Despite being a pedestrian 4-4 on the season, Utah remains one of the most underrated teams in college football as the Utes are only a few turnovers away from being 7-1 this season. Many bettors will shy away from backing Utah in light of its last two losses to Arizona and USC, but those defeats were on the road and the Utes are 3-2 ATS at home in 2013. Let’s not forget that Utah defeated No. 5 Stanford in its last home game, and the experts at Pro Edge Sports believe the Utes are live home underdogs on Saturday:
Utah Offense:
- Utah is averaging 31.1 points per game this season at 4.6 yards per rush play, 7.5 yards per pass attempt, 5.9 yards per play and 13.5 yards per point;
- Overall, the Utes are 0.4 yards per rush play, 0.7 yards per pass attempt, 0.5 yards per play and 0.9 yards per point better than average offensively in 2013;
- Moreover, the the Utes are averaging 40.4 points per game at home this season at 5.3 yards per rush play, 8.5 yards per pass play and 484 total yards (6.8 yards per play; 12.0 yards per point). It should not be lost on sports bettors that Utah possesses a very strong home field advantage due to the altitude factor, which ultimately wears opposing teams out.
Utah Defense:
- Utah is allowing 25.7 points per game on 3.5 yards per rush play, 7.4 yards per pass attempt and 5.2 yards per play.
- Overall, the Utes are 0.9 yards per rush play and 0.5 yards per play better than average defensively, while being 0.2 yards per pass play worse than average.
Let’s also note that Utah has outgained Utah State, Oregon State, BYU and UCLA 6.1 yards per play to 5.7 yards per play, which is extremely impressive in light of the fact that the foregoing teams combine to outgain their opponents by 0.9 yards per play. Utah is 52-30 ATS as underdogs since 1992, including 31-17 ATS as underdogs of 3.5 to 10 points.
Line of Scrimmage Summary – Utah Utes
- Utah is a very good 1.0 yards per play better than average from the line of scrimmage this season (0.5 yards per play better than average offensively and 0.5 yards per play better than average defensively).
The question is whether the Utes are good enough to compete with an Arizona State squad that is coming off three consecutive blowout wins over Colorado, Washington and Washington State. The Sun Devils are 1.5 yards per play better than average from the line of scrimmage (1.0 yards per play better than average offensively and 0.5 yards per play better than average defensively). However, Arizona State is yielding 33.3 points per game on the road at 11.2 yards per point, which indicates that the Sun Devils are susceptible to giving up the big play.
Pro Edge Sports would not be surprised if Utah wins this game outright. In short, getting a touchdown at home is completely unjustified in light of Utes’ talent on both sides of the ball.