Michigan -6.5 vs. Utah

Hope you don't mind a little perspective from a Utah point of view before Saturday's game.  Sadly, we won't be coming to Ann Arbor this year.  We'll definitely miss being able to interact and tailgate with some of the best fans in college football.

This year's team has a lot of questions that certainly haven't been answered in games against Idaho State and Fresno State.  One major difference this year is the presence of a quality backup QB behind Travis Wilson in Kendall Thompson.  Wilson has been impressive so far against poor opposition.  Michigan will be the first game that Travis has played beyond the first series of the second half so Thompson has gotten plenty of reps. 

Wilson was injured for much of last year managing to injure this throwing hand not once, not twice but three times against  Stanford.  Additionally Wilson is helped by the return of Kenneth Scott at WR who's presence doesn't allow opponents to double Dres Anderson as they did last year.  Scott suffered a broken ankle on the first series of the first game last year.  RB is handled by by Bubba Poole and Devonte Booker.  Poole is solid but not the fastest and Booker is very fast but has put the ball on the ground in practices and scrimmages.  All in all, Booker is the better back but the coaches trust Poole more so look for him to get the majority of the carries.  The O-line seems unremarkable but fairly solid on the left but inexperienced on the right side.  Look for TE Westlee Tonga to have a fair amount of blocking responsibility virtually always being asked to chip an end before going out on his route.

Nate Orchard is the guy to watch on defense.  So far this year he has lined up at DE, OLB and ILB when Utah has run a 4-3-4.  Typically they will run a 4-2-5 in part because the PAC-12 runs a lot of spread but also because they are paper thin at LB.  Gionni Paul will see his first action of the year following a stress fracture in his foot but Utah loses Jason Whittingham at LB to a dislocated left wrist.  The secondary is inexperienced and could be a liability.  Utah's defense relies heavily on the secondary locking down the WRs while pressure comes from every which direction. 

Special teams are interesting this year.  Tom Hackett handles the punting.  He will occasionally drop a conventional punt but specializes in the rugby punt.  Interestingly enough,  Hackett can punt with either foot giving him the ability to roll either way o kick.  He leads the nation at 51 yards per punt with one punt return for one yard.  Kicker Andy Phillips is a bit of interesting story as he took up kicking in spring of 2013 as a way to keep in shape after retiring from the US Ski Team.  His knock last year was short kickoffs but so far this year I can only think of one or two kicks that have been returned.  His range for FGs is about 50-55 yards but inside that range he is extremely accurate.  Watch for Kaelin Clay on returns.  He has run back a kick and a punt for a TD (again, however, against a dis-spirited ISU team) and is no doubt the fastest player on the team.

Hopefully this gives a bit of insight to what you can expect on Saturday.  Again, sorry we will miss the great experience that is the Big House.  We are definitely looking forward to Michigan making the trip to Salt Lake City next year.  Best of luck to both teams for a good, competitve, clean game with no injuries.