2024 UTAH UTES GAMES BY GAME PREDICTION - COLLEGE FOOTBALL

all right let's talk about Utah's 2024 college football season uh good morning it's Uncle Lou here that's right it is me Uncle Lou live on lube for you thanks for watching please subscribe if you're not already I post pointless barely watchable college football videos almost every single day of the year we do live streams game streams and reactions call-in shows twice a week we have a really good time here uh hit the Subscribe button if you're new we'd love to have you all right Utah 2024 I'm doing of course a whole series of these preview and prediction videos I've done six or seven of them I think um so far Big 12 team up today in Utah shout out to Carrie T over on the uncle patreon page uh they suggested I do this Utah preview and prediction video so Carrie I hope you enjoy the video this one's for you if you're a member of the uncle patreon page make sure you head over there uh you'll see the first post on the page is about these prediction videos leave a comment let me know what team it is you want me to do every day when I sit down and get ready to do these videos that's the first thing I do is head over to the patreon page uh scroll through the list and just pick a team off of there so here we go with Utah let's wrap up last year for Utah the story for Utah last year really injuries right now most notably quarterback cam Rising but they had a whole string of injuries on both sides of the ball that really kind of derailed their season from the very beginning before it ever really even got started cam Rising for instance never played a game it seemed like he was coming back next week every week every single week of the season last year until around the last month or so when it was finally announced announced that he was just going to sit out um the entire season he's back we'll get to that in a second but the you know star tight end was out there was a running back was out they had injuries all over the place on the defense it was just a mess of a season for Utah and Kyle Whittingham they ended up going eight and four which is respectable but not up to the standards of what Utah is used to doing at least not in the last few years of course they were coming off back-to-back Pack 12 titles failed to even make it to the Pack 12 title game last year but they did go eight and four finished eight and5 after a bowl game lost to who' they lose to Northwestern I believe it was and uh five- four in conference in the last year of the Pack 12 they finished sixth uh in the last year at a Pack 12 of course they're on to the Big 12 now with the Pack 12 no longer uh no longer uh existing offensive struggles of course like I mentioned were the story of the season and although they played well on defense um not really as good as we're used to seeing it was more the offensive side of the ball where it was really obvious that Utah was struggling last year they had eight games where they scored less than 25 points um that's not good especially in today's age of college football if you go and you look at a lot of the really good teams in college football they're well into the 30s low 40s usually is where you see your top offenses um to score less than 24 points in way over half your games obviously not good they had games where they scored 14 7 6 18 seven that that's five games games right there under 19 points uh again eight games under 25 um just not good recruiting wise this is sort of the base of a team right the talent base how you know potential how good of a roster do they have you go back and you look at the recruiting classes and of course now in the age of the transfer portal uh and the players abilities to kind of Bounce from Team to team you have to look at transfer classes well as well and um look as much as I love Kyle Whittingham and I do I think he's one of the uh one of the best coaches in college football I think he's one of those coaches this is an expression you hear a lot sometimes it's not really warranted I think in Kyle whittingham's case it is but he gets the absolute most out of the talent he has on the roster now I get it that it's Utah they're not a traditional Powerhouse they're not a blue blood so maybe they have a few built-in recruiting dis advantages as opposed to some of the other big schools but I still feel like a head coach especially in today's world of college football the primary job of a head coach I feel like is to acquire Talent now forever that was through recruiting and again I still feel like that's the way to to build the foundation of a team is through High School recruiting but you also have the transfer portal now and this is one area where it and this always causes a lot of argument and debate among college football fans is recruiting a part of coaching like you'll see a lot of like uh you know here's the top 10 coaches in college football or something and it'll be you know like for a long time you'd see Nick Sabin on the list Kirby Smart um whatever these coaches like that and then you'd always have pushback from some people in the comments that would go well it's not that they're good coaches they just have all the best players well getting the best players is part of being a coach now I understand development in scheme and philosophy and offseason programs and everything that goes into building a program is important I I understand that but without a base level of talent the rest of that stuff is kind of rendered meaningless Utah has been a really good program they've won 10 or more games multiple times they've won multiple Pack 12 titles they've been to New Year's six bowls they've won New Year six bowls they never made a four team playoff but they're one of the most consistently good teams in America I still feel like if they could increase their overall Talent level it would give them a much better chance at doing something beyond that now we go to a 12 team playoff this year and I'm going to talk in a minute about how I feel about Utah's chances of getting into a 12 team playoff and then how I feel about Utah's chances in any given year or this year specifically winning a 12 team playoff I think those are two different conversations but we'll talk about that but I I I just I guess I I guess what I'm trying to say is I feel like if you're a Utah fan and you want Utah to take the next step or go to the next level which would be what major postseason play playoffs right I feel like the talent level is going to have to increase if you want to succeed there now we're at a 12 team playoff now again we'll see if if if if I think Utah can get there with what they have uh but anyway let's move along I don't want to get kind of too bogged down on that transfer portal um well recruiting so they signed the 59th best recruiting class in the country this past year but that's pretty bad even by Utah um standards if you look at the year before that they signed the 20th ranked class the year before that 34 year before that 35th and that tends to be where they fall in most given years the 20 to 40 range this past cycle 59th it's just that's just not good again I understand you know it's Utah they don't have this advantage or that advantage or not believe me I I get all that I understand all that I still find it hard to believe that anybody would find the 59th best recruiting class acceptable um they did supplement that through the transfer portal they had the 34th highest rated portal class they brought in 12 transfers so that's about average the year before they had the 44th ranked portal class uh they brought in eight transfers so they are a program that has embraced the portal and has used the portal to fill needs or perceived needs or fill holes on the roster whatever the case they're not Colorado you know they're not flipping their entire roster over every single year and bringing in 50 plus transfers they're also not Clemson uh where they just stick their head in the Santa B the portal doesn't exist they use the portal about like I think teams should use the portal Phil holes fill gaps supplement the roster that kind of thing uh returning production what's coming back from last year's team well they got a lot coming back and when you add back on top of the returning production the injured players that didn't play last year that are now back uh Utah could be set up for a pretty good year they return uh 75% of their offensive production and 70 % of their defensive production um so they're 16th overall in the country in terms of returning production from last year again you add cam rising to that who didn't play last year you add uh that tight end Brent quei is that his name uh they have a running back that was out you add all those pieces back in on top of offensively the the the 75% that's returning and it looks like Utah would be set up pretty good uh in terms of uh an offense for 2024 uh who's a better Coach Kyle Winningham or uh Gundy at Oklahoma State I'm just asking I I've done my coaching ranking videos and the only reason I'm bringing that up now is because that's one of the most heated debates that has come out of all of those coaching ranking videos that I did now nobody ever agrees with anybody's list of anything nor do I expect anybody to agree with mine and there are disagreements and arguments in the comment section of any top 10 anything video anybody ever makes myself included but that one sticks out there was heated debates good points made back and forth between Gundy and Whittingham I had Whittingham uh higher than Gundy in other words a better Coach than Gundy but there was a lot of people in the comment section who were making some very good points in support of having Gundy ahead of Whittingham now I'm pretty sure Utah fans are going to side with Whittingham here and Oklahoma State fans are going to side with Gundy here but I'm curious what the rest of the college football world might think between those two coaches um in there's a lot of similarities between the two and the programs that they at uh but I'm just curious what you think if you want to let me know down below who do you think is better between Winningham and Gundy um at Oklahoma State let's talk about Vegas and what they think Utah is going to do in 2024 now this isn't the end all Beall no single information about a team or someone's opinion about a team is the endall Beall um the you know the recruiting isn't the only thing that matters but it matters a little bit when it goes into making predictions um the the overall Talent level on The rosters not all that matters but it's a big part of it right the coaching staff and the continuity within that coaching staff it's not the only thing that matters but it matters that's how I view these Vegas numbers it's just sort of um people who are willing to put their hard-earned money behind their opinion how do they feel about certain teams and when you look at Utah for 20124 the expected win total for them the gambling number nine and a half um again that's a betting number of course you can't win n and a half game so you know if you think Utah is going to win more than n and a half games you bet over 9 and and a half and this is a regular season bet so 12 games so you're basically betting that Utah is going to go either 10-2 11-1 or 12-0 if you think that's the case you bet the over n and a half if you think they're going to lose uh or win less than n and a half games and the opposite right you bet you bet under N9 and a half you think they're going to go n and three you think they're going to go eight and four like they did last year whatever the case you'd bet under this Vegas number moves up and down based on which side of it People BET on if everybody starts betting over the N9 and a half they'll pump the number up to 10 and then 10 and 1/2 until people start betting the under then they'll move it back down so 9 and 1/2 right now is an indication of how many games the betting public expects Utah to win in 2024 in the regular season how about their odds of winning the national title well they've got the 17th best odds in the country uh of winning a national title at plus 6,000 that puts them in the same ballpark as teams like Oklahoma Southern Cal and Miami so again just an idea of what the betting public thinks about this team can they win the Big 12 well according to Vegas uh Vegas they've got the best odds to do it they're the favorite to win the new look big 12 in their first year as a part of the Big 12 their odds are plus 330 that puts them slightly ahead of Kansas State who has the second best odds Kansas believe it or not with the third best odds to win the Big 12 unbelievable and Arizona with the fourth best odds to win the Big 12 um mindblowing they that Kansas Kansas is good we're going to talk about Kansas in one of these videos here uh sometime over the next uh couple of weeks but Kansas expected to be pretty good but uh Utah a favorite to win the Big 12 according to Vegas all right let's look at the offense and the defense that we're going to put the schedule up offense cam Rising now he's got to stay healthy but if it's the same cam Rising we've seen play the last few years at Utah then that is obviously a huge boost for this Utah offense when I look at cam Rising um it's not an exact comparison it's just who he reminds me of recently in the world of college football is somebody like a Max Dugen at TCU a couple of years ago and actually TCU reminds me a lot of Utah TCU not a traditional Powerhouse they don't recruit in the top uh you know 10 or 15 every single year they're never the most talented team in the country but they had a coaching staff that particular year who was able to get the absolute most out of that roster and they had a lot of veteran players in the two deep on that team Juniors and seniors Utah's going to be in a very similar situation in 2024 and Max Dugen you know he gave 100% 110% on every single play if you needed four yards and he was scrambling you just knew he was going to find a way to get four and a half and when you watch cam Rising play he's to me anyway he's a very similar player to what we saw out of Max Dugen in 2022 when TCU made it all the way to the national title game not saying Utah is going to make it to the national title game but uh I I see a lot of Max Dugen in cam Rising but he's got to stay healthy they also get a potential All-American tight end back in Brent quei who had an amazing year A couple of years ago he was out all of last year didn't play at all he'll be one of the best tight ends in the country if healthy um this season transfer wide receiver from Southern cow who I believe was at Arizona before that so this will be his third team I think he was all packed 12 I think at Arizona a couple of years ago transferred to Southern cow his past season now here he is transferring again this time to Utah but wide receiver Dorian singer now whatever think about Dorian singer in the year he had last year at Southern cow this will be one of the most talented wide receivers Utah's ever had period they don't get the high-end uh sort of skill position talent that a southern cow gets year in and year out so you might be a southern cow fan and you're looking at Dorian singer going well you know he was our third best wide receiver or whatever you think he was I don't know maybe you think he was your best wide receiver I don't know I'm just as an example but for somebody like Utah to get him it's a lot like when South Carolina got Spencer Rattler from Oklahoma right Oklahoma lost Spencer Rattler they didn't like you know they had Caleb Williams at the time what did they care we're losing spenc who cares we get a great quarterback every single year it doesn't matter South Carolina looked at it and went oh my God we got a festar quarterback this is unbelievable like they were happy as hell to have him same situation here with Dorian singer he's going to be one of the be at least tal from a pure talent perspective one of the best wide receivers Utah's had in a long long time running back another guy to get back this year that was out most of the year last year Michael Bernard he's back now they lose a couple of key Running Backs from last year but they've got a pretty solid running back room and when you look over on the defensive side of the ball this is where I I almost don't question Utah at all year in and year out they have a consistently really good defense year in and year out is it great is it ever the best defense in college football no but it is consistently one of the best 15 or 20 defenses um in all the college football they were 18th last year in points allowed per game they only gave up 19 points per game last year eight starters returned from that defense last year and again getting some injured players back as well and always a really good defense overall Utah is one of the most well coached and disciplined teams in the country they rarely beat themselves they don't make a lot of mistakes they tend to take care of the ball for the most part just a very very well- coached team again a saying you hear all the time a team like Utah a coach like Kyle Whittingham they get the absolute most out of the talent they have almost every single year here's the questions I have about Utah before we put the schedule up can they stay healthy that look that that's key all the time in college football but it's one thing for a team like Georgia Bama Ohio State uh Texas Oklahoma Michigan whoever who these teams that recruit in the top 10 every single year right and have NFL players on the bench future NFL players playing second third string it's one thing when they catch an injury somewhere right the guy that that the replacement that's going in is a potential NFL player down the road most of the time at a place like Utah where where you're recruiting in the 30s 40s and 50s every single year losing a starter becomes that much more of a big deal in in my opinion because the likelihood of the backup being anywhere near as good as the starter just isn't the same as it is at some of those other schools so clearly they've got to stay healthy and that starts with Cam Rising the tight end all the players that were injured last year and are coming back but just in general on both sides of the ball they've got to try to stay as healthy as they uh as healthy as they can and is anything short of making the playoffs a disappointment this is a question I have not really about the team itself but maybe more for Utah fans specifically is anything short of making the playoffs this year acceptable to you you've got a loaded team returning on top of that you get a lot of key players back who didn't play last year because they were injured and you'll see when we look at the schedule here in a little bit there's no real juggernauts there's not really a game on this schedule that you look at and you go there's no way Utah's winning that they might not even be an underdog all year long is anything short of making the playoffs a disappointment now I know that's a question that probably would never have been asked of Utah prior to this year but going to a 12 team playoff it's possible Utah could get in without even winning the Big 12 now obviously if they win the Big 12 they're guaranteed to get in with one of the uh one one of the guaranteed spots there but it's possible they don't even win the Big 12 and they still still get in as one of the best 10 or 12 teams in the in in the country at the end of that ranking deal when it comes out those are the questions I have let's put the schedule up on the screen we're going to go through it game by game and I'm going to try to give you a winner and a loser for every single week all right now things that jump out to me initially when I look first look at this schedule here um the Thursday night game to start things off okay great you don't have a lot of great games that first Thursday you put Utah on I'll watch it but then you get 10 days or nine days instead of seven to to prepare for that next game against Baylor and I don't think Baylor is a great team but the point is any coach and any coaching staff will tell you we'd rather have nine days than seven so that's an obvious benefit there Southern Utah you know it is what it is don't try to tell me it's a rivalry because they're in the same state Utah should have no problem with them um I see back-to-back Road games here Utah State and Oklahoma State back toback road games always stick out to me because they could be potentially hazardous you know a lot of times the better team can lose in a back-to-back Road game situation but one of these is Utah State again a a a game that they should have no trouble with at all here's another thing that jumps out of me about this schedule I mentioned the odds to win the Big 12 earlier in this video right Utah's the favorite to win the Big 12 Kansas State actually has the second best odds to win the Big 12 I don't see Kansas State anywhere on this schedule so you avoid them in the regular season the team with the third best odds to win the Big 12 this year Kansas I don't see them on this schedule anywhere either so you avoid you're the favorite to win the Big 12 and you avoid the second and third favorites you do play the fourth favorite to win the Big 12 which is Arizona uh but you get them at home as far as having difficult games and back-to-back weeks this is where I potentially see some trouble for Utah um you know you might think Utah is better than team a and better than Team B but if team a is pretty good and Team B is pretty good you got to play them two weeks in a row a lot of times you'll see a team slip up and I see a couple of scenarios here where that could potentially happen on the road at Oklahoma State and then home against Arizona those are both ranked teams right um BYU Colorado and Iowa State and Central Florida the last four games of the year in a row BYU was a rivalry game The Holy War at Colorado it'll be hyped up I don't think Colorado is going to be very good but it'll be a hyped up game Iowa State again much like Utah one of the best coached teams in the country every single year not extremely talented but always very well coached and then on the road at Central Florida who I think could be a surprise team in a big 12 this year so those are a couple of stretches where you could have some trouble all right let's go through this thing game by game I'm going to give you a winner and a loser for every single week Southern Utah Thursday night to kick off the season you'll win no problems there Baylor again I think you will win you get him at home this was a weird game last year great game I think Utah came back and beat him in the end after trailing for the majority of the game but Baylor was not great last year in fact they were terrible I'm expecting them to improve this year I don't think they can improve enough to win on the road at Utah I think you start out 2 and0 on the road at Utah State yeah it's on the road you an instate game it's a lower classification team they don't stand a chance Utah will start 3 and0 now it gets interesting here because these are two tough games I think Oklahoma State and Central Florida either or both could make the big 12 title game I know they're not the favorites to win the Big 12 as mentioned Utah is the favorite followed by Kansas State Kansas and Arizona those are the top four teams in the Big 12 heading into the season according to the Vegas odds I really like Oklahoma State and I really like um Central Florida to surprise some people um this year Oklahoma State's got maybe the best running back in football but one of the best running backs for sure best five or six running backs in Gordon got to keep him healthy and Oklahoma State's defense has got to play a lot better than what it played last year but you have to play them there I think they beat you early in the year I think you go on the road and catch an early loss to Oklahoma state which is going to put Utah in a sort of uh backs against the wall type mentality for the remainder of the year you come out of that you play Arizona at home a surprisingly good 10- win team last year with a Heisman candidate quarterback who's back again this year who's not back for Arizona their entire coaching staff it's gone up the coast uh they're now at Washington I think you rebound with a win over a ranked Arizona team you go into your first bye with just the one loss come out of that you got to play on the road at Arizona State one of the worst teams in the uh Pack 12 last year I don't see him getting much better this year Herm Edwards destroyed that program program uh or what was left of it I think you get another win make it through the first half of the season with just the one loss on the road at Oklahoma State if that game was played in Utah i' pick Utah to win and look Utah can beat Oklahoma State no question about it hate on me in the comments if you want it's hard to go undefeated okay I you may even be favored on the road at Oklahoma State depending on how the first three weeks of the Season go and and of course you can beat them I'm giving them the nod because it's played there uh interesting though Whittingham vers Gundy we'll see who comes out on top in that one going on to the second half of the Season you host TCU disappointing season last year after making the national title game the year before I just don't think they ever really you know that that was like a generational season for TCU and I just to expect them to be anything close to that coming out of that was maybe asking a little bit too much so do I think they will be as good as they were in 2022 no do I think I'll be as they'll be as bad as they were last year in 2023 no I think it' be somewhere in between but you get him at home this should be a win um I I'm giving the win to Utah there on the road at Houston a disappointing team last year and unfortunately I think they're trending in that direction again this year I'm not expecting a whole lot out of Houston I think they have the next to the last uh uh worst odds in the Big 12 in terms of winning it I I just don't think they're going to be very good it is on the road but I think you get a win there you go into your second by week still with just the one loss come out of that and this is a tough four stretch of games and I'm just I'll just tell you I don't think you're winning all four of these games in a row BYU at Colorado home against Iowa State on the road at Central Florida I don't think you're winning all four of those I think your goal should be to go three in one if you go three in one you're going to be sitting at 10 and two at the end of the year and that is most likely good enough to get you into the Big 12 title game and you have to remember we need to change our mindsets a little bit as college football fans and viewers in terms of what we see in the regular season and thinking oh my God we we got to go undefeated we got to go 11 and one if we lose two games we're not you can lose two games and get in the playoffs okay the number one priority should be to win your conference because that automatically gets you in but one B should be to go 10- two or better if you are 10-2 or better even if you don't make it to your conference title game and you're sitting there at 10- two you're more likely to get into the 12 team playoff than not so I think you're going to lose at on the road at Oklahoma State but let's just say you lose any other one game before that second bye right heading into that final four game stretch any one game then you got to go three and one down the stretch here in that final four you start with BYU at home I think they're going to be terrible this year I think you beat them I don't think it'll be close I think that's a blowout win on the road at Colorado Colorado is an interesting team they've got some supremely talented Ed players the problem is they don't have enough of them right shador Sanders is really good Travis Hunter is really good um they've got a couple of good wide receivers uh they've got a couple of good DBS I'm not sold still on their lines of scrimmage and losing that running back uh is a huge huge deal he transferred to Kansas State Dylan Edwards I believe was his name I thought he was really really good losing him is going to hurt I don't think they have a replacement for him and the issue with Colorado in my opinion is going to be very similar to last year the lines of scrimmage and breakdowns in the second half of the Season due to attrition and injury um if you had to play on the road at Colorado in week one two or three I think there's a very good chance Colorado could win the game having to play them late in the year is an advantage for Utah Utah is a team that gets better as the year goes along um I don't think that's the case with Colorado I actually think you go on the road and beat Colorado and then we've got Iowa State and Central Florida so I've got to decide basically which two of these games I think you're going to lose do I think you're better than Iowa State yes do I think you're better than Central Florida yes I I think you're better than Oklahoma State I think you're better than every team on this schedule um but it's just hard to go 12 and0 almost every team in the country every single year loses at least one game that they're not supposed to lose I think you're going to lose one of these last two and since Central Florida is the road game that's the one I'm going to go with I think you lose that final game of the season on the road at Central Florida no one is talking about Central Florida outside of the State of Florida but I think my old buddy Goose maun the head coach down there I I think he might be cooking up a surprise for this season uh people always want to know who's your surprise picks or surprise teams for any given year I'm not saying Central Florida is good enough to win a National Title or even make the playoffs but they might be good enough to decide who gets in or doesn't get in to the Big 12 title game I would not be shocked at all to see UCF pull off a couple of upsets this year I'm going to call this one here I think you lose the final game of the regular season on the road at Central Florida if I'm right that will put you at 10- two with two conference losses given how wide open the big 12 is I think you will still get into the conference title game uh at 10-2 so there it is I've got Utah at 10 and two most likely making the big 12 title game against if I had to guess right now Kansas State um maybe Oklahoma State or Central Florida uh it really is wide open but I've got you thought 10 and two um be sure and let me know down below what you think about these predictions if you disagree look let me know um but don't just tell me I'm wrong you know how many games do you think they're going to lose and which teams do you think they're going to lose just one thing to look at the schedule and go yeah it looks like 10 and two that's one thing but to pick out the exact two losses that's something else uh all together uh anyway let me know down below what pisses you off uh and I'll talk to you soon have a good morning