Fearless Football Predictions

The football schedules are out for BYU and Utah, which naturally means it’s time to make predictions.

Mine is that Bronco Mendenhall will use the terms “manifest” and “invested” over 100 times.

That’s does it for my predictions.

OK, a few more. BYU will go 10-2 and Utah 9-3.

Yeah, I know, that’s pretty rosy for a pair of teams that lost a lot of talent.

On the other hand, everyone has their warts, not to mention the absence of key players.

The Cougars will drop their opener against Oklahoma (surprise!), but then come Tulane and Florida State. Tulane won just two games last year. Enough said. Florida State is on NCAA probation. Besides, the game is in Provo.

BYU should roll past Colorado State, Utah State, UNLV, San Diego State, Wyoming, New Mexico and Air Force. The questions are TCU and Utah, both of whom the Cougars play at home. I’m figuring BYU will win one of the two. OK, I’m going further than that: TCU will beat the Cougars, based on speed again, but Utah will lose, based on the law of averages, completing a 10-2 regular season run for BYU.

Utah will go 9-3, with losses coming at Oregon (10-3 last year), TCU (the game is in Fort Worth) and BYU. The Utes will have gained enough experience to beat Louisville at home in the fourth game of the year.

BYU is positioned slightly better going into the season than Utah, thanks to the veteran leadership at quarterback. Max Hall had some bad moments at the end of last year, but with Dennis Pitta and Harvey Unga back, even with an inexperience line, I don’t see the Cougars falling terribly far, even minus Austin Collie.

The Mountain West just isn’t that tough.

Utah has some fine players back, too, but the losses of Louie Sakoda, Brian Johnson and Paul Kruger – arguably the team’s best players – are too much to dismiss. It will cost the Utes at least three games.