Say it with me right up front here. Yell it into the canyon walls.
The Utah Utes are going to be near the top of the Pac-12 football standings — again — this season. I’ll get more specific on that in a few paragraphs.
It’s a guess, but I’m guaranteeing it.
Guaranteeing anything in July regarding who’s going to be stellar in the college game a month out is what it is … dangerous, a crapshoot. My experience tells me the only people who actually know with exactness what’s going to happen in advance aren’t sports reporters, beat writers, commentators and columnists.
No. It’s barbers. Go in for a shave and a little off the top and you’ll get the god’s-honest truth. They know. I don’t know how they know, but they do.
Preseason polls shouldn’t be media or coaches’ polls. They should be barber poles.
But asked as I was to participate in the extensive annual Pac-12 media guess-a-rama — it included listing the top fistfuls of offensive linemen, the top quarterbacks, top defensive linemen, the linebackers, the running backs, the tight ends, the wide receivers, the punters, the kickers, the special teams dudes, everything but the top mascots, I naturally had to answer the most primary question of all, the one about the order of finish among all the teams.
I studied the returning players, the transfers, the schedules, the performances from a season ago, the coaches, the QBs, the whole shebang. And, you know, some of that stuff is pretty important. On the other hand, if a team has a bunch of returning starters, most of whom weren’t all that good last time around, why would that be anything in favor of a new run this time? These are the kinds of deep considerations required to get the predications right, as if that really matters.
Here’s what I decided matters almost as much as overall talent in each of the programs, although it is tied to that: What have the schools/coaches proved in the past to be worth weighing heavily as far as placing them now in the preseason?
This is why the Utes have to be given ample respect.
It’s pretty basic.
When a coach like Kyle Whittingham guides his team to the Pac-12 championship game in four of the past five seasons, the last two of which his team won, that cannot be disregarded. It’s tangible evidence that Utah football is not just legitimate, it’s reliable, especially considering the early challenges it stared down in each of the last two years.
Bury landmines in front of the Utes and they will find a way around them. Punch them in the throat a few times and they will keep coming at you. Graduate an NFL draft pick here and there and they will replace them.
They are a competitive gold standard in the Pac-12 now, a team that everyone knows will be difficult to beat, a team that draws respect, nationally and regionally, but maybe not as much as is deserved, for the best of football reasons: They are smart, physical and resilient.
You can count on that. Bank on it, even.
And so, when it comes time to predict where the Utes will finish in the 2023 season before it even starts, Utah has to be placed near the top.
A lot of folks like USC and I do, too. Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams are good bets to finish first. Those same voters will like Washington and Oregon, and then they’ll throw in Utah, too.
But I believe, for the reasons already stated and many more, the Utes deserve better than to be just sort of thrown in the group. I have them being narrowly beat out by the Trojans and by nobody else. Sneak up behind anyone associated with or a fan of USC and whisper the words Utah Utes and they’ll get more than a little jumpy. Last season freaks them out, still.
Anyway, here’s my predicted order of finish in this coming season’s Pac-12 standings, as submitted for the preseason media poll, with a single caveat, a confident bit of approval and an explanation of sorts: 1) a swath of injuries is the one thing that could screw this whole thing up; 2) I asked my barber for his thoughts on the matter and he helped me formulate this, so … there’s that; 3) I loathe more than almost anything being accused of being a homer, so I avoid it whenever possible, if possible.
1. USC.
2. Utah.
3. Oregon State.
4. Oregon.
5. Washington.
6. UCLA.
7. Cal.
8. Arizona.
9. Arizona State.
10. Washington State.
11. Colorado.
12. Stanford.
So let it be yelled into the canyon walls, so let it reverberate back. So let it be written, so let it be done.
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