Waco, Texas • On paper, some might consider it a mismatch.
The No. 12-ranked Utah football team, two-time defending Pac-12 champions coming off a dismantling of SEC blue-blood Florida in its opener, taking on Baylor, losers of five straight games overall dating back to last season, including an embarrassing Week 1 defeat at the hands of Texas State, a Sun Belt program with the second-most roster turnover in the nation, behind only Colorado.
Kyle Whittingham has zero use for “on paper,” though, heading into Saturday’s matchup at McLane Stadium.
“We don’t expect to see the same team on Saturday that we see on tape in that game,” the Utes’ head coach said. “They’ll fix things — they’ve got good coaches, and they will get the ship corrected.”
To his point, it’s not as though the Bears are some hopelessly overwhelmed pushover.
Baylor still racked up more than 500 yards of offense, outgaining Texas State by better than 80 for the game. Where things went wrong was in red-zone efficiency — Baylor scored only two touchdowns in five trips to the red zone, while Texas State was three for three.
Meanwhile, it’s not as though the Utes had a flawless performance against the Gators.
They acknowledged throughout the week that there are a few areas they need to clean up.
Offensively, Utah was not especially prolific.
“We were a little dull at times, but I feel like when we were dull, it was because [of] just the lack of execution,” said the Utes’ Bryson Barnes. “Especially being a quarterback, you definitely kind of take that upon yourself to be able to get that spark in the team, and be able to get the momentum rolling.”
Whittingham pointed to the Utes amassing only 105 yards on the ground, and averaging just 3.5 yards per carry. While acknowledging that milking the clock late and taking a few kneel-downs at the very end had the cumulative effect of making the stats look worse than perhaps they really were, he maintained that the performance “still wasn’t up to our standards.”
While praising the overall job that the offensive line did, noting that they didn’t allow a sack, he said he’d like to see them be more physical in the run game going forward. He added that bell-cow running back Ja’Quinden Jackson having a nagging injury flare up and limit him to only five carries didn’t help.
As for the passing attack, while injured quarterback Cam Rising went through his first week of practice with no restrictions, his availability against the Bears seems dubious, considering offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig called recent scholarship recipient Barnes “our guy right now.”
Though the two-headed monster of Barnes and electric runner Nate Johnson helped keep Florida off-balance, Ludwig said he wasn’t particularly happy with the job he did rotating them in and out.
“It can be more efficient, I can be more efficient in terms of orchestrating it, the when and the why with it,” he said. “But I thought the quarterbacks did an outstanding job of handling it. It’s not easy for a quarterback to be in the flow, get yanked, another guy comes in, and things like that. So I need to manage it better.”
Defensively, Utah had a pretty strong showing vs. the Gators, limiting them to just 1 for 13 on third-down conversions, with that lone success not coming until the fourth quarter.
Still, while their propensity for making big plays in key moments served them well, they were vulnerable at times to surrendering yardage, particularly on some big chunk plays.
“Single-digit missed tackles were a big positive, red-zone defense was a huge positive, third-down defense, huge positive — [but] too many yards in between, you know what I mean?” said defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley.
Lest this all sound overly negative, don’t get it wrong — Utah had a very good showing in the 24-11 win over Florida, and will have some decided advantages Saturday against Baylor.
For one thing, the Bears will be without their starting QB, as Blake Shapen was injured in Week 1, and backup Sawyer Robertson will get the nod.
Meanwhile, none of Baylor’s offensive linemen had started for the Bears before last week, and they frequently looked out of sorts against Texas State, surrendering constant pressure that translated into yielding five sacks.
Considering that the Utes amassed five sacks vs. Florida and held the Gators to just 13 rushing yards despite missing three starters on the defensive line and having the fourth, Van Fillinger, playing limited snaps on account of recovering from both a foot injury and a bout of mono that limited him doing the final three weeks of fall camp, they have to like their chances of controlling the line of scrimmage.
“I thought we were really assignment-sound and I thought we fired off the ball and were physical and we played our game,” said Fillinger. “We hold ourselves to a standard and a culture here.”
Jonah Elliss had two sacks in the game, and Logan Fano also had a strong performance. If the Utes can get top edge rusher Connor O’Toole healthy, plus either or both of their top defensive tackles available, it stands to reason they can make it a long day for the Baylor offense.
“If we can get Junior Tafuna back, that gives us even more push inside to not allow the quarterback a place to step up into the pocket. So it all works hand in hand,” said Whittingham.
Utah’s coordinators are also well-versed in Baylor’s schemes.
Scalley has a good handle on the Bears’ offense, considering the coordinator on the opposing sideline, Jeff Grimes, spent a handful of years directing BYU’s attack.
Meanwhile, Ludwig has a good handle on what Baylor likes to do defensively; even though it has a new coordinator, the system is largely the creation of head coach Dave Aranda — whom Ludwig got to know well during their time together at Wisconsin.
Regardless, the Utes know that whatever perceived advantages they have, none of it matters if they don’t make it happen on the field.
They’re not focusing on how they beat Florida, they’re not focusing on how Baylor got worked by Texas State.
And they’re definitely not focusing on how Saturday’s game carries with it the subplot of being an intriguing preview of what will be, in the future, an intra-conference matchup, with the Utes set to join the Big 12.
“No, that hasn’t even entered into my thought process and hopefully not our guys’ [either],” said Whittingham. “It’s just another game that we’ve got to get ready for, and nothing really outside of that. Just get ready for the Baylor Bears, regardless of what conference they’re in.”
For now, that’s just another detail that only matters on paper.
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