Washington State Football: 3 Bold Predictions for Cougs vs Utah

2. Tyler Huntley Struggles

Tyler Huntley, the sophomore quarterback from Florida, has come alive for the Utes. Huntley stands at 6-foot-1 and a mere 190 pounds, not exactly a physically imposing presence in red, black and white.

Huntley though has the athleticism Kyle Whittingham prefers. Whittingham worked under Ohio State Head Coach Urban Meyer when he was running the inside zone read option with Alex Smith back at Utah when he rose up the draft charts with his performances in 2003 and 2004. We know Huntley is in good hands as a quarterback for Coach Whittingham but the Wazzou defense led by Defensive Coordinator Alex Grinch will be a lot to handle.

Huntley struggled against the Arizona State Sun Devils who are ranked the 100th defense by the S&P+. He threw four interceptions in that game.

Huntley looked average against a struggling Oregon Ducks team whose offense can’t move the ball enough to keep their defense fresh and off the field. The Ducks’ defense is playing well but has slipped to 71st in the S&P+ Huntley threw for only 6.8 yards per attempt against the Ducks and only ran for 2.9 yards per carry. He did throw two touchdowns but they lost to a Ducks team that’s struggling mightily without Justin Herbert at quarterback.

With all that said, Huntley will have a tall task trying to out-duel Luke Falk and the Washington State offense while trying to out play the 16th ranked Cougars defense. Utah’s 49th ranked offense will be no match for Alex Grinch’s aggressive squad and he’ll throw one touchdown, two interceptions, and his running ability will be negligible against the sacks Wazzou comes up with.