Utes Look To Keep Bowl Hopes Alive at UCLA

One year ago in Utah's first Pac-12 season, many Ute fans were wondering if Utah would be able to make a bowl game after a (2-3) start to the season.  The team responded well and rallied to win five of their last seven games to reach (7-5) and continue their great postseason record.  One of those five wins last season was a 31-6 win over UCLA.

Today, the Utes are in a similar situation.  After another (2-3) start to the season, many fans are wondering if the Utes will be able to get to six wins with a much improved Pac-12 this season.  A road win over UCLA would be a great start to turning the season around to reach another bowl game.

Initially this game looked like it would be extremely difficult after the Bruins started the season (3-0) and were ranked No. 19 in the country.  Since then they have lost two of their last three, including a 43-17 blowout loss at Cal.  Confidence may be a bit higher for this game among Utah fans than it was a few weeks ago, but it will still be a very challenging road game.

Despite Losing to USC, The MUSS & Utah's Crowd Impressed

The end result of the highly anticipated Utah vs USC game isn't what we were looking for, but Utah fans did a great job showing the national ESPN audience what a great atmosphere we have at Rice-Eccles Stadium and how it is a tough place to play.  Here are some tweets about Utah's atmosphere from around the country from Thursday night's game:

Pac-12 Power Rankings: Week 6

The Pac-12 continues its dominance this season, with six teams currently ranked in the Top 25 in either the AP or USA Today Polls.  Two other teams, Arizona and Arizona State received votes putting two thirds of the conference on Top 25 Ballots.  Here is how The MUSS ranks the Pac-12:

UteZone Guess The Score: Arizona State

Hey MUSS Members, UteZone is giving away a free one year membership each week to the University of Utah student that best guesses the final score of the Utes game. UteZone.com is a site for the ultimate Ute fan, including recruiting updates, interviews, insider reports, practice reports and more!

To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment below guessing the score of the Utah at Arizona State game at 8 p.m. The closest to the final score will win a one-year UteZone membership. If there is a tie, the person who guessed first will win, so make sure your guess hasn't been chosen yet. This contest is limited to University of Utah students only and we'll announce the winner after the game.

Be sure to check out our preview for the Utes big Pac-12 South Division match-up against Arizona State, with stats and information to help you predict the game.

Utah Opens Pac-12 Play at Arizona State

Non-conference play is now behind us with Utah's dramatic win over BYU.  It's time to begin the race for the Pac-12 South, which may be easier than everyone expected with USC taking an early loss to Stanford.

Utah opens the Pac-12 schedule with a road game at Arizona State.  The Sun Devils surprised many with a good start to the season, despite having a new quarterback and head coach in Todd Graham. They opened the season with dominating wins over Northern Arizona and Illinois, winning each by an average of 44 points.  They are coming off a close loss at Missouri, falling 24-20 on the road.

Arizona State's strength this year has been their 24th ranked defense, allowing under 300 yards per game.  They have a dominant secondary that ranks No. 1 in the country in interceptions with seven in three games and ranks in the Top 10 in passing yards allowed.   Their biggest weakness on defense has been stopping the run, allowing 148.3 yards per game.

Pac-12 Power Rankings: Week 3

What a week for the Pac-12!  UCLA, Arizona and Oregon State had wins over Top 25 teams, which caused quite a bit of movement in our power rankings from last week.  The Pac-12 now has five teams ranked in the Top 25.  Here are our rankings for Week 3:

Utes Head North to Face Improved Aggies

The last time Utah played Utah State, it was an expected easy win as the Utes cruised to a 35-17 victory and the Aggies had their typical losing season, finishing (4-8).  That was just two years ago but things have changed in Logan.

Gary Anderson, the defensive coordinator for Utah's undefeated 2008 team, has built the Aggies into a winning team that can not only compete with, but win against successful programs.  Last year the Aggies made it to their first bowl game in over 10 years and finished with a (7-6) record.  They would have fished even higher if they could have held onto 4th quarter leads against Auburn, BYU, Colorado State and Ohio.

The Aggies are a much, much better football team than Ute fans are used to. They opened the season with a dominant 34-3 victory over Southern Utah. One week into the season they rank No. 13 in the country in total offense with 581 yards gained in their opener.

Pac-12 Power Rankings: Week 2

Each week we'll be posting Pac-12 Power Rankings from the MUSS Board. Included is the school's rank among the Pac-12, record and the average ranking given by MUSS Board members.  Here are the rankings for the second week of the season:

2012 Utah Football Season Preview

It's almost time MUSS.

The last play we saw of Utah Football was John White diving across the goal line on December 31st, 2011 to clinch a come from behind victory in the Sun Bowl over Georgia Tech.  We've patiently waited for eight months and now were just one week away from Utah's kickoff to the 2012 season on Thursday, August 30th at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The Utes have been hard at work addressing weaknesses to improve on their inaugural season in the Pac-12. They brought in a stellar class of new recruits, resigned coaches and improved depth across the board with months of hard work and practice.