Week 6 Review- Aggies are the Best Team in the State of Utah

Utah State

Yes, they are up first in my week 6 review. They are currently the best Division 1 football team in the state of Utah. Sure Wyoming is no good but Utah State beat up on them the same way Mike Tyson used to knock out cream puffs in the first round. Utah State did what they should have and poundedWyoming63-19. The Aggies are obviously doing something right. And it wasn’t all just Robert Turbin and the running game on Saturday. Freshman quarterback, Chuckie Keaton threw 5 touchdowns.

You’ve got to feel good for the Aggies. Many teams would have folded psychologically after having their hearts torn out 3 different times. (Auburn, Colorado State and BYU) Instead, they came out and did the exact opposite. Now it’s on to their WAC schedule. As mentioned before, I fully expect them to improve upon last year’s 4-8 record, achieve at least a 6-6 record and become bowl eligible. Whatever former Utah defensive coordinator and current Aggie head coach Gary Anderson is selling, his team is sure buying.

Utah

Gordon Monson of the Salt Lake Tribune wrote an interesting piece last week about both BYU and Utah missing the good ole days of racking up wins against inferior opponents in the MWC.

Monson: Do Utah, BYU miss the Mountain West Conference yet?

Of course both teams are better off where they are now but you have to wonder if Utah is starting to believe they can’t compete in a BCS conference. They are now 0-3 with 14 points and 5 turnovers in each of their last 2 games. Those are just dreadful numbers. Not only will that not win you a Pac-12 game, that probably wouldn’t win many games back in the MWC. They have got to get things figured out.

Jon Hays actually looked okay in his first Division 1 college football start. He was 18-30 with 199 yards. The wheels obviously came off when he started throwing picks. I usually find no fault with Kyle Whittingham. However, I thought at the end of the first half with his team in scoring range, he should not have let Hays take as many shots as he did. He allowed him to throw into the end zone which resulted in an interception. Utah should have just run the ball and taken the field goal. They would have gone into halftime tied at 10. More importantly, Hays psyche would have still been intact. Instead, Whittingham gave him just enough rope to start to hang himself. As the second half unfolded, Hays did himself in with two more interceptions. I wonder if it would have been different had he not thrown that costly pick at the end of the 1st half.

Also, Utah flat out dropped 3 or 4 balls that seemed like sure catches. Winning teams just don’t do that.

As for the defense – same thing as last week. You can only ask them to hang in so long when the opposition is starting every drive with a short field due to turnovers.

I really don’t know where Utah goes from here. I don’t think they’ll fold up shop but I don’t see how they are going to produce a consistent offensive attack. You’ve got to hope Hays and the rest of the team will take better care of the ball. Right now though, they are embarrassing themselves in their first year on the big stage. And what’s sad is that Utah was in both their last two games in the first half. They just seemed to flip the turnover switch and promptly gave the games away. They should be showing much better than they are.

BYU

BYU should look to their neighbors way to the North to learn what you are supposed to do against an inferior opponent. Saturday night’s 29-16 win against San Jose State did nothing for me. Sure they won. But they basically played only one half of good football. The score was 23-6 at the half.

No idea what’s going on with Heaps. I’ll tell you this much though. If they keep him on the bench and he ultimately transfers, they will kick themselves for the next decade. He is the best QB prospect to ever come through Provo. Yes, he needs to improve but that’s what coaching is for. (Cougar Fans – don’t fall out of your chairs but there’s a school about 40 miles north of Provo that would love to develop a talent likes Heaps into their starting quarterback) How are you are going to let an NFL arm sit on the bench while Riley Nelson carelessly tosses the ball all over the field?

It doesn’t matter who quarterbacks the next several games in terms of wins and losses. As we already knew, BYU is bigger, faster, and stronger and will run over their opponents like they did on Saturday night. (Of course TCU will be the exception and although Oregon State has only one win, they do have BCS talent on their roster)

It is fun to watch Nelson run and the team did score a season high 29 points. That says it all though. 29 points against lowly San Jose State is the Cougars best showing of the year. That game should have been 40-6.

We shall see what they do with the QB’s going forward. Again, they are going to win regardless of who plays. They should really be thinking of next year at this point and play both guys. If they stay with Riley, that tells me he is the guy for next year and Heaps will be as good as gone. Good luck recruiting a 5 star quarterback again if that happens.

And why would I say the season is essentially over. Well because we know they are going to finish 8-4, 9-3 – something like that. BYU is 4-2 and they have what I consider to be 3 sure wins left: Idaho, Idaho State and New Mexico State. That takes them to 7 wins. Then you figure they’ll go 1-2 or maybe 2-1 against Oregon State, TCU and Hawaii. But what do their wins really mean? Not much.

• Their big road win over Ole Miss looks less impressive each week the Rebels play. (Ole Miss looks like they’ll be a near last place team in the SEC)
• BYU got blasted at home by 44 points to a team that has not won a game in the Pac-12.
• Finally, their close call against Texas in Austin means nothing after the Longhorns were thoroughly outclassed by Oklahoma over the weekend.

So with the season no longer really in questions, the only remaining intrigue is the QB issue and the outside chance the Cougars still get invited to the Big-12. The latter could be the saving grace to their season.

As for the QB battle, as I alluded to last week, perhaps there is more to this deal than just on-field play. Maybe the team has totally checked out on Heaps. Again though, with a talent like him, you find a way to make it work.