College Football Playoff: 5 dark horse contenders

Utah Utes

Let’s skip over the My Cousin Vinny references and talk about a team which has a tough challenge ahead of it. Aside from the usual suspects—USC, Oregon (even minus Marcus Mariota), Arizona—you have schools like UCLA and Stanford pulling themselves out of the doldrums. It’s going to be a close conference.

And yet Utah was really in the thick of it last season, even if they really couldn’t get out of their own way at times. They lost to Washington State by a point and No. 14 ranked Arizona State by two. They beat a top ten UCLA on the road and a top twenty USC at home. If they got decimated by Oregon, they weren’t alone as most Pac-12 teams got their heads handed to them by the Ducks.

Of their four losses, three were against ranked teams (that’s not horrible) but three of those four losses were home losses (that’s not optimal).

So the Utes need to find a way to win the close games, protect home field more effectively and take advantage of the fact that Oregon, Arizona and Arizona State all lost significant personnel, while neither USC nor UCLA look like they are quite ready to really be dominant.

A lot of that falls on the ground game, ranked fourth in the conference in total yards behind Oregon (now without Mariota, responsible for 770 of the 2055 yards on the ground in 2014), UCLA (now without Brett Hundley who ran for 644 yards out of the 1,916 total), and Washington (who didn’t have one 1,000 yard back nor anyone who ran for more than 700 yards).

Senior Devontae Booker was responsible for nearly all of the 1,539 yards the Utes had on the ground last year and his 10 touchdowns doubled what the next guy behind him (Travis Wilson) had. Unlike UCLA and Oregon, who were led by quarterbacks, Utah has a true workhorse back. And with Booker back, they shouldn’t miss a step.

Booker could very well carry them through a tough schedule and into the playoffs.

Next: Clemson