Utah Football Turning Focus To Improvement Ahead Of Matchup With Baylor Bears

SALT LAKE CITY – Head coach Kyle Whittingham and Utah Football turn their focus to week two and the Baylor Bears. This game will be a non-conference game but will also be Big 12 Homecoming weekend for the Utes and other members of the conference.

Week one provided Utah with a competitive environment to fine-tune execution before the competition increases in the coming weeks. The Utes scored 49 points while limiting the Thunderbirds to 0 on the scoreboard. They produced 513 yards total yards and gave up just 150 on the other side of the ball.

We’re on a bear hunt this 𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗞

🏟️: Rice-Eccles Stadium
⏰: 1:30PM MT
📺: FOX
📻: ESPN 700 AM / 92.1 FM#GoUtes pic.twitter.com/J8pjcqncIv

— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) September 2, 2024

More importantly, it was a good welcome back for Cam Rising, Brant Kuithe, and the rest of the squad but now Utah Football’s season truly begins.

Utah Football preparing tougher test against Baylor Bears

If Utah’s week one contest against SUU was the welcome-back party, week two against the Baylor Bears is the reality check. This will be a much tougher matchup but more importantly, will provide a better picture of Utah’s potential this season.

“Much bigger challenge this week, we understand that,” head coach Kyle Whittingham said. “Baylor is a good football team, they’ve got good personnel, and they’re extremely well-coached.”

“We have to prepare the right way all week long, just like we do every single week and be ready for a fight because that’s what it’s going to be.” Kyle Whittingham on the Baylor Bears

Quarterback Cam Rising had a pretty efficient performance in his return to action on Thursday. He also recognizes that this will be a more difficult contest but feels confident in the guys around him.

“I think they’re a very sound football team and I think they’re going to be (very improved) this year,” Rising said of the Bears. “It’s going to be a good game, we’ve just got to be ready to go for anything they bring at us.”

Utah needs more from the run game

This week will be much tougher competition. Utah has to maintain levels of efficiency & explosiveness while doing so against a better opponent. So, where can Utah make improvements going into week two?

“There were some things we could do better, as there is every single week,” Whittingham said. “I thought we ran the ball just ok. We had 185 yards rushing but we like to get that 5.0 yards a carry statistic and we were just shy of that.”

RELATED: Top Five Takeaways From Kyle Whittingham’s Utah vs Baylor Press Conference

Utah’s run game should play a bigger role in the formula to success this weekend. The Bears finished as one of the worst defenses in all of college football last season. That has led to Dave Aranda taking over defensive coordinator duties, which could lead to schematic changes. Utah may need to rely on the run game if that’s what the defense dictates. At the very least, there will be a need for balance on offense as they figure out how to best attack the Aranda-led defense.

“It was a throw-first game plan, I thought we ran the ball efficiently,” Andy Ludwig said. “Southern Utah was fully committed to stopping the run with 9-man boxes, which created a lot of 1-on-1’s which we were able to exploit.”

Still, Ludwig was encouraged by what he saw from the rushing attack, particularly from the specific components of it.

“I was pleased with Mike Mitchell, what he showed. Dijon Stanley out of the backfield whether as a receiver or running the ball, he did a lot of good things. I’ve got a lot of confidence in Micah Bernard, Charlie Vincent, and Jaylon Glover. And I think the offensive line is really going to be something special on this football team.”

Cleaning up mistakes, continue on a positive trajectory

Not only is there a desire for an improved run game there is also a desire to simply play cleaner football. The Utes had 6 penalties for 55 yards as well as two interceptions, two fumbles- which they recovered, and gave up 9 pressures in pass protection (only 2 on Rising).

“I think procedurally we could be better, we had a series where just kept going backward, kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” quarterback Cam Rising said. “Whenever you have that it’s just bad business, bad ball, and you can’t really have a successful drive when you’re doing that over & over. And then cleaning up a few protections to make sure we’ve got it as tight as we can get it would be great.”

Well deserved, @MonterrenParks! 🙌#GoUtes https://t.co/ALm2SjErkj

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) September 3, 2024

Eliminating self-inflicted mistakes is traditionally a significant part of a team’s improvement after week one. However, tightening up pass protections going into week two will be critical for Utah. Pass protection wasn’t bad against SUU but it could’ve been better and needs to be better against Baylor.

“I think we need improvement in every area,” Ludwig said. “I think I said at the conclusion of fall camp that I was confident in the direction of the offense and the improvement that we’ve shown but in no way are we comfortable. We had good work today and look forward to another day of work tomorrow.”

Utah Football Schedule

Utah will be back in action against the Baylor Bears for week two on Saturday.  You can find Utah football’s conference schedule here.

Steve Bartle is the Utah insider for KSL Sports. He hosts The Utah Blockcast (SUBSCRIBE) and appears on KSL Sports Zone to break down the Utes. You can follow him on X for the latest Utah updates and game analysis.

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