I always give BYU a chance to win, and especially against Utah.

However, trying to be objective, I don't even agree it's the smart money bet this year. Utah lost their starting QB, RB, and best two receivers. Their offense stands a good chance of being even more anemic than it was in the bowl game.

Using the bowl game for comparison, BYU did everything they could at the start to give away that game, and still almost came back to win it. With a freshman QB, and without our top RBs. This year's team has a proven, senior QB, a proven senior RB, and a very deep o-line. Sure, BYU is implementing a new offensive scheme, but if you're going to do that, these are the right guys to make it work.

Looking at Utah's defense, they are always pretty good. But BYU moved pretty well against them last year (after the first quarter), and I expect this year's team to do a little better. Their weakest spot is at linebacker, and that will work right into BYU's offensive skill set. BYU will score points.

So, what about Utah's Offense against the BYU defense? Again, going back to the bowl game, they didn't do much. I don't know if Williams is a better QB than senior Wilson, but I suspect he won't be in his first two games. If the BYU defense plays Utah merely as well as they did in the bowl game, I think BYU wins this easily.

Oh, home field really hasn't mattered much in these games. I think this has more to do with mental preparation than where the game is played. I like Bronco a lot, but I always thought he had the wrong attitude about this game. I don't see that with Sitake, and I know Detmer sees it the right way.

My "smart money" is on BYU winning this, and not in a nail-biter either. I think they win by 10 points.