Game Day Preview, Score Prediction For Iowa State Vs Utah Football

Nov 23, 2024, 11:11 AM | Updated: 11:33 am

KSL Sports

SALT LAKE CITY—It’s Senior Day for Kyle Whittingham’s Utah football program. The Utes welcome Matt Campbell and his Iowa State Cyclones football program to Rice Eccles Stadium for a primetime kickoff.

This year has not been what Utah had hoped for, but they will look to play spoiler against the Cyclones tonight.

The game on Saturday will be the sixth game in the all-time series against the Cyclones and the first since 2010.

Good morning Utah‼️ 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐲‼️

🆚 Iowa State
🏟️ Rice-Eccles Stadium
⏰ 5:30PM MT
📺 FOX
📻 ESPN 700 AM / 92.1 FM#GoUtes pic.twitter.com/iT11DcluWp

— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) November 23, 2024

However, the Cyclones present a tough challenge and will require a significant effort on both sides of the ball.

Iowa State vs Utah

Television: FOX

Streaming: Fubo, YouTube TV

Radio: ESPN 700 AM / 92.1 FM

Iowa State vs Utah Records

Records: Iowa State 8-2, 5-2; Utah 4-6, 1-6

Last Week: Iowa State 34-17 win over Cincinnati; Utah loss to Colorado 49-24

Series History: Iowa State holds the all-time advantage 4-1, but the Utes have the last victory, which came in Ames in 2010.

Three Game Day Thoughts

1. Senior Day

Utah will recognize and honor a large group of seniors today, many of whom contributed to Utah’s successes over the last four seasons.

Senior Day provides a moment for players, their families, teammates, and coaches to reflect on their journey, celebrate their accomplishments, and bid farewell to a fanbase and sport that has played a significant role in their lives.

Celebrating this group of seniors is particularly special, given the successes and adversity this group, in particular, has experienced. During their time here, they experienced the highs of winning back-to-back Pac-12 championships, the difficulties of a worldwide pandemic, and the tragic lows of losing two teammates in less than a year. This group has been through a lot.

Utah will honor their fallen teammates Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe today, which figures to be a rather emotional experience. The program will also honor at least 24 football players during Saturday’s Senior Day game: Cole Becker, Micah Bernard, Luke Bottari, Jack Bouwmeester, Josh Calvert, Van Fillinger, David Fotu, Alaka’i Gilman, JT Greep, Nick Howe, Falcon Kaumatule, Johnny Maea, Shinatro Mann, Munir McClain, Connor O’Toole, Money Parks, Karene Reid, Dorian Singer, Miki Suguturaga, Junior Tafuna, Zemaiah Vaughn, and Charlie Vincent will all walk in the program’s pregame ceremony

2. Getting a look at the future

It’s been a difficult year for many reasons, most notably the injuries this program has experienced. Utah is on a six-game losing streak for the first time since 2013. For the second-straight season, Utah has lost numerous players players to season-ending injuries. It’s played a big role in the team’s struggles this season.

At the same time, over the last few weeks, it’s also provided a glimpse at the future. More young players are getting greater opportunities than they had in the past. That’s important as Utah will look to hit the reset button this offseason and rebuild this team into a conference title contender.

Receivers Zacharyus Williams and Daidren Zipperer have played more snaps of late. Defensive ends Paul Fitzgerald and John Henry Daley received more playing time last week. Along the offensive line, Solatoa Moea’i and Keith Olson have either had to step up or in Olson’s case, be counted on to step up today.

More and more young players are getting opportunities that are valuable for the future.

3. Utah’s hand-painted helmets

The Polynesian culture is very prominent within the Utah football program. Former Utah offensive lineman and assistant coach Isaac Asiata shared additional context about the helmet.

The helmet was painted by Armando Villarreal, who has done a great job with these helmets over the years. However, the incredible Polynesian artwork on the helmet was designed by renowned Samoan Tattoo Artist, Fred Frost.

These helmets are the culmination of a lot of people’s hard work. Isaac Asiata played an important role in its development. Fred Frost provided the Polynesian artwork and designs. Equipment manager Bo Bates helped piece it all together.

𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲. 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲.

A deeper look into the design process of this year’s hand painted helmet. @AVStudios pic.twitter.com/CDb3FpSsnA

— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) November 23, 2024

Two Questions For The Iowa State-Utah Game

1. Can the Utah offense take advantage of a good ‘on paper’ matchup?

On paper, this is actually a fairly promising matchup for Utah. Iowa State is a very good program; they play a disciplined brand of ball and rarely beat themselves.

However, they are not a defense that generates a lot of pressure on quarterbacks. They have only tallied 12.0 sacks on the season and have one of the lower pressure rates in the conference. The offensive line has to do its job, but if it can, it should provide Utah’s quarterback with time to find opportunities.

The Cyclones are also a heavy zone coverage defense, playing zone nearly 65% of their coverage snaps. Utah has struggled against man coverage defenses, so if Iowa State remains in zone, the passing game could find success.

They are also near the bottom of the league in terms of rushing yards allowed. Utah’s rushing attack has struggled to find traction as the offense has bogged down. If Utah can find success throwing the ball, that should help the run game generate production.

Again, on paper, this is a good matchup for Utah, it’s all about going out and executing.

2. Defensive havoc?

Utah’s defense has been more disruptive the last two weeks. However, it’s also given up a few too many big plays.

The Iowa State offense features two proven commodities at receiver. Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins are two of the most productive receivers in the Big 12. Noel leads the Cycles with 935 yards, while Higgins leads the team with 68 receptions and 7 touchdowns.

Iowa State wants to run the ball as well. They have three running backs that have rushed for at least 300 yards— Carson Handsen has 503 rushing yards, Abu Sama III has 449 yards, and Jaylon Jackson has 341 rushing yards.

Utah matches up well with this Cyclones offense. If they can control the line of scrimmage and generate pressure on Rocco Becht, like they’ve been able to the last couple of weeks, that could lead to more defensive havoc plays.

Score Prediction for Iowa State vs Utah

Utah finds early success on offense and the defense plays tough throughout the game. Iowa State will make this difficult but Utah finds motivation from Senior Day to make the plays to get the win.

Utah 24, Iowa State 23