Utes still need road toughness

Ute football coach Kyle Whittingham said it again this week – he was greatly impressed by Notre Dame.

All of it.

I see nothing wrong with being gracious in defeat. However, his remarks after the game and again this week make me think the Utes were indeed a bit awed by the Notre Dame experience. Considering the Utes have defeated Alabama, Georgia Tech, Pitt, Oregon and Texas A&M in recent years, you’d think they could have avoided being starstruck in South Bend. On the other hand, last weekend’s game was at Notre Dame, not at home or on a neutral field.

In the Whittingham era, the Utes are 3-5 against BCS conference teams while playing at their opponents’ home field.

Which means when they join the Pac-10, they’ll likely have to get a lot tougher on the road if they intend to contend.

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Most years, you look at the football schedule and predict which games will likely be wins and which will be losses. Usually the results turn out to be considerably different. But this year for the Cougars and Utes, it has been pretty close to the script.

For instance, everyone knew Utah had an easy schedule early in the season, but things would get tough in the latter part of the year. Guess what happened? Now it’s November and the Utes are on a two-game losing streak. Meanwhile, BYU’s strong early schedule was daunting, but the end was mostly cake. Sure enough, after losing four of their first five games, the Cougars have won four of the last five. With hapless New Mexico coming up this week, things look good for a five-of-six run, going into the Utah game.

Meanwhile, the Utes still have to get past San Diego State this week – a job that won’t be easy.

Utah probably shouldn’t have gone undefeated through its first eight games, though none was considered un-winnable before the season began. And BYU probably shouldn’t have lost to Utah State and maybe Air Force in the early going. But overall, both teams have played to expectations.

Maybe football prognosticating isn’t as tough as it seems.