College Football 2019: Top 5 games with playoff implications in Week 4

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SALT LAKE CITY, UT – OCTOBER 7: Head coach of the Utah Utes Kyle Whittingham talk to his players during the first half of an college football game against the Stanford Cardinal on October 7, 2017 at Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images) /

4. Utah at USC (Sept. 20 at 9 p.m. ET – FS1)

Who knows what’s going on with USC? Maybe Stanford is just really bad after getting smoked in back to back weeks, or maybe USC is just a really good home team after losing in overtime on the road to BYU. Either way, the Trojans are talented and this is no cakewalk for Utah.

The Utes are perhaps the last hope for the Pac-12 already. Washington put up a dud against Cal, which has happened for the second year in a row now, and Oregon is playing catchup after its loss to Auburn in Week 1. USC hasn’t been able to catch fire after the quarterback change and Chip Kelly has yet to get things rolling at UCLA. But Utah keeps quietly chugging along.

This game against USC is the biggest contest of the year for Utah to this point. It may sound tired, but USC has loads of talent and that alone will force Utah to work for it. USC is a wildcard already, and this is a road game for the Utes. If they’re able to pull out this win it’ll be incredibly impressive considering the factors. Utah also has a home ranked matchup against Washington State next week that poses as a potential distraction.

We also have another potential transitive property discussion here. Utah beat BYU down while BYU went to overtime to squeak out a win against USC. You can determine for yourself whether that’s worth anything, but it’s a comparison nonetheless.

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