Utah Football: 5 takeaways from successful 2018 season

1. Tyler Huntley is extremely valuable

Is this really a surprise? The Utah Utes did find a way to win the Pac-12 South without Tyler Huntley as he suffered an injury that kept him out at the end of the year, giving way to redshirt freshman Jason Shelley, but the offense just didn’t look the same without him running the show.

On the year, Huntley finished with 1,762 yards and 12 touchdowns while cutting his interceptions down to six while missing the final five games. Imagine if he had played the remainder of the year — the Utes would have been able to muster more than three points in the Pac-12 title game against Washington and more than 20 in the bowl game against Northwestern.

Huntley is incredibly valuable and with him, we may be talking about a team that finished with 10-11 wins instead of one that fell short of 10.

Entering his senior season, the Utes have to be grateful to have an experienced passer back to teach Shelley for another year and run the offense, proving why he took over as a starter last year.

Would the Utes be at the top of the Pac-12 South without Huntley? Not likely, but luckily he was comfortable with the entire offense on his shoulders.