Friday Fast Facts

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Friday Fast Facts – Utah Week

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Leading off … 

— “T.I.P.S” … Our weekly preview postings are available for your review and comment. My weekly written preview, along with my predictions for CU’s Big Noon Kickoff game against Utah can be found here. The CU at the Game Podcast Review/Preview, looking back at the Texas Tech game, and previewing the Utah game, can be found at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify … and … the podcast can also be found here.

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The Big Picture …

— Big Noon Kickoff … The Fox Saturday Big Noon Kickoff Show is returning to Boulder for the first time in the 2024 season (Fox will set up on Farrand Field. Gates open at 6:00 a.m., program runs from 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m., MT). Fox has had the Big Noon Kickoff show since 2019, with CU making its first appearance on the road against TCU in the 2023 season opener.

This will be the seventh time the Buffs have had a featured game on the BNK (already tied, in just two seasons of national prominence, with Oklahoma and Michigan for fourth on the all-time appearances list, with only Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State having more featured gams), and the fourth time CU has hosted the show (tied with Penn State for third; only Ohio State and Michigan has hosted the show more often than CU). CU, by the way, is 5-1 in games with the Big Noon Show in town, with the only loss coming with the home game against USC last September;

— A perfect dozen … Earlier this week, Fox chose the CU at Kansas game next weekend for its 1:30 p.m., MT, national broadcast. With the CU/Oklahoma State game (Black Friday in Boulder, a 10:00 a.m., MT, kickoff) having been preselected as an ABC telecast this summer, all 12 of CU’s regular season games will be shown on national television (six by Fox, three on ESPN, one each for ABC, CBS and NBC). This makes the University of Colorado the only program in the country to have all 12 of its regulars season games shown on a national network.

• For some perspective on the influence of Coach Prime, the national championship CU team in 1990 played before a national television audience … seven times;
• The 2022 CU team, which finished 1-11, losing by an average of 29 points per game, played on the Pac-12 Networks … seven times.

— No more sell outs?  … The Utah game was not, as of Thursday, an official sell out, with, by my count, fewer than 100 (expensive) seats available (check out seat map here).

To date, 19 of CU’s 21 games in the Coach Prime era have been sold out, but the final three games may not reach that status. Utah is the closest, but the last two? Not so much …

• The Kansas game most definitely will not be sold out. The game is at Arrowhead, and there will be thousands, if not tens of thousands, empty seats. Check out the seat map here;
• The Oklahoma State game, at 10:00 a.m., MT, on Black Friday, is also far from a sell out. The seat map still shows several thousand empty seats in Folsom.

— The ESPN Power Index … continues to like Colorado. Last weekend, the ESPN Power Index gave CU a 63.3% chance of winning, with the Red Raiders getting a 36.7% chance. This weekend, the Buffs are given a straight up 75% chance of victory;

— Relevant late … Colorado has a 6-2 record overall, 4-1 in Big 12 play. The last time Colorado was second in a conference without divisions? That would be November 18, 1995;

— The game will be telecast nationally by Fox, with Gus Johnson on the play-by-play, former CU quarterback Joel Klatt on the color, with Jenny Taft on the sidelines. 850 KOA radio will have Mark Johnson with the play-by-play, and former CU head coach Gary Barnett as the analyst.

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CU & Utah … on the field … 

— This will be the 70th meeting between the two schools, in a series which dates back to 1903. With last year’s victory in Salt Lake City, Utah took a 35-32-3 lead in the series;

— The 70 games in the series is the fifth-most games for any CU opponent, behind only CSU (93); Missouri (75); Nebraska (73); and Kansas (which will be at 71 after next weekend).  The 32 wins by the Buffs over the Utes are the fifth most over any Division I/FBS program, behind only Colorado State (69), Iowa State (49), Kansas State (45) and Kansas (42), and are sixth overall when including the defunct series with Colorado Mines (36);

— Colorado won the first three games in the series, winning the games played between 1903-05 by a combined score of 101-11. Utah’s best run in the series came between 1925-33, when the Utes ran off nine straight wins. CU had a nice run of its own, winning eight of the ten games between 1951 and 1962 before the rivalry went dormant;

— Utah won four of the first five meetings after the pair joined the Pac-12, with the Buffs breaking a four-game losing streak with a 27-22 win in 2016. Since then, it’s been seven more victories for the Utes.

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Colorado and Utah … historical … 

— In the 12 statistical categories tracked by Winsipedia, Utah leads Colorado in only three of 12 categories … though they are significant;

— In all-time winning percentage, the Utes inched past the Buffs in the past few years. Utah has a .595 winning percentage (723-487-31), which is 31st on the all-time list. With the decade-plus long drought in Boulder, Colorado has slipped to a .570 wining percentage (730-546-36), good enough for 45th on the all-time list;

— The other category in which Utah has a lead is in bowl winning percentage. Colorado has a losing record in bowl games (12-18), while Utah has the fourth-best bowl winning percentages in the nation (17-8);

Otherwise, however, Colorado has significant advantages, including:

— Weeks in the Associated Press poll: CU, 311 … Utah, 181;

— Consensus All-Americans: CU, 32 … Utah, 12;

— NFL draft picks: CU, 276 … Utah, 177; and

— National championships and Heisman trophy winners: CU, 1 each … Utah, 0 in both categories.

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Stats Worth Noting …

— Utah couldn’t be more of a “typical” CU opponent. check out these numbers. Averages nine games into the 2024 season:

• Average rushing yards allowed per game, CU opponents: 150.7 yards/game … Utah’s rushing average yards per game: 150.4 yards/game;
• Average passing yards allowed per game, CU opponents: 216.6 yards/game … Utah’s passing average yards per game: 212.4
• Average total yards allowed per game, CU opponents: 367.2 yards/game … Utah’s total yards per game: 362.9

— With CU’s three-game winning streak, Coach Prime has brought his overall record to 11-10. CU did start 3-0 under Coach Prime, but hasn’t been above .500 since being 4-4 last season. Noteworthy … Bill McCartney won his second game as CU’s head coach, raising his record to 1-1. Coach Mac didn’t hit .500 again until midway through the 1989 season, his eighth season in Boulder;

— CU’s 23-17 loss to Utah was the closest the Buffs have been to beating the Utes since the win in 2016. Between 2017 and 2022, Utah beat Colorado by an average score of 40-15.

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Player Notes …

— This week, Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter were named as semifinalists for both the Maxwell Award (best all-around player) and the Walter Camp Award (college football player of the year). They are the only two from the same team for the Maxwell, and one of only three schools to have two for the Walter Camp Award;

— Hunter is also a semifinalist for Bednarik Award (defensive player of the year), the first player since Manti Teo to be a semifinalist for both the Maxwell and Bednarik Awards;

— Hard for Hunter to get stats … at least on defense. In 271 passing plays, Hunter’s receivers have only been targeted 27 times. In five games, Hunter has been targeted on two plays plays or less (including against Texas Tech last weekend);

— Jordan Seaton’s overall 68.6 grade on Pro Football Focus through nine games as a true freshman is better than any season grade turned in by a CU offensive lineman in 2023 (and there were 12 of them).

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Big 12 Notes …

— Three Big 12 teams ranked … BYU (No. 7); Colorado (No. 18); and Kansas State (No. 19) are the only Big 12 teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 this week.

In the second College Football Rankings of the 2024 season, the Big 12 rankings are: No. 6 BYU; No. 16 Kansas State; and No. 17 Colorado;

— Revisiting the Big 12 preseason media poll … Conference records for the top and bottom 5:

Top 5  in the preseason poll: Utah, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Arizona: 20-26; K-State is the only one with a winning record;
Bottom 5 in the preseason poll: Baylor, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, Arizona State: 30-15; four of the five have winning records;

— Big 12 games …

From DraftKings.com …

Friday, November 15th

• Houston at Arizona … 8:15 p.m., MT, FS1 … Arizona is a 1.0-point home favorite … down from 2.0-points on Sunday …

Saturday, November 16th

• Utah at No. 18 Colorado … 10:00 a.m., MT, Fox … Colorado is a 11.5-point home favorite … up from being a 9.5-point favorite on Sunday …
• Baylor at West Virginia … 2:00 p.m., MT, ESPN2 … West Virginia is a 2.5-point home underdog … up from 1.5-points on Sunday …
• Arizona State at No. 20 Kansas State … 5:00 p.m., MT, ESPN2 … Kansas State is a 8.0-point home favorite … up from 7.5-points on Sunday …
• Cincinnati at Iowa State … 6:00 p.m., MT, Fox … Iowa State is a 9.5-point home favorite … up from 7.5-points on Sunday …
• Kansas at No. 7 BYU … 8:15 p.m., MT, ESPN … BYU is a 2.5-point home favorite … down from 3.5-points on Sunday …
• … On a bye week … Oklahoma State, UCF, Texas Tech, and Houston …

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This post, about the Utah game, from the 2024 Season, is filed under Article.
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