All Eyes on Salt Lake City this Weekend –

Believe it or not. Salt Lake City will be the epicenter of college football this weekend for Utah vs. TCU.

Although the television broadcast will probably be sandwiched between outdoorsmen chasing elk and a re-run of last summer’s Tour de France on Versus, or possibly the afternoon game on The Mountain, led into by a colossal contest between New Mexico and Wyoming, or maybe, just maybe make it to CBSC in non-HD, this game will be the game of the week. If you did not think so already, ESPN bringing their Game Day coverage to Salt Lake is all the validation you need. Too bad, we have to wait till next year to actually see a game like this broadcast on ESPN.

Utah will sport their “Black Out” jerseys with a slight twist. In a great gesture to the Armed Forces, the “Black Out” jerseys will showcase camouflaged stripes down the side and proceeds from the sale of the uniform will benefit the Wounded Warrior project sponsored by Under Armour.

As noted in previous posts, the winner of this game has an outside chance to play in the national title game. The BCS computers may weigh this game enough that the winner could vault Boise State. (TCU already has) Or possibly Oregon loses and the 3 SEC powers all cancel each other out and you’re left with a non AQ title game. Regardless of the implications, you can be sure Kyle Whittingham, one of the best coaches in America, will have his team ready to go and focused only on TCU.

That being said, a win will be a tall order for Utah. Last year’s contest in Ft. Worth was 55-28 in favor of TCU. Kyle Whittingham was quoted after the game as saying, “They were who we thought they were. Tonight, that was a good football team. I have been a head coach for five years, that is the best team I’ve ever faced.” Those comments were just one year removed from playing the mighty Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.

TCU is just as fast, just as physical and maybe even better on defense this year. Statistically, TCU is the #1 defense in the country surrendering only 8.71 points per game. Those numbers are ridiculous.

Needless to say, I don’t expect a shoot-out.

As for the other inter-mountain teams in action this weekend:

It remains to be seen if the BYU offense can actually move the ball up and down the field and finish drives with touchdowns. The Cougars are close to an 18 point favorite against UNLV in Provo on Saturday. Either Vegas thinks Bronco figured out a few things offensively during the bye week or UNLV really sucks. I do expect BYU to win but it might be a bit premature to expect them to throw 35 points up on the scoreboard.

Boise State plays Hawaii this weekend which could end up being one of their better wins of the season. For the first time since the BCS rankings came out, if they win, this opponent should help Boise‘s computer ranking. Of course they sit behind TCU currently in the BCS rankings and would most likely be jumped by Utah if Utah is victorious. It is likely though that the human polls will give a little more respect to Boise State for a win over 7-2 Hawaii and keep them ahead of TCU/Utah.