Saturday college football and we will see the Fresno State Bulldogs take on the Utah Utes at Rice- Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah. The game has a start time of 3:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on the Pac-12 Network. Current Vegas odds have the Utes listed as 10.5 point favorites, while the total is set at 64.  

Analysis: The Fresno State Bulldogs had an impressive 11-2 season last year and that includes beating Utah State in the MWC Title game. The Las Vegas Bowl was not kind to the as they lost by 25 points to USC. This year QB Derek Carr is gone, but this team still rates as the favorite to represent the West Division in the MWC Title game. Last week they took on a powerful USC squad and just didn’t really have a chance at the pulling the upset, as they fell behind 21-0 in the first quarter before falling 52-13. In the game their offense struggled as it was expected to now that Derek Carr is off to the NFL. What wasn’t expected to struggle was this defense, but they did in allowing 701 yards to the Trojans, including 277 yards on the ground.  

The Utah Utes went 4-5 in the Pac-12 in their first year in conference, but have gone backwards since, winning 3 in 2012 and 2 last year.  This year they have 53 lettermen back, including 12 starters, but still a tough schedule may keep them from attaining a bowl game this year. The Utes began their quest to make it back to a bowl game with an easy 56-14 win over FSC foe Idaho State. They Utes had issues on offense last year, but not in this game as they racked up 589 yards overall, including 238 yards on the ground. They also averaged 5.2 yp and made 8 of their 14 third down conversions. Travis Wilson had a very nice game, hitting 13 of 18 passes for 265 yards, while Tre Anderson led the team in receiving yards with 111 and Devontae Booker led them in rushing with 78 yards and also had another 61 yards receiving.

Pick:  The Utes are an improved team this year and could surprise some in the Pac-12. Fresno State had a rough opening game vs USC and it showed that they will miss QB Carr this year. The defense struggled last year and looked no better in the loss to USC, while the Utes put up plenty on FCS foe Idaho State (56 points) Utah is clearly the better team here and a team on the rise, while Fresno State is heading the other way. The Utes are 3-0 ATS in their last 3 meetings with Fresno State as Rice- Eccles Stadium and I look for that trend to continue here. 

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