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BYU +7 OVER UTAH

NOVEMBER 2008

3* BYU +7 over Utah - Note that 7's are now available everywhere. You want to make sure you get the 7. On to the game. We can sum up why were are playing BYU right here in the first paragraph. At which point, we'll have to fill in some more space below to complete the write up. Rivalries like this one are what college football is all about. Games like this have a history of being close regardless of what kind of year either team is having. In this instance, you have two teams both having spectacular years with even more on the line in this game than usual.

10 of the last 11 in this series have been decided by a touchdown or less. Even more intriguing is that this BYU team has only lost two games out of their last 41 by more than a touchdown. Once last year to UCLA, a 10 point loss, and this years loss to TCU earlier in the year. Put another way. taking BYU +7 over their last 41 games, you'd be 37-2-2 against the spread. BOTH of the pushes were overtime losses. That's quite a testament to BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall. So really folks, 2 losses by more than a touchdown in 41 games, why not one more time in what is one of the biggest, if not the biggest game of the previous 41. Also note that the last two games in this series came down to the final minute.
 

The numbers support the play as well. Against common opponents Utah is 8-0 while BYU is 7-1. Yards per point numbers on the year are fairly even. Yards per point numbers against common opponents favor Utah slightly. There's no question the talent is there on both teams to win this game straight up. Under those circumstances, it's no secret where we want to be. Which is getting a touchdown.

Utah backers are going to point to the TCU game. Utah beat TCU 13-10 while BYU was hammered 32-7. But rather than make a judgment on this one based on one game, we choose to look at an entire body of work, as well as the history of the series and the BYU program in general over the last few years. We'd also point to a Utah game such as New Mexico. A game Utah won by just a field goal. Folks, New Mexico is not  very good football team. Or we can point to the Air Force game. BYU won convincingly over Air Force last week while Utah needed a touchdown with 58 seconds remaining to win their game with the Falcons.

We point out the above games just to illustrate that this is anyone's game. Utah has the home field edge as well as double revenge working for them, which is significant but also remember that Utah had previously win 4 in a row before BYU took the last two. It's been a streaky series. We'll take our chances with BYU in this spot.