Takeaways From Utah Football’s 2025 Schedule
Feb 4, 2025, 9:56 AM | Updated: Feb 10, 2025, 5:31 pm
SALT LAKE CITY—The Big 12 has released all 2025 conference schedules, and Utah football now knows the path they have to navigate to get the Big 12 title game.
We already knew which teams would be on the schedule, and now we know how the games layout with the completed schedule.
Combined with the non-conference games, the Utes have six games at home and on the road. Their conference schedule is slightly more favorable with five games in Rice-Eccles Stadium to just four away from home.
Here are some takeaways from Utah football’s 2025 schedule.
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Utah football’s most challenging three-game stretch
Utah only plays three games in the month of October, but they are arguably the three most difficult matchups on the schedule.
The Utes welcome Arizona State, the reigning Big 12 champions, to Salt Lake City on October 11. If Kenny Dillingham returns next season, the Sun Devils will be a top contender again. And the Sun Devils will also be coming off of a bye the week prior.
After that, Kyle Whittingham leads his squad into Provo for the rivalry game against BYU. Given the intensity of the game this past season, the game will demand even more of them on the road.
Then the Utes finish the month against Colorado, who will be coming off of a bye the week before. That’s a challenging three-game stretch but Utah will have a bye week to kick off the month.
The Utah-BYU rivalry game placement
Many prefer the rivalry game between Utah and BYU to be played in the final week of the season. The game was played last year at the beginning of November; this season, it moves even further up the calendar.
Utah will be coming off a challenging home contest against the Sun Devils, while BYU will be playing its fifth game in six straight.
It’s an interesting placement, to say the least, and even more interesting is that it isn’t receiving the bye week treatment that it received this past season.
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The bye weeks for Utah football
Similar to last year, the 2025 season will be spread out over 14 weeks. That means each team will have two open weekends.
Utah’s schedule breaks will occur in weeks 6 and 11. Given the schedule, these two weeks are actually good times for Utah.
The first bye week comes ahead of the most challenging stretch of the schedule. Utah will get an extra week to rest and prepare for Arizona State, BYU on the road, Colorado and Cincinnati.
Utah will then enter their second bye, the second week of November. Though that may feel a week or two too late, it still comes at a good time.
The Utes will have an extra week to prepare for their final three games: at Baylor, at home against Kansas State, and then on the road at Kansas to finish the season.
As important as their own bye weeks are, opponent bye weeks can also impact schedule difficulty. Utah ran into a couple of trap games against opponents- Arizona and TCU- where they came off of bye weeks, but Utah did not.
This year, Colorado is the only opponent that will come off of a bye before a Utah game where the Utes don’t themselves.
𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 𝐔𝐓𝐀𝐇 𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐓𝐁𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃𝐔𝐋𝐄 🗓 pic.twitter.com/6Hnu4EydJI
— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) February 4, 2025
Opening two weeks of Big 12 play
The Utes welcome Texas Tech to Salt Lake City for the first time to open conference play. Then, they hit the road to Morgantown for their first Big 12 road trip the following week.
Given what Joey McGuire returns and has added to the roster, the Red Raiders will be viewed as a top contender. That will be a challenging conference opener but an exciting one for the fanbase and an important one inside the Big 12 race.
Then, West Virginia was a road game many Utah fans hoped would come early in the year to make that trip work. That game coming in week five should be fairly doable for fans.
The Mountaineers are going through big changes but there will be plenty of familiarity between head coaches.
After two weeks of Big 12 play, Utah will quickly have a good idea of its team.
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Overall, this is a pretty solid and manageable schedule for the Utes. There isn’t a lengthy stretch of games between bye weeks, there aren’t any back-to-back road games, and Utah’s most difficult stretch of the season includes three home games.
Utes are RUNNIN' into 2025 👟💨
Your 2025 Utah Football Schedule⬇️#Big12FB | @Utah_Football pic.twitter.com/99M4y9IhbX
— Big 12 Studios (@big12studios) February 4, 2025
