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Utah Football: 3 bold predictions for Pac-12 opener vs. USC

By David Harvey

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)
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) /
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Utah football will walk into the Coliseum on Friday night to face off against the USC Trojans. What kind of crazy predictions can we pull from this one?

This game will have serious implications on the Pac-12 hopes for the playoffs this season. In what looks like a breakout year, the Utah Utes come into this game ranked No. 10 in the country. Will their Achilles’ heel that is the USC Trojans bite them again this year?

USC suffered a loss to BYU last week that severely derailed their hopes of this season. It was a nail-biter that ended in a 30-27 loss to the Cougars.

Utah actually faced BYU in the Holy War rivalry in week one and came away with a stellar 31-10 victory. While the common foe factor isn’t always relevant, the disparity in point differential might be the reason why the Utes are favored by 3.5 points on the road.

The other reason for the spread could be the injury to USC quarterback, JT Daniels. The back up Kedon Slovis has played admirably in his place, but his 5-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio is glaring. Utah’s defense has four turnovers entering this game and two of those were interceptions that were returned for touchdowns.

The Pac-12 South appears to be a two team race with every other team being on a slightly lower tier outside of maybe Arizona State. So, the team that finishes on top in this one will likely be the team representing the South at the end of the season. Let’s get into these bold predictions.

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