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Utah Utes running back Micah Bernard (2) gets pressured by Brigham Young Cougars defensive back Malik Moore during the second half of an NCAA college football game at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. BYU won 26-17. | Shafkat Anowar, Deseret News
Utah has played four schools on its inaugural Big 12 Conference schedule — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and BYU — regularly in the last decade.
The rest, however, will be relatively new experiences.
Utah faces UCF, Houston and Oklahoma State for the first time in the modern era and also plays Iowa State and TCU, both of whom have new coaching staffs since Utah played them, for the first time in over a decade.
To prepare for the new league, Utah’s coaching staff spent time in February looking at conference opponents — the first time offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig has done that in his career. Utah reconvened in June for another deep look at things like a three-safety defensive look, which is mostly unique to the Big 12.
“We just want to have an idea of their basic defensive philosophy and their personnel or identity of what they’re trying to get done on defense,” Ludwig said.
While there’s not as much familiarity heading into their first season in the Big 12, the good news for Utah is that its schedule — on paper — isn’t as tough as last year, when it was rated as the No. 29 hardest schedule by ESPN at season’s end.
This year, Utah’s strength of schedule is No. 72, thanks in part to missing teams such as Kansas State, Kansas and West Virginia.
That number will change throughout the season, however, as there are always teams that outperform or underperform relative to preseason expectations.
As Utah gets set for its first season in the Big 12 Conference, here’s our ranking of Utah’s 2024 schedule from toughest to…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/ranking-utah-schedule-first-big-222742280.html
Author : Deseret News
Publish date : 2024-08-10 22:27:42
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