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‘College GameDay’ crew touts Utah’s toughness, resilience, and talent ahead of Oregon game

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‘College GameDay’ crew touts Utah’s toughness, resilience, and talent ahead of Oregon game


This week marks the fifth time that “ESPN College GameDay” comes to Salt Lake City for a University of Utah football game, and the second time that host Rece Davis has appeared as part of a show here.

But his history with the city actually goes back much longer.

“My first trip here was actually for the 1997 NBA Finals — I was hosting the NBA Finals as an ESPN radio host, so I was here for not for the one where Michael Jordan cheated, where he pushed [Bryon Russell] and the offensive foul should’ve been called, but I was here for the Jordan flu game,” Davis said Friday morning from President’s Circle on the U.’s campus.

Clearly, he knows how to play to an audience, as was further evidenced by him invoking a unique conversation he once had with then-Jazz star Karl Malone.

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The Mailman at some point made an offer that’s stuck with him.

“Karl asked me to go pig hunting with him — like, shoot them from a helicopter,” Davis recalled. “I haven’t gone yet, but it actually sounds like fun, even though I’m not a hunter. I probably need that thrill in my life, hanging out of a helicopter and shooting at feral hogs.”

Told he could now go pig farming with Utes quarterback Bryson Barnes instead, Davis laughed.

“I could, yeah! That sounds like less fun,” he replied. “That sounds like harder work.”

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) College GameDay personality Rece Davis speaks with reporters at the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

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Davis, analyst Desmond Howard, and the rest of the GameDay are indeed here for work, which on this occasion happens to be previewing Saturday afternoon’s matchup between Utah and Oregon at Rice-Eccles Stadium — a game that figures to have significant Pac-12 implications.

On the day before the game, though, Davis and Howard braved the chilly conditions outside to provide their insights on both the action to come and on the Utes’ season as a whole to this point, while NFL punter-turned-personality Pat McAfee hosted his show a few hundred feet away — an oddball spectacle that featured myriad Utes-related guests, plus the revelation of Utah’s helmets for Saturday’s game, as well as the celebrity guest prediction-maker for ESPN’s broadcast.

Howard said he enjoys following Utah because its head coach’s mentality and approach means that the team will usually have a chance to be really good.

“This is one of those programs that I personally like, just because I like Kyle Whittingham,” Howard said. “I like his style. I’m an old-school type of dude and he’s old-school type of coach. So I respect the physicality that they bring to the gridiron. So I’m more than excited to watch these guys tussle with Oregon tomorrow.”

Davis said the Utes are consistently good because the coaching staff is not only adept at recognizing talent, but perhaps even better at maximizing it. He said he appreciated that so many standout Utes players wind up excelling at positions different than what they were originally recruited as.

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“They do a great job of evaluation, they do a great job of putting people into roles. I’ve grown very, very weary of the overused word ‘culture’ — I wish I could think of a better one that applies here,” he said. “But there’s a real camaraderie and for-the-good-of-the-team spirit here that I think allows people that, when players go down to injury, or when they’ve had to sit for a year or two, waiting their turn, that they are ready to step into the role. And I think that has served them very well.”

It’s not just about mentality, though.

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) College GameDay personality Kirk Herbstreit takes a photograph with a fan at the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

They both acknowledge that Utah has some legit talent.

Howard called Jonah Elliss “one of the best defensive ends in all college football … you’ve got to account for guys like that.” Both were intrigued by the addition of safety Sione Vaki to the offense and the spark that he’s brought the past few weeks.

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And both are incredibly impressed with the job Barnes has done stepping up of late after being thrown into a tough position with Cam Rising redshirting (and probably Brandon Rose, too).

Davis was asked if he’s surprised by the Utes’ 6-1 record when they’re playing a guy at quarterback who began the season as a non-scholarship player.

“I shouldn’t be, but probably a little bit, to be honest. Especially when he struggled in the early part of the season,” he said. “But I said last week that after they had that [USC] game in hand and sort of let it get away, with the fourth quarter and punt return and turnover, that most teams would come apart, [get] frustrated, or [have] some anxiety that would surface. … And yet, he came out there calm and made plays, made that huge run, showed extraordinary toughness, which sort of epitomizes this entire program.”

Howard added that it’s natural to be “kind of skeptical” of an offense that’s playing without its star quarterback, while noting that the Utes are also missing a top weapon as well in tight end Brant Kuithe, who’s been ruled out for the season.

But he said the toughness instilled by Whittingham has helped keep Utah’s season afloat.

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“Listen, this is gonna be a four-quarter brawl. This game won’t be over in the second quarter, it won’t be over in the third quarter,” Howard said. “You understand no matter what the score is, no matter what’s happening, that Utah’s still gonna come at you with all they got, which is why you respect them so much.”

The addition of Vaki on offense hasn’t hurt, either.

As for what kind of attention the two-way star might be getting nationally if he keeps up the type of production he’s displayed against Cal and USC, well, the 1991 Heisman Trophy winner said there’s probably not much chance of Vaki getting in that conversation, as his offensive exploits began so late in the season, but with some attention-grabbing plays over the next few weeks, he thinks Vaki could at least get some analysts to start mentioning him in the conversation.

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) College GameDay personality Desmond Howard speaks with reporters at the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

“In my opinion, as a Heisman winner, as a Heisman voter, it’s not about your stats, it’s about Heisman moments in big games,” said Howard. “… He has an opportunity now, [but] he’s coming from behind. Let’s keep it 100 — he’s coming way from behind. But if he’s able to do some things, maybe he can get an invite. But you have some games coming up where people will really be paying attention. Like tomorrow.”

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Vaki’s transition to offense came because injuries to Utah’s primary playmakers decimated the attack.

The Utes have been hit hard by injuries all across the roster, for that matter, with Rising, Kuithe, Rose, star linebacker Lander Barton, tight end Thomas Yassmin, and running back Micah Bernard all incurring season-ending injuries.

Given that subplot, Davis is particularly impressed by what Utah has already pulled off.

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) People watch the Pat McAfee Show at the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

“I really, really respect what they’ve accomplished, and the way they go about their business, and the adversity that they’ve overcome with all of the injuries,” Davis said. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen the number of injuries to key players that they’ve endured, and they’re still right in the middle of the Pac-12 and college football playoff race.”

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Speaking of which, it wasn’t lost on Howard that such a marquee matchup, an Oregon vs. Utah game that will be the center of the college football world for a day, just amplifies the disappointment over the impending demise of the storied Pac-12 Conference.

“Bittersweet, right? We’ve called it the toughest conference in college football. I think it’s the most talented and they had the most depth, too,” Howard said. “So for this to be the last hurrah, so to speak, it’s bittersweet.”



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Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Utah Hockey Club – Game #21 Preview, Projected Lines & TV Info

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Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Utah Hockey Club – Game #21 Preview, Projected Lines & TV Info


The depth continues to be tested as the bodies keep dropping out of the lineup up front. Tonight, a resilient Maple Leafs team is seeking its fourth consecutive win as Alex Nylander debuts on an all-Marlies line against a tired 8-9-2 Utah Hockey Club (7:00 p.m. EST, TSN4).


Head-to-Head Stats: Maple Leafs vs. Utah

In the 2024-25 regular season statistics, Utah holds the advantage in three out of five offensive categories and three out of five defensive categories.


Game Day Quotes

Craig Berube on what he learned from the pre-scout of Utah’s 6-1 win over Pittsburgh last night: 

The power play was good. They got three. They’re fast, and they have a lot of skill. They make a lot of plays — a lot of west-west plays — and get up the ice really well. Their D are involved.

We have to check well tonight. We have to stay out of the penalty box. Our PK is going to be important.

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Overall, we need to take time and space away from this team right out of the offensive zone. Be hard on them breaking plays up. That will be very important tonight.

Berube on the decision to start Joseph Woll over Anthony Stolarz tonight: 

[Woll] had a really good game against Vegas. We are just thinking ahead here. Stolly has played a lot. We have some time here. He is working in practice and doing a lot of good things.

That’s really it. We just talk about things and make decisions on what we think is best for the goalies and the team.

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I talked earlier about how both goalies are going to see more net than they have in the past. It is important that we manage it to the best of our abilities.

Woll is coming off a real solid game against a real good team. We wanted to go back with him.

Berube on what improvements he is looking for from his team offensively after a week of practice: 

Attacking more than we are. There are times when we tend to just control the play a little bit too much on the outside. We could attack more with more shots to the net, get pucks low to high, and do more on-and-off shooting while getting people to the net with numbers around there.

Resets to the back of the net, making quick plays out of there, doing things a little bit quicker, moving it quicker, supporting it quicker, and getting more pucks to the net than we are.

Berube on why Fraser Minten is so trustworthy despite his lack of experience: 

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It goes back to a great draft pick, finding a player who is so responsible at a young age. You guys aren’t on the bench, but just hearing him talk on the bench and how he sees the game, he says all the right things.

You don’t see young guys do that very often. He is already doing it at a very young age with very little experience. It is great to see. It’s refreshing. It really is.

Minten on the keys to success for his line with Nikita Grebenkin and Alex Nylander:

We just have to be simple with pucks and forecheck, using our speed to get pucks back on the forecheck. From there, let the skill make things happen. Those guys are really good when they get it back, so we have to make sure we are forechecking hard to retrieve pucks, and we’ll go from there.

Minten on the keys to success in the net-front role on the top power-play unit: 

Try not to overcomplicate it too much. Get the goalie’s eyes, get in sight lines, try to get pucks back, get some tips, get some screens, and cause a little chaos. You can draw a defender with you. If you’re going backdoor, you give them a little more space. Be ready for anything coming to you. They are great players, so just try to read off of them, and hopefully, it goes well.

Minten on his experience level in front of the net on the power play: 

In junior, I was mostly a flank guy with the puck more, but last year, I kind of got into it more at the end of the year, and I have been playing that role with the Marlies every game so far this year.

Minten on Morgan Rielly’s guidance at the NHL level: 

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He has been amazing. We have a lot in common, being from the same place. He took me under his wing a little bit and has been super nice. It makes it easy when you are coming in at 18 or 19 and there is a guy who comes to talk to you and is a really nice, supportive guy and friend. He has been awesome.


Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines

Forwards
#74 Bobby McMann — #91 John Tavares — #16 Mitch Marner
#89 Nick Robertson— #29 Pontus Holmberg — #88 William Nylander
#71 Nikita Grebenkin  — #39 Fraser Minten — #92 Alex Nylander
#46 Alex Steeves — #24 Connor Dewar — #18 Steven Lorentz

Defensemen
#22 Jake McCabe — #8 Chris Tanev
#44 Morgan Rielly — #95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
#2 Simon Benoit — #25 Conor Timmins

Goaltenders
Starter: #60 Joseph Woll
#41 Anthony Stolarz

Extras: Jani Hakanpää, Philippe Myers
Suspended: Ryan Reaves (four games remaining)
Injured (IR): Auston Matthews, Max Domi, Matthew Knies
Injured (LTIR): Calle Jarnkrok, Dakota Mermis, Max Pacioretty, David Kampf


Utah Hockey Club Projected Lines

Forwards
#9 Clayton Keller — #27 Barrett Hayton — #8 Nick Schmaltz
#22 Jack McBain — #92 Logan Cooley — #11 Dylan Guenther
#63 Matias Maccelli — #17 Nick Bjugstad — #67 Lawson Course
#15 Alex Kerfoot — #82 Kevin Stenlund — #53 Michael Carcone

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Defensemen
#98 Mikhail Sergachev — #2 Olli Maata
#28 Ian Cole — #10 Maveric Lamoureux
#7 Michael Kesselring — #41 Robert Bortuzzo

Goaltenders
Starter: #70 Karel Vejmelka
Jayson Stauber

Injured: Sean Durzi, John Marino, Connor Ingram

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NHL On Tap: Maple Leafs host Utah, seek 4th straight win without Matthews | NHL.com

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NHL On Tap: Maple Leafs host Utah, seek 4th straight win without Matthews | NHL.com


Welcome to the NHL On Tap, a daily look at the games on the NHL schedule. There is one game on the schedule for Sunday, which will be televised nationally in the United States and Canada.

Game of the day

Utah Hockey Club at Toronto Maple Leafs (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, TSN4, NHLN, Utah16)

Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares have all stepped up for the Maple Leafs (12-6-2) in the absence of captain Auston Matthews and look to continue the trend against Utah (8-9-3) at Scotiabank Arena. Marner has 12 points (four goals, eight assists), Nylander nine points (four goals, five assists) and Tavares eight points (four goals, four assists) in the seven games without Matthews, who is out with an upper-body injury. Toronto has won three in a row and is 6-1-0 without Matthews, who skated prior to practice Saturday and said he could return from an upper-body injury this upcoming week. Marner leads Toronto with 26 points (six goals, 20 assists) in 20 games and has points in six of the seven games Matthews has missed. Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Wall made 31 saves in a 3-0 win against the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday for his first shutout of the season and second in the NHL. Utah is playing the second game of a back-to-back for the first time in team history and will look to build on a 6-1 win at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday. Dylan Guenther had two goals and an assist, and Clayton Keller had three assists, helping Utah end a three-game losing streak. Goalie Jaxson Stauber could make his Utah debut after being recalled from Tucson of the American Hockey League on Wednesday; the 25-year-old has not played an NHL game since Feb. 22, 2023, with the Chicago Blackhawks. No. 1 goalie Connor Ingram has missed the past two games with an upper-body injury.

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Iowa State football: Three stars in win for Cyclones over Utah in Big 12 action

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Iowa State football: Three stars in win for Cyclones over Utah in Big 12 action


It takes a complete football team to win a championship. Iowa State is finding that out with each passing week.

Seemingly left for dead in the heated Big 12 Conference race, the Cyclones now find themselves one win away from competing for the league title following a thrilling 31-28 victory over Utah Saturday night.

Iowa State (9-2, 7-2) reached the nine-win mark before a bowl game for the first time in program history, and could end one of the longest droughts in NCAA history by reaching 10 wins. The Cyclones and Vanderbilt are the only remaining Power 5 programs to never reach 10 wins, as Indiana did earlier this year.

After taking a 24-13 lead on Utah midway through the third quarter, the Cyclones needed a rally, scoring the game-winning touchdown with 91 seconds to go. The defense forced a missed field goal to seal the win.

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Here are three stars from Iowa State’s win over Utah: 

Iowa State

Carson Hansen scored the game-winning touchdown for Iowa State vs. Utah Saturday night. / Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Known for his power running, Carson Hansen showed off his arm on a key third-down trick play that led to his second rushing touchdown. Hansen, a sophomore, took a halfback pass and found Gabe Burkle for a 26-yard completion. 

That put the ball at the Utah 3 and Hansen would plow his way into the end zone on the next play for the game-winning points. He finished the night with a team-high 57 yards on 14 carries to go along with the 26-yard pass while also catching two balls for another 28 yards. 

At 6-2 and over 220 pounds, Hansen is the thunder to Abu Sama’s lightning. He now has 11 rushing touchdowns on the year to go along with 560 yards after rushing for just 67 last season as a freshman.

Anytime Rocco Becht needed to make a big play in the passing game, he looked in the direction of Jayden Higgins. And Higgins stepped up for his quarterback, who was not quite as sharp as he typically has been.

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Higgins finished with nine receptions for 155 yards and a touchdown, surpassing 1,000 yards for the season. The 6-foot-4 senior out of South Miami became just the seventh different Cyclone to reach the number after missing out last year with 983 yards. 

With at least two, and maybe more, games to go, Higgins sits sixth on the school’s single-season list for yards with 1,015. Hakeem Butler is first with 1,318. Higgins and teammate Jaylin Noel, who has 976 yards, are set to become the first Cyclone teammates to eclipse 1,000 yards in the same season in school history.

Higgins is also just two yards away from becoming just the 10th Iowa State receiver to reach 2,000 career yards, joining the likes of Allen Lazard, Xavier Hutchinson and Charlie Kolar, along with Noel. 

Iowa State

Malik Verdon closes in on Utah’s quarterback Luke Bottari Saturday night in a 31-28 win for Iowa State. / Rob Gray-Imagn Images

It’s been a difficult season in regards to injuries on both sides of the ball for Iowa State. But the defense has really been hurt with Malik Verdon out.

Verdon, a junior, recorded a team-leading 12 tackles including a sack, as the Cyclones held Utah to just 99 yards of total offense through three quarters. 

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And while the Utes were able to finally put together sustained drives in the fourth, when they needed to make a play, Iowa State did. Verdon went out for a short time after appearing to reinjure his arm that has a cast due to a hairline fracture, but would return to the field later in the fourth.



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