It'll be impossible to replace first-round draft pick like Devin Lloyd, the Swish Army Knife that was Britain Covey, or the offensive line production from the likes of Bamidele Olaseni and Nick Ford overnight. But even with those major losses, the Utes enter the 2022 season with a lot of potential. ESPN’s Bill Connelly calculates the Utes bringing back 66% of last year’s production, with 71% returning to the offense and 61% returning to the defense. They added some transfer portal talent like Mohamoud Diabate who joins the Utes for his senior season by way of Florida. Highly touted freshman Lander Barton comes in as a 4 star recruit who can make an immediate impacrt. Utah has previously struggled to keep pace and remain consistent is on the offense but they have Cam Rising back behind center, a 1,100+ yard rusher in Tavion Thomas there to control the ground game, dynamic tight end duo Dalton Kincaid and Brant Kuithe, and continuity at offensive coordinator with Adam Ludwig in his 3rd year.

The Utes have 3 big games on their schedule Florida, USC, and Oregon. They open the year at Florida, which will be a big game. Florida is still one of the most respected names in college football and if the Utes can open the season with a road win against a big-name SEC foe that will go a long way in cementing Utah’s position as a CFP contender and would be a huge step toward a 9 win season. USC has to come to Salt Lake City on October 15th. Then they have a bye week following the Trojan game, giving Utah a fairly evenly split schedule of seven games to five games post-bye. The other big game will be the trip to Autzen on November 19th at Oregon which will most likely be their toughest game of the year. We like their chances to win all 3 of those games and think they are at the very least live to win in each of those games. Even if they do lose all 3 of those games however, they would still finish with 9 wins.

If they can pick off just one of those 3 games then they have another loss to play with in Pac 12 action. This is a Utah team loaded with talent and potential with an elite coach in Kyle Whittingham. We really like them to go over 8.5 wins and think the juice could continue to rise on this bet so we are going to lock some in at -140.