Utah went 8-5 last year with their backup QB playing the whole season, who was not good. It’s easy to see why the returning production + returning starter at QB would create high expectations for this year.

Then they lose their starting QB again and have to play a true freshman who isn’t close to being ready. Despite that, they’ve only lost one game and it wasn’t really a bad loss. They were down 6 points with ten minutes to go against Arizona.

I can see why a voter could rationalize putting Utah higher than they necessarily should because they think Utah is still a good team who will get their starting QB back for their next game.