 points per game he played a difficult schedule the number 20th toughest schedule last year and you break in their efficiencies they finished number 93 on offense number 11 on defense you know they played all but one power five team last year the only non power five team they played was Weber State they started off against winds against Florida and at Baylor to go 2-0 went to 4-0 against Baylor they did Trail 13-6 into the fourth quarter but they went 8615 and after an interception went 29 yards on six plays to score a winning touchdown with 118 left in all they had five regular season close games they were fortunate to go four- one in those games against UCLA they LED 14 nothing until UCLA scored a touchdown with about three minutes to go so that game was not as close as the seven-point final against USC they were tied at 14 they LED 2814 but then Trail 3221 with 146 to go they went 54 yards on 11 plays and kicked the 38- yard field goal on the final play of the game to beat USC 3432 against Washington they led 28-24 into the fourth quarter but Washington scored 11 unanswered in the final stanza to eat out a 3528 win and then their final close game was a win against Colorado they led 13-10 into halftime they led 20-1 into the fourth quarter Colorado scored a touchdown with seven minutes and 31 seconds to go but the Utah running game ran out the last seven and a half minutes on a 12 playay Drive taking a knee to win the game before we look at the 2024 team thank you very much for taking the time to watch this video I've got some great information at the end of this video in the betters Edge segment make sure you check that but do take a minute give us a thumbs up we appreciate the like smash that like button if you prefer to smash it and please share any comments you have do you think Utah can win the Big 12 do you think they're overrated what's your best bet amongst those uh season win Futures we talked about at the beginning of the tape please do share and again remember gold sheet 30 gs30 will save you $30 off a gold sheet full season football subscription head to gold sheet.com or wager talk.com and remember that code gs30 taking a look at this year's Utah Utes of course from the Pack 12 now in the Big 12 they returned 13 starters and let's take a look at our conference cheat sheet they returned 13 starters they're number 18 in our power ratings in the summer remember the top team was Georgia they are a zero so that tells you how far apart we think they are from the George of Bulldogs they are number 43 in connell's returning production while they do return their quarterback it was a quarterback from two years ago as rising was hurt we'll talk about that in a minute and they're recruiting number 40th in the country number five overall now they did have 12 transfers that's uh as far as strength goes that was fifth in the Big 12 as far as quality transfers where they're ranked they returned 13 starters this year and while that seems average I do want to note that the last three years Utah has returned 16 14 and 19 so this is significantly fewer returning starters than Whittingham has averaged over the last few years in the draft they lost five players for 14 points and when five players doesn't seem like much the previous two seasons they lost a total of four players so again you go from a team that lost one to the NFL draft to three now five that is another slight negative for the ukra their quarterback this year cam Rising cam rising in 2022 completed 65% a 268 touchdown to interception ratio did Rush for 466 yards and a 6.1 yards per uh carry with six TDS he was expected to play last year they kept putting him questionable the first four or five weeks of the season they finally shut him down so they don't return last year starting quarterback but they do return their 2022 version they lose their number one running back and Rose had 800 yards 5.0 yards per carry excuse me they lose their number one running back his name was not rose that was just a mistake me's saying that their number two Glover is a guy I'm excited on he was banged up last year so even though they lose their number one I don't have I have them even with going into last year they're reservers they return two and three of their top five so they were without number one number four and number five one of those was an NFL draft choice so while they lose three of their top five they do get back a tight end that made 20 plus starts here a couple years ago he also missed last year so they have two legitimate returning starters back that missed last season the o line is missing three players that combined for 32 starts so call that about 2.6 start starters missed on the o line the defense returns their top two tacklers and three of their top four and while they only returned five of their top 10 tacklers when you look deeper they returned 14 of their top 19 on defense so they're only missing five of their top 19 tacklers from last year's version of that stop unit The dline Lost One starter he was a number three draft choice to Denver the linebackers are all back the DBS lose three including a second round draft choice and a fourth round draft choice so while the defense is stacked they do lose a few very important components let's take a look at the Utah youths 2024 schedule we have them ranked as the number 502 toughest schedule this year high highlighted in Gray are those games between the eights from a plus eight to minus8 so any game within a touchdown and a two-point conversion you'll see that they are favored in 12 games this year and they are favored by a touchdown or more in seven games I have them as a pick in the only game they're not a favorite at Oklahoma State so you break out the schedule and again you're a pick or a favored in every game and a fairly easy schedule has them at number 52 let's take a look at their by weeks they have a Bible for Arizona State they have a Bible for BYU Arizona State not in a horrible situation they had a buy the week prior then they host Kansas and then they host Utah and when you look at the BYU buy BYU is Al also off a buy so that negates the situation on the flip side there are two teams that have buys prior to playing Utah Arizona has a Buy prior to playing the Utes Utah will be playing their fifth straight game and they'll be playing their second straight road game and TCU also has a Buy prior to playing Utah Utah will have been off a buy and F off a road game at Arizona State and while I picked Kansas State to win the Big 12 when you look at their schedule you clearly see why they are the Big 12 favorite the top six teams in the Big 12 including Utah are Kansas State Arizona Iowa State Oklahoma State and TCU well they don't play Kansas State the next best team they have teams the next two best teams Arizona and Iowa State at home then they play Oklahoma State on the road and they play TCU at home so of the top six team teams they do not play the next best three at home one away again a favorable Utah situation and finally we always end every video with the better Edge taking a look back against the spread and over under and Kyle Whittingham by the way the second longest tenur coach consecutively at the same school you know who is the longest tenard that would fence at Iowa Kyle Whittingham now in his 20th season as the head coach he went three- n against the spread his first year here 20 seasons ago but since that 124 100 with three pushes so if you blindly bet every Utah game since his opening season you have cashed 54.3% when you look at Utah at home since 2017 excluding the co year they are 26 and 14 against the spread that is 65% I don't expect them to be a home dog this year they are did only go one and three as a home dog in that stretch and if they're a home favored up to minus 10 and a half so you could be a single digit home favorite or a 10 or a 10 and a half Point home favorite they've done very well when they're not having delay a lot of points 14 and three 82.4% against the spread and how about this two final notes on Kyle Whittingham as a conference home favorite under Whittingham Utah has gone 20 and5 80% against the spread their last 25 conference games and this is the definition of a defensive dog when they are in a way dog of plus six or higher they have gone a perfect 12 and0 against the spread the one factor that I'm going to bring out here for a best bet I'm going to go back and take a look at the schedule again on September the 28th Utah host Arizona you saw on the schedule that I had Utah minus 4 those were the projected numbers based on the power ratings well today you can get a draft King and bet Arizona plus n and a half so I have an Arizona team with five and a half points value On That September the 28th game and again I talked about it's a great situation because Utah will be playing their six straight game they'll be off a game at Utah State and off a game against Oklahoma State one of their biggest Big 12 matchups they have Arizona again will be off The Bu and while Arizona state does have to travel Excuse me while Arizona does have to travel here to Utah they did play a game at Kansas state so they will be roog tested I do like that that they have a road game out of the way so my best bet for this segment is actually fading Utah taking Arizona plus the 9 and a half that line is currently available that game is September the 28th folks we got a great special our football early bird at wager talk just $777 for college football and the NFL check out the deals page take advantage of my early bird or for the gold Chet thank you for watching these videos please make sure you subscribe to wager talk TV find out what 163,000 people are doing watching wager talk TV why we're so successful and make sure you stay tuned to check out the rest of these videos