Utah (4-3, 1-3) at Houston (2-5, 1-3)
- Kickoff: Saturday, 5 p.m. MDT
- Venue: TDECU Stadium
- TV: ESPN+ (streaming only)
- Livestream: espn.com/watch
- Radio: ESPN 700 AM/92.1 FM
- Series: Houston leads 4-0
- Weather: Mostly sunny with temperatures in the high 80s at kickoff, dropping to mid 70s by end of game.
The trends
For Utah: The Utes have dropped three consecutive games, with their latest defeat coming at the hands of TCU. The Horned Frogs beat the Utes 13-7 and held Utah to just 267 total yards as the offense struggled for the third straight contest.
For Houston: The Cougars picked up their first Big 12 win of the season with a 30-19 win over TCU, led by quarterback Zeon Chriss, but after Chriss left last week’s game against Kansas in the first quarter with an injury, Houston suffered a 42-14 defeat to the Jayhawks.
What to watch for
After last week’s 13-7 loss to TCU — Utah’s third loss in a row and its second time in three tries scoring less than 14 points — offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig resigned.
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham promoted offensive analyst and quarterbacks coach Mike Bajakian to interim offensive coordinator, and Bajakian will call the offense for the rest of the season.
Bajakian, a 29-year coaching veteran, arrived at Utah this summer with extensive offensive coordinator experience, including stints at Northwestern, Boston College and Cincinnati.
At Cincinnati, Bajakian helped engineer back-to-back 10-win seasons, scoring an average of 32.8 points per game, and maximizing tight end Travis Kelce’s role in the offense. In his last role at Northwestern, Bajakian’s offense never averaged more than 25 points per game.
Because of the midseason change, Bajakian won’t get to implement his offense, and instead will work out of Utah’s current playbook.
What will he try to change with Utah’s offense? He’ll have an emphasis on simplifying the offense and getting the ball in space to the Utes’ playmakers, along with running a little more of an uptempo offense than his predecessor.
If Utah can score even 21 points, it’ll be an improvement, and could put the Utes in a position to win if Houston’s offense struggles on Saturday night.
Key player
Zeon Chriss, Houston QB: It’s no secret that Houston’s offense has struggled this season. The Cougars are near the bottom in some of the major offensive categories, including ranking dead last in points per game (13.7) and No. 121 in total offense (303 yards per game).
After back-to-back shutout losses to open Big 12 play, something had to be done to spark the offense.
That’s why, two weeks ago, Houston coach Willie Fritz made the decision to bench starting quarterback Donovan Smith (867 yards, four touchdowns, eight interceptions this season) for Zeon Chriss.
The move paid off as Chriss threw for 141 yards and a score and ran for 97 yards and a touchdown, and importantly, did not turn the ball over in a 30-19 win over TCU. The Cougars stuck with Chriss for last week’s game against Kansas, but he left the game with an injury in the first quarter.
Chriss is expected to be back for Houston’s game against Utah, and he will try to turn around the Cougars’ offense against a tough Ute defense.
Quotable
“Very good on defense. You’ve got some good numbers on defense. Tough against run, tough against the pass. They’re kind of like us. They’re in the top three or four in the conference in pretty much every major defensive category.” — Utah coach Kyle Whittingham
“Well, they’ve always been a very physical team, fundamentally solid in everything they do. I’ve watched them a little bit over the years, probably get a chance to watch them once or twice a year in the past and that’s what I see out of them.” — Houston coach Willie Fritz
Next up
- Utah: Bye
- Houston: vs. Kansas State
Utah schedule
- Aug. 29: Utah 49, Southern Utah 0
- Sept. 7: Utah 23, Baylor 12
- Sept. 14: Utah 38, Utah State 21
- Sept. 21: Utah 22, Oklahoma State 19
- Sept. 28: Arizona 23, Utah 10.
- Oct. 5: Bye
- Oct. 11: Arizona State 27, Utah 19.
- Oct. 19: TCU 13, Utah 7.
- Oct. 26: at Houston (5 p.m., ESPN+)
- Nov. 2: Bye
- Nov. 9: BYU
- Nov. 16: at Colorado
- Nov. 23: Iowa State
- Nov. 29: at UCF (6 p.m., Fox)
All times Mountain time zone.