Utah 30, Utah State 26: Chuckie Keeton the better player, Travis Wilson gets the win

There are the times you can be totally outplayed for the majority of the game by a quarterback who looked totally unstoppable, then eek out a win regardless.

It looked like another nightmare season was in the making for Utah.  Utah State went right back to the formula that worked last year, spread out the Utes, and battered them to death. Utah State lost most of their offensive weapons, but they didn't lose Chuckie Keeton, and he was the maestro for most of the game. Keeton completed over three-fourths of his passes and broke more tackles than his running back probably did.

Travis Wilson did just enough. With Utah's offense slogging through mud  for most of the third quarter. Wilson aired it out, and he showed that his physical ability can be just enough to manage an offense. The tight end who happens to be a quarterback launched that football up in the air for passes of 51, 30, 35, 56, 22, 26 yards. Those big plays led to the five Utah scores that put the Utes ahead, negating the efficient precision of the Aggie spread and shred.

Despite Wilson's success, they needed a lot of help from Utah State. The Aggies committed two 15-yard penalties to keep their early drives alive. Utah State turned the burners off in the third quarter and left the door open for the Utes to get going. And Utah created their own luck with an incredibly well-placed onside kick.

Utah is far from a complete team. For a twenty-five minute stretch during the second and third quarters, the Utes showed almost no signs of life on either the offensive (six possessions of nothing) or defensive (would you like to be Chuckie Football, Mr. Keeton, why yes you would!) sides of the field.

But Utah would probably rather have the win right now and fix everything else over the next week and a half, and accept bizarre wins rather than deserved losses.

Welcome back college football. We've missed you.