The college football season is upon us and so is our annual Top 25. This year Yahoo Sports revealed the teams from No. 11 to 25 at once before we publish each of our top 10 in separate posts in the days leading up to Week 1. That continues with No. 5 Utah.
Previously: 11-25, No. 10 Oregon, No. 9 NC State, No. 8 Notre Dame, No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 6 Michigan
No. 5 Utah
Utah has spent the offseason after its first Rose Bowl berth under the Pac-12 radar.
You can thank USC for that in more ways than one. The arrival of Lincoln Riley and transfers like Caleb Williams and Jordan Addison have made USC a preseason darling as the Trojans aim to get back to national prominence. And then USC joined forces with UCLA to stun the college football world earlier in the summer when they announced they were heading to the Big Ten.
The Utes aren’t even the preseason favorite to win the Pac-12, either. That honor goes to, you guessed it, USC. Thanks to their recognizability, the Trojans are at +200 while Utah is at +225 to win the conference. As you can see, we’re higher on Utah than USC entering 2022. And the Utes have a serious shot at the College Football Playoff.
Can the offense be even better?
Utah brings eight starters back on an offense that was incredibly good running the ball a season ago. Utah averaged over 5.5 yards a carry as a team as Tavion Thomas rushed for 1,108 yards and 21 TDs on just 204 carries while T.J. Pledger averaged nearly seven yards a carry. You can understand why Utah ran the ball more than it threw it in all but two games in 2021.
Pledger is gone but Micah Bernard looks capable of picking up the slack. He averaged six yards a carry himself and the offensive line returns three of its five starters. Utah should continue to have a stellar rushing attack.
QB Cameron Rising took over for Charlie Brewer late in Week 3 against San Diego State and never looked back as the team’s starting quarterback. Rising threw for nearly 2,500 yards and 20 TDs and was named as the first team All-Pac 12 QB. While Rising’s stats weren’t eye-popping, he was incredibly consistent and he completed 64% of his passes.
While the receiving corps will miss Britain Covey’s contributions — yes, his 7-year career at Utah is officially over — Brant Kuithe and Dalton Kincaid are the best tight end duo west of the Mississippi. They combined to catch 14 of the 23…