Washington State football is 8-2 heading into Salt Lake City, Utah to face the 5-4 Utah Utes. Here are three bold predictions for the Week 11 match-up.
The Washington State Cougars are coming off a close but clean 24-21 victory against the Stanford Cardinal from week 10. Luke Falk bounced back, as I predicted, and threw three touchdowns with only one interception while racking up 337 passing yards against a good but not great Stanford defense.
More importantly, future ‘Head Coach of somewhere really soon’ Alex Grinch’s defense held Bryce Love to 69 rushing yards on 16 carries. That’s 4.3 yards per carry down from his 10 before the week 10 match-up. The Cougars defense will now look to stop a balanced attack in the Utes offense. The 8-2 Cougs, who have lost to Cal and Arizona, are ranked 20th in the S&P+ rankings.
Utah has Tyler Huntley throwing the football for them. Huntley has thrown for 1600+ yards and 12 touchdowns with six interceptions. He’s also rushed for 381 yards and three scores as well. Huntley has split time with Troy Williams but this seems like Huntley’s job at this point. The Utes also have running back Zach Moss who has rushed for 740 yards and five touchdowns with 5.4 yards per carry. The Utes are ranked 40th in the S&P+ overall rankings.
Utah will have to slow down Tavares Martin Jr, the wide receiver the Cougs rely on the most. Martin Jr. has 8 touchdown receptions on the 2017 season. Falk looks for Martin in crunch situations, and Falk himself has thrown for 2,913 yards and 26 touchdowns with only eight interceptions. If the Wazzou offense is on top of its game this is an easy win. However, the point spread is 1.5 points in favor of the visiting Cougars.
Here are my three bold predictions for the Week 11 match-up.