So to win that OSU game we would have had to play an almost perfect game.
When you look at overall recruiting rankings which really factor in 4/5 star players here is how Utah did against teams above them.
#3 best roster Ohio State 16 – 5 stars / 49 – 4 stars (48-45 L)
#9 Oregon 4 – 5 stars / 44 – 4 stars (38-10 and 38-7 wins)
#10 USC 2 – 5 stars / 44 – 4 stars (42-26 win)
#17 UW 2 – 5 stars / 34 – 4 stars (DNP)
#24 UCLA 0 – 5 stars / 21 – 4 stars (44-24 win)
#25 Stanford 0 – 5 stars / 21 – 4 stars (52-7) *difference came down to having less 3 stars than UCLA
#26 ASU 1 – 5 star / 21 – 4 stars (35-21) **difference comes down to overall player rating
#32 Utah 0 – 5 star / 17 4 stars
Source: https://247sports.com/Season/2021-Football/CollegeTeamTalentComposite/
So when you look at it 6 of our 10 wins this season came against teams ranked ahead of us. But those stupid trap games which we should win, those accounted for 3 of our 4 losses.