Team Previews: #45, Utah

Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to the 2017 CollegeSportsCoverage Top 50 preview. Every other day we preview a new team in my top 50 rankings. Todays team is:

The Utah Utes

Conference

PAC 12 (South)

2016 Record

9-4

Foster Farms Bowl Champions (vs Indiana)

Head Coach

Kyle Whittingham (104-50, 14th season)

Coordinators

OC: Troy Taylor

DC: Morgan Scalley

Players Lost

RB Joe Williams

DE Hunter Dimick

OL Garett Bolles

QB Troy Williams

Key Players

QB Cooper Bateman (Alabama transfer)

DE Kylie Fitts

DT Filipo Mokofis

DB Chase Hansen

Top Recruits/Class Rank

National Rank: 33

PAC 12 Rank: 6

Top Recruits

CB Jaylon Johnson (#85 overall)

S Corrion Ballard (#9 JUCO)

LB Marquise Blair (#15 JUCO)

WR Tyquez Hampton

2016 Recap

The highlight of the Utes season was the wild story of Joe Williams. After rushing for only 75 yards in the first two games he retired, then a month later came back and rushed for 190 yards per game the rest of the way. Williams was half of a backfield that won’t be back for the Utes as new OC Troy Taylor has to find a new RB and determine the results of a QB battle between Alabama transfer Cooper Bateman and sophomore Tyler Huntley. Last years Utes constantly came up short losing four games, all by single digits, by a combined 19 points. Lots of losses on both sides of the ball should make fixing that problem difficult, but with talented recruits and transfers anything is possible.

Schedule

Aug. 31: vs North Dakota

Sep. 9: at BYU

Sep. 16: San Jose State

Sep. 22: at Arizona

Oct. 7: Stanford

Oct. 14: at USC

Oct. 21: Arizona State

Oct. 28: at Oregon

Nov. 3: UCLA

Nov. 11: Washington State

Nov. 18: at Washington

Nov. 25: Colorado

Record Projection

W
L
W
W
L
L
W
L
L
W

L
W

(6-6)

MVP

QB Cooper Bateman