Like I said, I wouldn't be surprised at all if this team goes 5-7. This is going to be a growing year. Maybe Bentley is the spark that keeps us in the hunt for the South, but Utah's built on defense and running game, and both of those are going to take steps back. Moss was a master at breaking tackles. Whoever is running this year won't be as good as him. The OL should be better, but I still expect a step back. And last year's defense was very good. I'm expecting a below-average (for Utah) defense this year. That may end up being a slightly above-average NCAA defense, but not as good as normally. That's going to cost us some games.

The schedule is a little easier than last year, mostly because of coaching changes (no more Peterson or Leach) and changing home and away (USC, BYU, and UW in Salt Lake instead of all on the road), but we have one more Pac-12 road trip than last year (CU, Cal, WSU, UCLA and ASU) plus @Wyoming (why, Chris Hill? WHY??).

So I expect CU, UW and especially WSU to all be worse than last year. I expect UCLA and USC to be better, but I've been expecting that for a few years and their coaching staffs haven't delivered. I expect Arizona to be bad again and ASU to be better than last year. I expect BYU to be better than last year. I expect to beat Wyoming no matter how good they are this year.

I would rank Utah's schedule, from hardest to easiest, as follows:

1- USC (coaching sucks but talent is excellent)
2- UW (sure, new coach, but they're still going to be good)
3- BYU (I think you guys should be in the hunt for 10 wins if Kalani and his staff don't screw it up)
4- @Cal (I think they'll improve if their QB stays healthy)
5- @ASU (I think ASU is always a tough game, and it's on the road and their QB is going to be improved)
6- @UCLA (they can't be bad under Chip forever)
7- OR ST (I think OR ST is going to be vastly improved over last year too)
8- @WSU (I won't be surprised if they collapse for a couple of years while Rolly gets his system installed)
9- Arizona (coaching stability is the only thing putting them ahead of CU)
10- @CU (they're not going to be good)
11- @Wyoming (stupid Pokes)
12- MT ST

I could see us losing any of the games above 10, and we could easily go 2-7 in those games and end 5-7.