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The No. 14 Utah Utes will travel to Pullman to take on Washington State in a Thursday night college football matchup.
SLC 🛫 Pullman pic.twitter.com/2Xs5ru0YrJ
— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) October 26, 2022
Seasons so far…
Coming out of their bye week, the Utes are 3-1 in the Pac-12 and 5-2 overall. They come in fourth in the Pac-12 standings but are still in the running to make the Pac-12 Championship after defeating USC two weeks ago. Their only conference loss came at the hands of No. 12 UCLA, who sits just above them in the Pac-12.
Washington State enters this matchup 1-3 in Conference play and 4-3 overall. While the Cougars are seemingly out of the running to make it to the Pac-12 Championship, this does not mean they are not looking to knock the Utes out of the Championship race.
What to expect…
Although they did just take down No. 10 USC, Utah cannot overlook the Cougars. In fact, this Washington State team has many similarities to USC, who still managed to put up 42 points and 556 yards in their loss to Utah.
Like the Trojans, Washington State has an up-tempo offense and quarterback Cameron Ward has a playing style similar to that of Caleb Williams. For Utah, one of their main priorities will be to get pressure on Ward just like they did against Williams in the second half. While they struggled in the first half of the USC game, the defense regrouped at halftime and was able to sack Williams three times in the final 30 minutes of the game.
Utah CB Clark Phillips III with a timely blitz from the slot, shooting his way through the gap to bring down Caleb Williams for a sack and a loss of 8-yard loss.
Was a pivotal moment in the game as it eventually lead to a USC punt, and Utah scoring a game-tying TD. #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/fKOgHAUW4p
— WBG84 (@WBG84) October 20, 2022
Utah hopes to carry over the momentum from the second half of the USC game into both halves of the game this Thursday night. Meanwhile, Washington State looks to bounce back after a tough loss to Oregon State just before their bye week. The Cougars have put up just 24 points in their last two games and they will need to score more than that in order to take down the Utes, who are still trying to stay in the race for a Pac-12 championship berth.
