Utah Football: 3 teams the Utes will blow out in 2021

Not many coaches in college football get overlooked quite as much as Utah football’s Kyle Whittingham, but that’s just the reality of coaching in Salt Lake City.

Utah coaches are often overlooked — unless your name is Urban Meyer — and Whittingham’s 134-66 record in 16-plus years deserves more respect. He’s coming off a 3-2 season and, once again, he and the Utes are being overlooked in the Pac-12.

The Utes are bringing in one of the best quarterbacks from the transfer portal in Baylor’s Charlie Brewer along with LSU running back Chris Curry and Oklahoma back TJ Pledger. The offense improved tenfold, on paper, from its 53rd overall ranking last season.

This should lead to some blowout wins. Who could the Utes blow out in 2021?

Note: I decided to choose just one non-conference opponent and limited it to only FBS teams.

San Diego State is usually one of the better Group of Five teams and has given Power Five teams trouble in the past, but I don’t see the Aztecs pulling off an early-season upset against Utah.

The Utes should be rolling to start the season and coming off a win over BYU, they’ll have no problem dismantling a San Diego State team that went just 4-4 in 2020 and is projected to finish somewhere in the middle of the Mountain West this year.

The Aztecs are starting a brand new quarterback and have major question marks on the offensive line, the receiving corps, and in the defensive backfield.

It’s going to be tough to replicate 2020’s defensive success with three new defensive back starters and the offense which ranked 97th last season will probably slightly improve. This game shouldn’t be all that close as Charlie Brewer could have a field day against a new secondary.