By now you've all read the Week 0 Opponent Watch, which was pretty flattering to Utah and rated them a "Fear Level: 8". Well, below are some reasons to be optimistic about our chances against Utah. Please feel free to add to the list.

• Utah is 1-3 at home in conference play in each of the past two seasons, which suggests their home field advantage may not be as big as some other programs'.

• Our defense held Utah to 2.2 ypc last year (81 yds), and we return a lot of starters from that side of the ball. We also held them to 172 non-garbage time passing yards. Where we shit the bed was turning the ball over 5 times. This staff will not permit such a travesty!

• Really for the first time since Henne, we will have a (probable) starting QB who is NOT turnover-prone. The value in that is immesurable (I mean, it IS measurable, but it's been so long since we've had one that I've forgotten how to measure it). 

• The Opponent Watch column pointed out that Utah was 9-4 last year, with 3 of their 4 losses to then-top 15 teams. HOWEVER, they were also a mere 12 points from having a 5-7 record. They had some very narrow wins, including: UCLA (by 2), USC (by 3), Stanford (by 3), and Colorado (by 4). Wins are wins, but it wasn't a dominating 9-4 record they put together. 

• Peppers. He wasn't active for this game last year. This year, he will return one to the house. The kid is just incredible and he's the best athlete we've had in this program since Charles (Denard included). Call me a homer if you want to (but watch his film again before you do). When the game is over, I'll be the homer braggin about having made this prediction!

• HARBAUGH is a natural born warrior and leader. The only profession for guys like him 1,000 years ago was waging war. Luckily for humanity, there are more constructive, less deadly jobs now for guys like him to focus their talents on: