College football 2021: Predictions for Power Five, plus AAC, title games

Pac-12 Championship Game

Matchup: No. 17 Utah (9-3) vs. No. 10 Oregon (10-2)
Time/TV: Friday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC
Location: Allegiant Stadium (Las Vegas, Nev.)
Spread: Utah -2.5

Another game that is a rematch of a regular-season matchup is the Pac-12 title game. Only this game happened as recently as two weeks ago. Utah destroyed Oregon 38-7 in Salt Lake City which ultimately ended the Ducks’ playoff hopes. Oregon should be looking to get revenge.

The Ducks will need to put that loss in the rearview mirror and focus on the new task at hand. They get to play on a neutral field this time around which should help them compared to last time. I definitely don’t think this one will be a blowout.

Like I said, it’s tough to beat a team twice in the same year as you study and learn your opponent’s weaknesses so you can look to exploit them. I do think this rematch will be much closer and could go down to the wire.

With that being said, I’m picking the Utes to once again defeat Oregon. I just think Utah has totally turned a corner since the beginning of the season and is playing as well as anybody in the country. Since making Cameron Rising the starting quarterback, Utah has been a completely different team. Running back Tavion Thomas has also come on strong as of late and is now fifth in the country in rushing touchdowns. He had three against Oregon a few weeks ago and will be looking to do the same this Friday night.

If Oregon wants to have any chance to win this game, they’ll need to keep Utah’s offense off the field and capitalize on third-down stops. That was what killed them last game as Utah went 11-for-14 on third-down conversions.

Anthony Brown, of course, will also have to play better as he was very inefficient in that last game. He completed only 48 percent of his passes versus this Utah defense two weeks ago. That number has got to go up if they want to compete.

Lastly, Oregon has been a great running team all year long but could not get anything going on the ground last time against Utah. Their longest rush of the game in that one was 13 yards and they only had 63 total rushing yards on 23 carries. It’s no secret that Oregon will have to play a whole lot better in order to beat Utah this time. And what worries me personally is that I don’t think they’ve had enough time to improve and work on those things.

Again, it has only been two weeks since that game and I just don’t think that’s enough to put the Ducks over the top on the Utes.

My prediction: Utah wins 24-16