First Glance: Who Are The Utah Utes?

Written By T.J. Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

The Indiana Hoosiers will travel to Santa Clara, California to take on the Utah Utes in the Foster Farms Bowl on December 28. Hoosier Huddle will provide comprehensive coverage of IU’s second-straight bowl game and Tom Allen’s first game in-charge as the new head coach at Indiana University. We begin our coverage by taking a look at IU’s opponent, the Utah Utes.

Who: University of Utah, the Utes are from the PAC-12 Conference
2016 Season: 8-4 (5-4, 3rd in PAC-12 South) with key wins over BYU and USC
Head Coach: Kyle Whittingham is in his 12th season at Utah and he is 103-50 with a terrific 9-1 record in bowl games.

Program History: Utah began playing football in 1892 and they’ve been a mostly successful program since the coming of the new millennium. Urban Meyer joined Utah prior to the 2003 season and propelled the Utes to an unbeaten season in 2004 before leaving for Florida. Kyle Whittingham the defensive coordinator during the 2004 season and he was promoted to head coach, a position he still holds. Utah plays at Rice-Eccles Stadium and recent notable players include Star Lotulelei, Eric Weddle, Alex Smith and All-Pro wide receiver (and generally very angry person) Steve Smith. Kyle Whittingham has proven to be an excellent bowl game coach, going 9-1 with his only defeat coming at the hands of Boise State in the 2010 Las Vegas Bowl. 

How Did They Wind Up in Santa Clara?

The Utah Utes began the 2016 season with expectations of achieving anywhere between 6-9 wins and returning to a bowl game for a third straight season. They drilled Southern Utah in their opener and then took on bitter rival BYU in week two. The Utes topped the Cougars 20-19 in an ugly, but thrilling, contest. The Utes had six turnovers in that game but they did enough on defense to survive and move to 2-0. They took to the road for the first time and defeated San Jose State to get to 3-0. A “nice start” turned into legitimate hype when the Utes returned home and dropped the USC Trojans 31-27 in a game that propelled them to the favorites for the PAC-12 South in the eyes of many (this was the last game USC lost this season). However, they dropped their first game of the season in a disappointing trip to Berkeley as they lost to California 28-23 despite holding possession for more than 42 minutes of the game. The Utes got back on a winning path and rattled off three straight victories (over Arizona, Oregon State and UCLA) to improve their record to 7-1 before hosting the Washington Huskies. In a well-played game at Rice-Eccles Stadium, the Utes fell 31-24 and dropped to 7-2. They again rebounded quickly by beating Arizona State 49-26 and they entered the final two weeks of the season with hopes of a PAC-12 South title and a potential trip to the Rose Bowl. However, they were shocked by the down-and-out Oregon Ducks 30-28 and then their season-finale at Colorado 27-22 to finish the season at 8-4, behind Colorado and USC in the PAC-12 South. The Utes were selected for the Foster Farms Bowl and their motivation for this game will be a talking point after being so close to a PAC-12 South title as recently as two weeks ago.

Key Personnel

QB – Troy Williams – 2,579 passing yards, 53.4% completions, 15 TD/7 INT, 246 yards rushing with 5 TDs. 

Williams is wildly inconsistent but he is not without talent. Just look at his game logs the last three weeks: 21-37 for 296 yards with 4 TDs and zero INTs against Arizona State, 20-30 for 235 yards with 1 TD against Oregon but then a dreadful 13-40 for 160 yards with 1 TD and two INTs against Colorado. He’s capable of connecting on the deep ball and he is mobile in the pocket but his decision-making is erratic (he’s taken 21 sacks) and he will miss a handful of throws every game that costs the Utah offense. He is slow to progress through is reads and often focuses on one receiver and forces the ball, whether that man is open or not. He’s had some very good games but some real stinkers as well.

RB – Joe Williams – After the first two games of the season (he gained less than 100 yards total), Joe Williams elected to leave the game of football. However, the team had some injuries at tailback and they approached the senior about returning for the remainder of the year. He rejoined the team, professed to have changed his mental approach and passion for the game and promptly ripped off a series of huge performances. He came back on October 15 and ran for 179 yards at Oregon State and then had 332 yards with four touchdowns at UCLA. He battled Washington’s tough defense and came up with 172 yards, had 181 yards at Arizona State and then had 149 yards against Oregon. His season finale wasn’t great (only 97 yards and 3.7 yards per carry) but he ended up with 1,185 yards and an average of 6.4 yards per carry in what turned out to be an excellent senior season. It’s not clear how much Utah will choose to ride him during the bowl game (they may give younger backs a chance) but he is a dangerous weapon capable of breaking off big runs and he’ll test IU’s defensive front.

WR – Tim Patrick – Utah does not have a prolific passing attack but they do have a few potential playmakers. Tim Patrick is the best of the bunch and he gained 684 yards on 43 receptions despite missing three games in the middle of the season. He hasn’t scored a touchdown since the September 23 game against USC and he hasn’t been near as good since his injury. Other targets include: Raelon Singleton (454 yards), Cory Butler-Byrd (372 yards) and Evan Moeai (308 yards). Butler-Byrd is a dangerous dual-threat as he has receptions of 45, 69, 43 and 30 yards and rushes of 54 and 46 yards. 

DL – Hunter Dimick – The best part of Utah’s team is the defensive front and their best player is senior Hunter Dimick. The fearsome pass rusher has 14.5 sacks (third in the country, only one half sack behind the two leaders) and he’s capable of breaking the game open for the Utes. Dimick comes into the bowl game red-hot after 9.5 sacks in the final five games of the season. He had five sacks against Arizona State, two sacks against Oregon and one half sack with three pass deflections against Colorado. He is extremely talented and he’ll be relentless in his final chance to impress scouts in a game before the NFL Draft. As a team, Utah is eighth in the country in sacks and the rest of their defensive line will be a real challenge for IU’s offense. Pita Taumopenu has 7 sacks, Filipo Mokofisi has 4 and Lowell Lotulelei has 3.5. This is a deep unit that sets the table for their defensive success.

Early Talking Points

“Who Wants it More?”

I often think clichés like “they wanted it more” and “they didn’t come to play” are media talking points that get overhyped to explain an unexpected result. However, things like motivation and effort and “wanting it” are definitely a large part of bowl games and the motivation for both of those teams is difficult to figure. Utah is playing in their third straight mid/lower-tier bowl game and they are just three short weeks removed from having a legitimate chance at a PAC-12 South title and a spot in the Rose Bowl. Head coach Kyle Whittingham is 9-1 in bowl games with the Utes so he’s figured out how to have his team properly motivated before but there’s reason to wonder whether or not they’ll be real excited to play a middling Big Ten team when they had visions for so much more less than one month ago. The Hoosiers are going to their second straight bowl game for first time since 1990-1991 but they are entering this bowl game dealing with things no one expected to be dealing with. Former head coach Kevin Wilson resigned in the days before the bowl announcement amidst concerns over player mistreatment and “philosophical differences” with Fred Glass regarding leadership style. Tom Allen has been promoted to the role of head coach and this is his first game in charge of the program. While he won’t be able to implement many changes in this condensed time period and he has elected to keep the staff intact through the bowl game (although a couple of roles have been juggled and shuffled around), it will be interesting to see how the Hoosier players respond to this test. I have the utmost confidence that IU will play very hard for Tom Allen in the future but what we see on the 28th of December will be a real unknown. 

Ferocious Front Presents Stern Test

The most pressing task when preparing for Utah is figuring out how to slow down and contain the Utes impressive defensive front. Utah is 8th in the country in sacks with 40 (Florida State has 47 to lead the nation) and Hunter Dimick is only one half sack behind the national lead for individuals. Indiana’s offensive line has been solid but they have allowed 2.2 sacks per game and they’ve struggled to establish the running game against defenses with a pulse. IU should have Brandon Knight and Coy Cronk back in the lineup after both missed the Purdue game but there’s no question the IU offensive line will need to improve some and play their best ball of the season if the Hoosiers want to give Richard Lagow enough to time to operate in the pocket. Hunter Dimick is the leader but Pita Taumopenu has 7 sacks, Filipo Mokofisi has 4 and Lowell Lotulelei has 3.5. Utah’s line stacks up comparably with units like Michigan’s and Ohio State’s so the Hoosiers will have their hands full.

Forcing Them to Throw

Utah runs a pro-style offense that relies on their running game to pound the ball and churn out yards. Joe Williams is definitely the bell-cow back and he’ll likely get 25-30 carries. He’s averaging 6.4 yards per carry but IU’s defense has done a good job with other top running backs this season and they’ll look to those games as reasons to think they can slow Williams down. Freshman Zack Moss might get a few carries, wide receiver Cory Butler-Byrd is used as an occasional back and quarterback Troy Williams will run some if forced to but the show will largely be Joe Williams’ to carry. The goal for IU’s defense should be to limit his success and force Utah into third and medium or third and long situations. Quarterback Troy Williams isn’t efficient and, while he is capable of having nice games, he’ll miss some throws and the passing game is definitely the offense’s weakness. 

There is a whole lot going on right now but fear not, Hoosier Huddle will keep you informed and updated on all things related to IU football. We’ll continue to preview the Foster Farms Bowl against the 19th ranked Utah Utes so keep on checking back on your best FREE site for IU football coverage!