On Tuesday night, the Pac-12 released the 2016 football schedule of the entire conference, including Utah’s. The Utes will kick off the season with two consecutive in-state foes, including a Thursday night matchup with Southern Utah on Sept. 1 and then BYU the following week. They will finish up nonconference play with a trip to San Jose State on Sept. 17.
Utah begins Pac-12 play by hosting USC for its third home game in the first four contests to start its season. The Utes will have just three more games at Rice-Eccles Stadium after that bout with the Trojans — Arizona (Oct. 8), Washington (Oct. 29) and Oregon (Nov. 19). The Ducks, who the Utes beat 62-20 in Eugene this season, will be Utah’s final game in Salt Lake City.
The Utes finish off the season with four of their final six games on the road. They also again avoid playing 2015 Pac-12 champion Stanford again and Washington State for the second year in a row. Utah will finish the season against Rocky Mountain foe Colorado in Boulder on Nov. 26.
Twitter: @GriffDoug