Red, Blue, And Pigskin

Statistics

Not going to spend a lot of time on Stats for two reasons. Stats rarely mean anything, especially in a game like this, and It's hard to get a feel for Utah's offensive Stats because of the change in playcalling and QB four weeks ago, has drastically changed the team.

But here we go.
BYU Scored an average of 35.5 points per game, and gained 452.7 yards per game, with 149.7 on the ground and 303 yards through the air. Utah scored an average of 29.8 points, and gained an average of 397.9 yards, with 176.0 on the ground and 221.9 through the air.

Defensively, Brigham Young allowed 21.5 points per game, and gave up 334.1 yards per game. 113.4 of those on the ground and 220.7 through the air. Utah allowed 19.1 points per game, 318.6 yards, 142.3 rushing yards, and 176.4 passing yards per game.

I'd say neither team really gets much of a statistical advantage.

Advantage: Push

Schedule

The Utes have played a non conference schedule against teams that went 17-26. Those teams played teams that combined to go 268-185 (.592). BYU's non conference went 18-26, against teams that went 280-203 (.580).

Both teams Best win was against 7-5 Air Force, and both teams best loss is to 11-0 TCU. Non Conference the Cougars best win was 6-5 Oklahoma, which turned out to not be as great of a win as many thought it was at the time. Reality sometimes is cruel. As it is, it's only slightly better than Utah's best non conference win against 4-7 Louisville. The best only non conference loss for BYU was 6-5 Florida State, while Utah's was against 9-2 Oregon.

Advantage: Push

Quarterback

BYU comes out with Senior Max Hall. Max Hall leads the conference with 3234 yards and 28 TD's. He's also thrown 14 int's. Hall is known for wilting under the pressure of big games, and will have a personal goal to erase the memory of last year's 5 turnovers.

Utah will send out true Freshman Jordan Wynn. Wynn will get his 4th start, but only his 2nd game against a tough opponent. So far in his 3.5 games Wynn has thrown for 793 yards, 5 TD's and 2 Int's, but he has drastically changed the passing offense of the Utes.

Advantage: BYU

Runningbacks

With Asiata out with an injury that makes BYU RB Harvey Unga the best back in the conference. However Utah's stable of runningbacks have done well in Asiata's absense. Eddie Wide put up a string of 6 straight 100 yard games and is 82 yards shy of 1000 yards on the season, which is a nice feat considering he wasn't the main focus of the running game till the 5th game of the Season. Unga took over as BYU's all time leading rusher last week, but has been slowed by a series of nagging injuries. If Unga can't go, or if the Cougars want a change of pace they'll usually bring in JJ Diluigi, or Kariya. Utah will change it up with Freshman Sausan Shakerin. The Utes also will come out many times with a Single Wing formation that can see Shaky Smithson, Terrance Cain, or Devonte Christopher run the ball.

While BYU May have the best single back in this matchup, for overall running back ability, the edge is slightly to Utah.

Advantage: Utah

Wide Receivers

I'm not including TE's with the WR's because the advantage in TE's is greatly on the Cougars side, they deserve the credit. Last year it was an argument of which is better, the Unit, or the individual with Collie versus a slew of WR's game breakers for the Utes. This year, the Cougars don't have that WR threat that they had last year. Although McKay Jacobsen is a speedster and can go deep, and Oneill Chambers makes is a step up for the Cougars from past #2 WR's. Of the Cougars 29 passing TD's, only 9 have gone to a WR

The Utes meanwhile are once again loaded at the WR Position. David Reed has 1000 yards, the Utes also have the smallish Jerome Brooks, as well as Lengthy Aiona Key, and John Peel. Both Reed, and Brooks have the ability to get behind defense as both have scored at least 1 TD of 65 yards or more, while Key has the height to get most jump balls.

Advantage: Utah

TE

BYU TE Dennis Pitta has more TD's, than Utes have receptions by a Tight End. Pitta is the best TE to come out of BYU. His backup Andrew George, is pretty good as well. Dennis Pitta will be the biggest threat receiving wise that Utah will need to worry about. His presence underneath opens up the outside, and could possibly prevent some of the quarterback rushes that the Utes like to do with their linebackers.

If Utah throws to the TE it was probably a mistake.

Advantage: BYU

Offensive Line

BYU had to replace 80% of their Offensive line from last year, and had to suffer a few injuries on the line. QB Max hall has been sacked a total of 16 times, and this is after a switch in philosophy that went away from the 5 step dropbacks looking for the big play, to more 3 step shorter route play calling.

Utah has Sr Zane Beadles as the Center, and Jr. Caleb Schlauderaff back from last year. Utah's two qb's have been sacked 15 times.

Behind their respective OL's Runningbacks have ran for 1647 yards for BYU, and 1936 yards for Utah

Advantage: Utah

Defensive Line

BYU's defensive line started the season with an impressive showing shutting down the Oklahoma Sooners rushing game. All season long the Cougars have been stout against the run allowing just over 100 yards per game. Senior Jan Jorgensen will want to end his career with a solid performance.

Meanwhile Utah had to replace Stud DE Paul Kruger who went to the NFL Last year. DE Koa Misi has been a bother to many an OL The second half of the season, while younger brother Dave Kruger has been trying to show that the Kruger have a lot of talent in their bloodlines. The Utes have given up a bit more rushing yards than they are accustomed to this year, and could have some issues with Unga.

Advantage: Utah

Linebackers

BYU has a senior laden Linebacking core with Colby Clawson, Matt Bauman, and Shawn Doman. The Utes counter with their own seniors of Kepa Gaison, Mike Wright, and Stevenson Sylvester. The key to the Linebacking matchup will come down to how they are used. In last year's matchup the Utes used their LB's in a zone blitzing scheme that caught the Cougars off guard. The Cougars used the same scheme with success against Oklahoma, but we haven't seen it much since. Utah loves to bring pressure with their Linebackers, but may not be able to do it as often if they have to worry about Pitta.

Advantage: Utah

Defensive Backs

BYU's problem area for a few years has been, and continues to be their defensive backs. BYU DB's tend to run a bit on the small side, and have a reputation for being slow. BYU DB's have a tendency to get burned and when they do they start grabbing and can get called for a few Pass Interference calls.

Utah lost both of their CB's from last year to the NFL. While Brandon Burton has found a bit of a groove, R.J. Stanford still couldn't find the ball if the lights were out and the ball glowed in the dark. The Utes prefer a man to man scheme which will cause them to get called for Pass Interference a few times. The biggest difference between BYU and Utah is at the Safety Position. Utah has two Senior Safeties in Joe Dale and Robert Johnson. Robert Johnson is always around the ball, and is a ball hawk. Johnson also loves to get physical. When not leaving his feet at inopportune moments, Dale is a solid Coverage safety who can come up and help with the Run.

Advantage: Utah

Special teams

For the last two years Utah has been unable to find a Kick returner who can manage to hold onto the ball. The Utes also severely miss K/P Louie Sakoda. The Cougars meanwhile will use McKay Jacobsen in the return game, and seem to have a bit more reliability from their kickers.

Advantage: BYU

Comparing the Coaches

When Kyle Whittingham chose Utah over BYU 5 years ago, it meant that he would always be linked with whomever BYU Chose. The Cougars of course went with their second choice, who was their Defensive Coordinator at the time in Bronco Mendenhall.

5 years later they've both had some highs and lows. And since we're in a comparison mode this week, let's compare these two coaches heading into the big game.

Bronco is 47-15, Kyle is 46-16
Both are 2-2 in the Rivalry game
Bronco is 2-2 in Bowl Games, Kyle is 4-0
In big games (For the sake of this comparison a big game is considered any game between TCU, The Rivalry game, Bowl Games, Ranked Opponents, and Any game against a BCS Opponent, or Notre Dame) Bronco is 10-13, Kyle is 15-8
Versus TCU Bronco is 2-3, Kyle is 3-2
High Point: Bronco - 2006, 11-2, Bowl Victory against Oregon. Kyle - 2008, 13-0, Sugar Bowl
Low Point: Bronco - 2009, The loss to TCU at home, after trying to convince everyone this year would be different. Kyle - 2007, 27-0 vs UNLV

X Factors for both coaches. Kyle is a more emotional coach. He gets his team up for bigger games, by treating them differently. Bronco however is a even keeled type of guy, in desperate need of a personality, who is a staunch believer that every game is exactly the same. Kyle is the kind of coach that if a player went out onto the field when he wasn't supposed to, he'd grab the guy and pull him back to prevent the penalty.

Many question whether Bronco is able to make halftime, or in between week adjustments. Kyle's teams tend to get stronger in the second half after he makes his adjustments.

Also while BYU was picked by many to be the BCS Buster last year, Utah went undefeated and then killed Alabama.

Advantage: Utah

The Crowd

This game will be played at LaVell Edwards Stadium meaning the Cougars will be at home. While many will want to say this will give the Cougars the advantage here, I say that Cougar fans are always waiting for the next shoe to drop. AoD even commented on this a couple weeks ago. If Utah can cause problems for BYU Early, the fans will quiet down and start to panic. This will allow the Utah half of the fans to get crazy, and noisy.

Also consider that in the past 20 years, the Road team is 12-8

Advantage: Push

Nationally what do we want to have happen

Well the Undefeated teams all remained undefeated leaving the top of the BCS status quo. I wouldn't expect any great change the next week either, setting up for an interesting Dec. 5th weekend when the SEC, and the Big 12 have their championships, and Cincinnati and Pitt play each other in the Big East.

Sadly Ohio State managed to beat Michigan, so we'll have to wait till their embarrassment in the BCS Bowl for them to get their 3rd loss of the year.

Clemson and Georgia Tech each clinched their Divisions in the ACC setting up a clash for the ACC Title. Hopefully Clemson will win, which will open up the Champion ranked lower than another team in their conference scenario, as well as mean that TCU defeated the ACC Champion this season.

Pac-10 is setting up for a Civil War for the Roses as the winner of Oregon/Oregon State becomes the Pac-10 champion. Hopefully Oregon wins the game, to make their defeat of Utah all the better, and make Boise State's victory over Oregon that much better.