Cal Football: Previewing the Bears' 2020 Opponents -- Game 4: Utah Utes

Could Cal's Pac-12 debut become its season opener if schedule is altered?

Photo by Kelvin Kuo, USA Today

It's becoming harder by the day to imagine 50,000 fans gathering at Memorial Stadium for a football game next fall. Gov. Gavin Newsom's comments on Saturday suggest we are not likely to have football as we know it in 2020.

Cal is currently scheduled to open its Pac-12 schedule against two-time defending South Division champion Utah on Sept. 26 at Berkeley. The Bears will have played non-conference games against UNLV, TCU and Cal Poly as warmups to conference action.

Will the Utah game even happen?

Or could the COVID-19 pandemic prompt massive changes in how the football season unfolds next fall?

Maybe a shortened schedule that eliminates all non-conference games and begins at the end of September -- or later -- strictly with conference games.

Maybe games played in empty stadiums, although we hardly see the point, given the loss of ticket revenue and fan experience. Seriously, by that time how hungry might we be to see a live sporting event once again? 

Or maybe there are creative compromises being discussed that will lead to an altogether different scenario.

(Previews on Cal's earlier 2020 Opponents: Game 1 UNLV, Game 2 TCU and Game 3 Cal Poly.)

In the meantime, while we wait and hope, here is our preview of the Utah Utes:

Game 4: Utah at Cal, Saturday, Sept. 26

Utah 2019 record: 11-3 overall, 8-1/1st in Pac-12 South

Series record: Even at 6-6. Utah won 35-0 last season at Salt Lake City as the Bears played without quarterbacks Chase Garbers and Devon Modster, both sidelined by injuries. Utah has won three of the past four meetings. The teams first played 100 years ago, on Oct. 23, 1920, when the Cal coach Andy Smith’s unbeaten Wonder Team prevailed 63-0, one of seven shutouts it posted in nine victories. Cal is 5-1 at home vs. Utah.

Utes coach: Kyle Whittingham is 131-64 in his 16th season at Utah. He is the longest-tenured coach in the Pac-12 and the third-longest tenured coach at the same school in FBS.

Top players: Junior TE Brant Kuithe (34 receptions, 602 yards, 6 touchdowns); junior WR/RS Britain Covey (redshirted in 2019); senior QB Jake Bentley (redshirted at South Carolina in 2019); senior LB Devin Lloyd (91 tackles, 6.5 sacks).

*** Jake Huntley passed for 7,385 yards at South Carolina before transferring to Utah.

Photo by Kim Klement, USA Today

Strengths: Utah is rebuilding on offense after the departure of quarterback Tyler Huntley (2,966 passing yards, 73% completion 18 touchdowns, 4 interceptions) and running back Zack Moss (1,359 rushing yards, 15 touchdowns), who helped the team score 30 points or more 10 times. Even so, the Utes think they can again field a potent offense. Grad transfer Jake Bentley passed for 7,385 yards and 54 touchdowns in his first three seasons at South Carolina before suffering a season-ending foot in the 2019 season opener. He will battle sophomore Texas transfer Cam Rising for the starting job. . . . The Utes return much of their receiving corps, including second-team All-Pac-12 tight end Brant Kuithe and wideout Britain Covey, who will be back after playing just four games in 2019 before redshirting due to lingering effects of a knee injury he sustained in the 2018 Pac-12 title game. Before being hurt, he led the Utes in 2018 with 60 receptions and was the All-Pac-12 return specialist. . . . Four starters return on the offensive line.

Weaknesses: This is more of a big question mark flashing in bright neon than a definite weakness, because Utah has been so good defensively in recent seasons. But the Utes, who boasted the Pac-12’s toughest defense last season, lost nine starters, including five who were first-team all-conference selections, and their entire secondary. The only returning starters are end Mike Tafua and linebacker Devin Lloyd. Lloyd led the team with 91 tackles last fall. The returning defensive players listed as backups on the Utes’ final 2019 two-deep chart have just 18 career starts among them. . . . Four-star DB recruit Clark Phillips III, the program’s highest-rated recruit ever, enrolled early but was deprived of much of valuable spring practice. . . . There are questions at running back, where Moss carried so much of the load. Returnees Devin Brumfield and Jordan Wilmore combined for 457 rushing yards, but neither has been the focal point.

What you should know about Utah: The Utes have played in a bowl game six straight seasons, winning the first four of those but losing the past two. . . . Utah was 11-1, ranked No. 5 in the AP Top-25 and on the cusp of securing a spot in the College Football Playoff last season before falling 37-15 to Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game, then 38-10 to Texas in the Alamo Bowl. “It was a very disappointing ending to a very good season,” Whittingham said. . . . Utah’s 27-player 2020 recruiting class was ranked 29th-best in the country by 247Sports and No. 5 in the Pac-12. Seven of the signees were rated as four-star prospects.

Spring practice status: The Utes began spring workouts on March 2 but managed just three practice sessions before spring break, followed by the COVID-19 shutdown. The program’s Red-White game was supposed to be happen on April 11.

*** Cal coach Justin Wilcox, in the video below, talked after last year's 35-0 loss at Utah, suggesting a game like that "makes you want to throw up."

2020 Season projection: The Utes are the two-time Pac-12 South champions, but USC, Arizona State and others are gearing up and Utah has a lot of holes to fill. Athlon Sports projects the Utes to finish third in the South and the Mercury News pegs them fourth in the division. Utah must overcome a disappointing end to the 2019 campaign where it lost its final two games by a combined score of 72-25. On the other hand, Whittingham’s Utes have won at least nine games in five of the past six seasons, so underestimate them at your own peril.

Cal-Utah game prediction: Cal 27, Utah 24