Utah Football: 3 keys to victory vs. USC Trojans in Week 4
By Dante Pryor
3. The run game is impressive
The ground game is the foundation of everything Utah wants to do on offense. They want to stay on schedule. That is, they don’t want to be second and third-and-long. The Utes want to be the opposite, second and third-and-short. This opens the playbook for Utah and offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig.
The key to their run game is two-fold: The offensive line and Zack Moss.
The offensive line won’t get mistaken for the athletic line they have in Oregon, but the Utes have girth and strength. They are professional road graters. They are physical and attack defensive linemen. Their goal is simple, keep the runner clean to get to the second level of defenses. So far so good, the Utah offense is averaging 226 yards and 5.6 yards per carry on the ground.
The bell-cow of course is Moss, and he’s been on a tear since coming back from his season-ending injury a year ago. His 57 carries are 40 more than the next leading rushers (17 for Tyler Huntley and Jordan Wilmore). He’s averaging around 120 yards per game so far this season, and he’ll need every one of them against the Trojans.