Confronting the reasons why this is probably not gonna be the comfortable blowout that I would love to see:
--We all know the preponderance of these contests coming down to one-score games.
--We'll have a ton of fans there, I expect, but the Utes will still have home field advantage.
--Their D was rated as among the best in the nation, and they'll be healthier than they have been during their 4-game slide.
--Whittingham is a very good coach--one who has largely had BYU's number over the course of a very long career at Utah. They'll be ready with something designed to take away our strengths, poke at our weaknesses, and create turnovers and chaos for our O.
All of that suggests a competitive game. OTOH
--Utah's O has struggled to put up points. Sans Rising, they simply haven't scored much. They'll be starting either a true freshman backup QB who is not large in stature or a 3rd string dude with almost no live game snaps--the ones he did get quickly led to an INT that helped result in a loss to last place Houston. They'll run the ball, look for Kuithe, and attempt to hit us with tricks up their sleeves for the big play. It could work. It hasn't in over a month.
--BYU has an excellent defensive staff who also happens to know Utah and its head coach very, very well. We are well-rounded, athletic, and hit the QB. For the first time in a while, we are capable of confusing the opposition with scheme and tactics.
--Our O is multi-faceted. We've beaten good teams and won tough road games. Utah at Utah will be different but not that different for many of our key dudes.
If we get up multiple scores early, it puts a lot of pressure on the Utah O. The dam could possibly break for them on both sides of the ball. I'm tempted to go all in with that scenario but can't quite pull the trigger. I expect that we're gonna have to battle for 3 or more quarters, but ultimately we win out.
BYU 27 Utah 17