Utah Football: Best, Worst, and Most Likely Scenarios 2023

Utah Football is no doubt looking to three-peat as kings of the PAC-12, but will it be too much given the tests that await in 2023?

Utah football enters the 2023 season looking for their third consecutive PAC-12 championship. The past couple of seasons have been the best the Utes have had in years under quarterback Cam Rising and the continuity of Kyle Whittingham as the man in charge.

The past two seasons have both ended on a disappointing note as the Utes fell short in the Rose Bowl game to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2021 season and to the Penn State Nittany Lions at the end of the 2022 season.

The PAC-12 will continue to look to prove that they can compete with some of these other conferences such as the Big Ten and the SEC on a national level, and this year may be the best chance they’ve had in recent memory to make a statement with a slew of impressive teams which includes Utah. Let’s take a look at what Utah’s journey will look like this season and what I see as the best, worst, and most likely outcomes.

Best Case Scenario

The Utes have the personnel to pull off the three-peat. They have a strong quarterback entering his final season, a strong defense relative to their competitors in the PAC-12, they are tough at home, and they are well-coached. They have Florida, UCLA, and Oregon at home. Season openers are scary, but the Utes should benefit from home-field in the opener against Florida.

If the Utes can get these home games, they will be in a good position to win at least nine games, and it will boil down to road games against USC, Washington, and Baylor. I see their record being 1-2 in these matchups, making their best-case scenario a 10-2 record. As this is an analysis of the best-case scenario, we will say 10-2 is good enough for a conference championship berth and give them the win. The best-case scenario is another conference title and a Rose Bowl appearance once again.

Worst Case Scenario

There are A LOT of games on this schedule, home field or not, that Utah could lose if they don’t play well. Florida, Baylor, USC, Oregon, UCLA, Oregon State, and Washington are all on the schedule and all are more than capable of beating Utah.

The Utes certainly won’t go 0-7 against this group of teams, but I am not going to rule out 7-5 and a trip to a run-of-the-mill bowl game as a possibility. That is the worst record I can envision, but there is a path for it, especially if they get off to a rocky start losing to Florida.

Most Likely Scenario

To my previous point, it will be very important for Utah to get these early matchups against Florida and Baylor. This can and will give the season some momentum and get the team playing with confidence. I am going to give them a loss to USC on the road, two out of three against Oregon, Washington, and UCLA, and a split between Florida and Baylor for a final record of 9-3.

Whether or not this record is strong enough to make it to the conference championship will depend on whether the top teams in the PAC-12 beat up on each other as they have in recent years due to the inability of anyone to emerge as a truly elite team, or whether a team or two will take the next step and finish with a record strong enough to be in the playoff conversation. USC is the team I can see being in that category, and I will be surprised if they are not in the conference title game. Aside from them, I don’t think it’s out of the question for a Utah team to get into the conference championship with only two conference losses, and if they can get to that game, you never know what can happen!