Utah is SIGNIFICANTLY better on Special Teams. That will help. Cal has not yet faced a Defensive front 7 like we have, and they will struggle to run against us. We have significantly upgraded our speed in the LB and Secondary, and that will help. Coach Pease doesn’t mix in the Corner/Safety/LB blitzes the way Sitake did, which takes away the hot reads that burned us so badly in the past (see WSU last year). Goff is a master at hitting those.
Cal’s defense is improved this year, but they also gave up 650 yds to Texas, which is almost as many yards as Texas has put up in its other three games COMBINED. I can’t wait to see what they and WSU do to each other this weekend.
If we stay on the Plus side of turnovers and contain their run game, and impose our run game and efficient passing game, we win this by 2 TDs. Even if Goff tears it up passing.