My early Football Win-Loss Prediction

[Wilson’s Mustache]

Aug. 30 Weber State – W
Sep. 8 @ NIU – W
Sep. 15 Washington – L
Sep. 22 BYE
Sep. 29 @ Washington State – W
Oct. 6 @ Stanford – L
Oct. 12 Arizona – L
Oct. 20 USC – W
Oct. 26 @ UCLA – L
Nov. 3 @ Arizona State – W
Nov. 10 Oregon – W
Nov. 17 @ Colorado – W
Nov. 24 BYU – W

I think this team will be very talented, but ultimately I believe the schedule will be too much. They play the top three teams in the North (Washington, Stanford, Oregon), have two Friday night game and two swings of back to back road games. I have us losing both our Friday night games and UCLA as our head scratcher as I have a feeling they’re going to be pretty bad.

8-4 Overall Record (5-4) Pac-12, (3-2) South Division

[TheJuggernaut]

I agree with all of those except UCLA, and I’d probably switch USC to an L and Arizona to a W. We go 9-3 (6-3), maybe play in the Sun Bowl, maybe the San Francisco Bowl, and in 2019 we give up Oregon for Oregon St and Stanford for Cal, giving us a(nother) golden opportunity to win the South.

[Wilson’s Mustache]

Yeah, I definitely can see us beating UCLA, but I feel like there’s going to be one gimme win that we lose this year and I really feel like its going to be UCLA.

[TheJuggernaut]

Agree, although if I had to pick a game we lose that we should win I’d say ASU.

[Chidojuan]

Except they won’t be stealing signals again this year, and Manny Wilkins had a nightmare of a night when they couldn’t steal signals.

[EagleMountainUte]

EXTREMELY valid point. Makes you wonder if Todd Graham auctioned off Utah’s signals though. Kelly did that against Utah I think as well. 

[Tony (admin)]

So are we going to be back on our 1 WTF loss and 1 WTF win this season?

[snafu]

Do we have any early afternoon home games? If so, those are the ones we lose. Those are our kryptonite for some reason. 

[Chidojuan]

Probably, but only the first three games have kickoff times announced.

[Distantute]

UCLA is going to be good this year. Arguably the best coach in college coupled with a team that recruited very well the past few years. They will be much better than people think.

[Chidojuan]

I don’t doubt he’ll right the ship and make them south competitors, but he’ll have a break in period like all coaches.  Best coach is definitely arguable.  He’s good, but better than Dabo Swinney?  Kirby Smart?  Nick Saban?  Jim Harbaugh?  Chris Petersen?  Also, the Huskies were a shadow of the current team when he coached in the North, and in the South, USC was in the middle of scholarship sanctions and bad publicity.  Of course, any good coach would take advantage of this.  Utah trying to take advantage of a transition year in the South this year is a great example.  He’s definitely a great coach, but the best?  Also, UCLA is still having quarterback issues and their horrible rush defense won’t be easy to fix.  I think it takes a year or two for UCLA to beat Utah, let alone contend for the South.

[EagleMountainUte]

This will be fun to watch him fall on his face. fUCLA ain’t no NikeU they recruit well but somehow always live in the shadow of a better school. 

[KiYi-Ute]

I think a lot of what made Kelly’s Oregon teams so good was the fact that they were running tempo when nobody else was. Now that tempo offenses are much more common, especially in the PAC, I don’t expect it to be nearly as effective. You won’t see him running up 40, 50, 60+ points on P5 competition. The times have changed, defenses have adjusted and are conditioned to keep up with the offensive tempo.

Those tempo offenses also take some time to instill. It will be a whole new offensive scheme to what UCLA has run in the past. Even if he does work his offensive genius, there will be a break-in period and the results will not be immediate.

[EagleMountainUte]

Washington fUCLA and Zona will be wins. Hard for me to disagree with the rest. Pac12 will be left out in the cold again. 

[Matthew Thomas Castleton]

I think Utah goes either 10-2 or 11-1 if they stay healthy. They’re that talented. Hell, a bunch of their losses last year were in close games that they realistically could have won (USC, Stanford, Washington State, Washington). ALL of those were close losses, and wins there would have made their 6-6 season a 10-2 season. Utah’s going to be better this year than they were last year, and our Pac-12 South competition is not as good as it was last year. If they are going to ever win the Pac-12 South, this is the year for them to do it. Their defense looks STACKED. Their offensive talent looks REALLY, REALLY GOOD. Their special teams is simply UNBELIEVABLE. They have FOUR VETERAN RETURNING STARTERS ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE. Utah’s going to have a special year this year. If they beat Washington on September 15th, Utah’s going to break through.