02 January 2009

Sugar Bowl

Utah is in its second BCS bowl in five years. Or is it four? 

Anyway, good for them, way to represent the conference, blah blah blah. 

I hear all the time about how good BYU fans should root for Utah to beat Alabama because it helps non-BCS teams everywhere and every time a Boise State beats Oklahoma an angel gets its wings. 

Unfortunately, I can't bring myself to root for the team in red. Not that it necessarily matters, in my opinion. This incarnation of the undefeated Utah team is far inferior to the 2004 model. In '04, Alex Smith and Co. steamrolled everyone they played, while this time around, the Utes squeaked by a terrible Michigan team, a less-than-impressive New Mexico, and relied on some terrible execution from TCU's kicker to beat the Horned Frogs by three. 

Alabama, on the other hand, has lost to only Florida, and the rest of its schedule was much more difficult than Utah's. The Tide has two running backs averaging over 5 ypc against SEC defenses, and Utah's main defensive weakness is definitely against the run. Alabama has held seven opponents to 10 points or less, and the Utes haven't exactly been impressive on offense this season.

In short, it's going to get ugly. I see this game being over early in the fourth quarter at the latest, but the Tide will control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball the entire game. And when you dominate the trenches, you win. 

Alabama 31, Utah 10

Of course, if my college football prediction skills are anything like my NBA prediction skills, the beer will flow freely in Salt Lake City tonight. 

6 comments:

LaPaube said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LaPaube said...

The beer will flow no matter what.

I can't wait to see the U get dominated. In that deleted comment I predicted Alabama 31-Utah 10, which I might have just accidentally copied from having just read your post. Anyway, I second the prediction. I don't think Alabama has an awesome offense or I'd predict they would score more. And Utah's good enough to get more than just a touchdown--I think.

Stu said...

Here, let me help you :)

A little present

LaPaube said...

Huh. I guess Alabama has an even less awesome offense than I thought.

Brandon said...

I must've missed your bold prediction where the Utes win. ;)

As always, I am terrible at this sort of thing.

Congratulations on taking BYU's season goals and actually completing them. Have to admit it hurts.

Stu said...

Of course I picked Utah to win. But my pick was completely irrational... based solely on my feelings for the Utes (I would have picked them to win even if all 22 of their starters were shipped to the moon the night before the game).

I was just happy to see the MWC well represented in a BCS game (not to say that any of the other mwc teams couldn't or wouldn't have done it if they were in Utah's shoes). I think that had TCU or BYU been the BCS buster, they would have come out with a similar level of intensity that Utah did.

Here's hoping that next year we can get the same sort of season... three MWC teams in the top 20 (two very likely in the top 10) at the end of the season, surely some of us will be highly ranked for the preseason. As much as we hate the rankings... being ranked highly at the beginning of the season is the only way for a non-bcs team to have a chance at playing in a title game.

Who knows... maybe this will shake up the BCS a little.