The University of Utah football team hosts the #23 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils on Saturday at Rice Eccles Stadium. Kick off is scheduled for 2:00 PM Mountain Time. This is a critical game for Utah coming off a bye week to try and put losses to both Arizona and USC in which Utah had high hopes of winning both of these games.
Defensive end / linebacker Trevor Reilly was named one of 12 semifinalists for the Butkus Award, which honors the best college linebacker. Freshman kicker Andy Phillips is one of 20 semifinalists for the Lou
Groza Collegiate Placekicker Award. Adam Schulz has played in the last two games to relieve Travis Wilson in the second half. Travis has been nursing a hand injury. Wilson injured his throwing hand in the Stanford game and aggravated the injury in the game against Arizona. Wilson wore a protective glove in the USC game and struggled being replaced by Schulz.
Arizona State opened up as a 7 point favorite over Utah when the odds came out on Monday. Utah has done well at home as the underdog and should be able to cover the spread on this matchup if Travis Wilson has had enough time to heal. Utah has three great running backs in Kelvin York, Bubba Poole, and Lucky Radley. Each have their strengths and will see multiple carries during the game.
The receiving core for Utah have been plagued with injuries. Kenneth Scott went out in the first home game of the season with a season ending injury. Tight end Jake Murphy broke his arm and had season ending surgery also while Utah’s other starting tight end Westlee Tonga has also been injured. Dres Andersen is a familiar target for Wilson along with Anthony Denham and Sean Fitzgerald.