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We are now through two weeks of the college football season, and we are ready to do it again in week three. The college football season has been a ton of fun already as we have already seen a lot of upsets and we have learned a lot about teams across the country. Contenders are beginning to present themselves, and we have already seen pretenders fall flat (sorry Florida State). So much has happened in just a couple of weeks, and week three is sure to provide more excitement. One interesting game that is taking place this week is a rivalry battle between the Utah football team and Utah State.
Week three is almost here, but this will be the fourth week of games as we did have a week zero this year that had a mini slate. Week one and week two have provided some great matchups, but week three is a little bit slim. Utah vs. Utah State isn't one of the top games of the week, but it is a rivalry matchup, and because of that, it should end up being a good watch.
ESPN’s College GameDay goes to the best game every week, and they will be at LSU vs. South Carolina for week three. A lot of people would argue that there are better matchups out there, but that will be a good one. Missouri-Boston College is one of just two matchups featuring two ranked teams. The other one will take place on Friday night as Arizona and Kansas State will square off in a crucial Big 12 game.
One good one to watch this weekend will be taking place in Madison, Wisconsin as Alabama will hit the road to take on the Badgers. There is also another intriguing rivalry game for former Pac-12 teams as Oregon will battle Oregon State. Now that these teams aren't in the same conference anymore, they have to change their rivalry week.
Other notable matchups include Notre Dame at Purdue and Georgia at Kentucky. There are some decent matchups, but it is a pretty slim week. Conference play begins in week four for most teams, so this is the calm before the storm. However, weeks like this are sometimes the ones that produce the most chaos.
This Utah-Utah State game has the potential to be a good one. Anything can happen in a rivalry game, and this one could especially get interesting because of Utah quarterback Cam Rising's injury. The Utes are expected to win big, but this one could be closer than people think. Before we get into matchup predictions, let's look at where each team is at heading into this big game.
Utah football will likely be without Cam Rising
The biggest storyline heading into this matchup is that the Utah football team will likely be without quarterback Cam Rising. Rising missed all of last year after an ACL injury, and he is now dealing with a hand injury after an awkward fall in last week's win against Baylor.
If Cam Rising is playing and fully healthy, this Utah football team is very good. However, when he is out, their offense completely changes. The Utes would've been a completely different football team last year if they had Rising. Their defense was legit, but they just couldn't score points.
So far this season, Utah is 2-0 as they have wins against Southern Utah and Baylor. The 12th ranked Utes took down Southern Utah 49-0 and Baylor 23-12.
The Baylor game was a prime example of how this offense changes with Rising out. The Utes jumped on the Bears early with two touchdown passes from Rising and it was 14-0 halfway through the first quarter. It was 23-0 in the second quarter when Rising came out of the game. Utah did not score for the rest of the game and they won 23-12.
This offense changes when Rising is out, and that is something to keep an eye on this weekend as it is unlikely that he plays.
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Utah State is 1-1
Utah State is playing a power five team for the second week in a row as they are coming off of a 48-0 loss against USC. The Aggies are obviously hoping for a better result this weekend as they are hoping to pull off the big upset.
The Aggies took down Robert Morris in week one, 36-14. They definitely aren't quite on the level that Utah is at, but who knows, maybe an upset could be in store this week. Here are three predictions for the game:
Utah will not score 20 points
With Cam Rising likely out, the Utah football team is going to have a lot of trouble moving the football. The Utes just aren't the same football team when Rising is out. Utah State isn't very good and Utah has a very good defense, so they should be able to win the game, but the Aggies should be able to keep this one pretty close.
Micah Bernard will score two touchdowns
Utah running back Micah Bernard will need to have a big game on Saturday if the Utah football offense is going to find a groove. With Rising out, Bernard will likely get a lot of carries. So far this season, he has 24 for 151 yards, but he hasn't found the end zone yet. That is going to change on Saturday as he will run in a couple scores for the Utes.
Utah will win 18-6
We're going with a final score prediction here to end things, and it's going to be a unique one. There isn't going to be a lot of offense in this game, and we are going to see some drives stall out, resulting in a good amount of field goal attempts. The Utah defense is going to win them this game as they aren't going to score a lot of points and they aren't going to cover the spread.
Utah and Utah State will kickoff from Maverik Stadium in Logan, Utah at 4:30 PM ET/2:30 MT. The game will be airing on CBS Sports Network, and the Utes are favored by 18.5 points.
