This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Kyle Whittingham told his Utes before last week's upset, breakthrough, anomaly — whatever you call it — that they were no longer playing David vs. Goliath. This was two giants going at it.
Now he has what has recently been the unpleasant role of playing Goliath at home.
Then-unranked Stanford stunned then-No. 6 USC at the Coliseum in the Pac-12 opener, and a conference home team hadn't won a conference game this season until Saturday, when No. 24 Cal held on to deny Washington State, 34-28.
Mediocre as they looked at times, the Golden Bears earned just the 22nd host victory in 61 conference games since the start of 2014.
During the Pac-12 teleconference Tuesday, Stanford head coach David Shaw said he wasn't surprised by Utah's 62-20 victory in Eugene — the location no longer acting as the amplifier it once did.
"To us in the Pac-12, we're like, 'Hey, you know what? When Utah's hitting on all cylinders, they're extremely good,' " Shaw said.
Shaw's point wasn't that you can expect Utah to win by six touchdowns every week.
He meant that any Pac-12 team can beat any other Pac-12 team — even Oregon — by six touchdowns in a given week.
For whatever reason, of late, the spoils have gone to the visitors — who won in the first two weeks by an average of 21.7 points.
No. 10 Utah is 5-1 on the road since 2014 but failed to hold serve three times last year, including a stumble against the same WSU team that tested Cal on its home field.
Cal is peaking at the same time as Utah. As the Utes entered the AP top-10 for the first time since 2010, the Golden Bears were ranked for the first time in as long.
It's Cal's first 5-0 start since 2007, including the first time Cal has won in consecutive weeks on the road since 1993 — having had 27 opportunities in between. The Golden Bears went 2-2 last year in hostile territory, but they were within a score of taking USC to overtime at the Coliseum and an Anu Solomon Hail Mary away from nipping the Wildcats in Tucson.
Even Saturday, when it trailed by two touchdowns against a Washington State team still tainted by a loss to Portland State, Cal displayed some of the attributes that make it so dangerous.
That it outscored Washington State 28-7 in the final half and change was characteristic of its periodic dominance this season. Cal scored at least 24 unanswered points in each of its four preceding games.
And Utah will require a better plan to stop junior quarterback Jared Goff, a projected top-five pick in the NFL draft who broke Cal's record for touchdown passes in the two-and-a-half years since Utah and Cal last met.
Utah has never faced the "Bear Raid" offense led by Sonny Dykes, a more run-oriented take on Mike Leach's "Air Raid," which was popularized with Dykes' assistance at Texas Tech.
Goff has seven receivers back who had 20 or more catches in 2014 — compared to two for Utah — and junior wideout Kenny Lawler was unstoppable at times Saturday. He caught his seventh touchdown pass with one hand in the back corner of the end zone, returning to the same spot for a pirouette-grab and his eighth score of the season.
The book on Cal last year was that against its pass defense, every offense looked just as dynamic. They conceded 367 yards per game last season, but they're down to 250 even after the 389 yards that are typical for Logan product Luke Falk.
On defense, they pressure the passer (sacking Falk seven times after entering Saturday with a Pac-12-high 11) and they make you pay for mistakes (adding a Stefan McClure fumble recovery and Demariay Drew interception to what was already a nation-high 14 turnovers).
So even if comparing previous scorelines provides little reason to think Utah should be troubled on its homecoming, Cal boasts a high-octane, turnover-generating group that makes the most of momentum.
Add to that the recent road dominance, unexplained as it may be, and Utah might find itself wishing it held the stone next Saturday.
Twitter: @matthew_piper —
No. 24 California
at No. 10 Utah
P Saturday, 8 p.m.
TV • ESPN
Radio • ESPN 700