Unrivaled: Utah’s Schedule Is Favorable For Their Young, Inexperienced Team

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Pac-12 schedule is officially out with Utah hosting Arizona on November 7 to start its six-game slate.

Despite playing the South teams as normal, nothing else is normal about this Utah schedule in 2020. The one game Utah is playing from the North is a winnable game – hosting Oregon State.

Utah’s 2020 Schedule

Week 1: Saturday, Nov. 7 vs. Arizona

Week 2: Friday, Nov. 13 at UCLA

Week 3: Saturday, Nov. 21 vs. USC

Week 4: Saturday, Nov. 28 at Arizona State

Week 5: Saturday, Dec. 5 vs. Oregon State

Week 6: Friday, Dec. 11 at Colorado

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The schedule shakes out nicely for the Utes with splitting its two most difficult games by hosting USC and traveling to Arizona State but those two are on back-to-back weeks. That makes that short stretch arguably the most important of the season if the Utes are going to win the South Divison for the third consecutive year.

Schedule Benefits Utah’s Inexperienced Team

Utah is replacing nearly all of its two-deep on defense, starting quarterback, and starting running back. That number also includes seven players that were selected in the NFL Draft. So, this team will have new faces and replicating the prior two year’s successes might be difficult.

KSL Sports Scott Mitchell feels this schedule coupled with more practice time is a great combination for another good year for the Utes.

“If you’re Utah and you’re a team that’s rebuilding, I don’t want to say rebuilding. They’re retooling their team. They have good players at Utah,” Mitchell said. “They’re going to have a lot of inexperience on defense. They’re going to have a lot of inexperience at key offense positions like quarterback and running back.”

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Yes, Utah is lacking experience but opening up against a likely bad Arizona team and going on the road to face a UCLA team that is also not expected to be all that good is a way to ease these new players into the season.

“This is the best possible schedule Utah could have. It’s the perfect schedule because you’ve got Arizona at home and they’re garbage. They’re not any good,” Mitchell said. “Then you’re going to UCLA. If you have to go to Southern California, you’re going to play UCLA or USC and you would rather much play UCLA on the road and then you have USC at home and Utah always plays USC good at home.”

By the time the Utes get to playing USC and Arizona State, this young team should have enough playing time and experience to be ready for the other South contenders.

Pac-12 See’s Utah As A Contender

Looking closely at the Pac-12 schedule, it is clear that the league wanted to give its best teams the easiest path to go undefeated and keep the league in the College Football Playoff conversation. USC and Oregon were to play in the original schedule but they are not as the Trojans crossover game is home against Washington State.

All three top South contenders are at home with Utah hosting Oregon State and Arizona State welcoming a solid Cal team to Tempe. Washington and Oregon in the North get the same treatment with home games for their crossover matchups.

KSL Sports Alex Kirry thinks this schedule set up to help the better teams is a bit shady on behalf of the Pac-12 schedule makers.

“Utah gets Oregon State. These teams were given. The cupcakes that it’s as close to a cupcake set up as they could get,” Kirry said. “This feels like cheating somehow and yet we do this across the board. I guess everybody is just cheating.”

Setting up a schedule like this is necessary to give the best teams in the Pac-12 the most opportune chance to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff. The league is already starting weeks behind even the Big Ten so the league needed to create a schedule that benefits its best teams to ensure they have the best records.

If things go according to plan, the best teams from the North and South will meet in the championship game with a playoff berth on the line.

The Pac-12 giving Utah a home game vs. Oregon State means the Utes are considered one of the contenders to compete for a Pac-12 title.

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