Athlon Sports did its preview of the Utah Utes on the gridiron for the 2017 season where it ranked the team as the No. 38 team in the country.

After talking about Utah’s success of late in the Pac-12 and some of the changes it made on the coaching staff, Athlon wrote, “The Utes should reach bowl eligibility with little difficulty, but how competitive they’ll be in the Pac-12 South will depend largely on how quickly all of the new pieces come together.”

Athlon then broke down the offense, defense and special teams, before giving a final analysis, saying, “Utah has established itself as one of the Pac-12’s most consistent programs, but there’s more to do. (Kyle) Whittingham is driven to make his team the South’s sixth winner in seven seasons.”

It finished by quoting Whittingham, saying, ““We’re not going to apologize for winning nine-plus games the last three years, but we want to win a championship. We’ve got to find a way to break through.”

TJ Haws a top 5 returning player in the WCC

Conner Hope of Busting Brackets ranked the top five returning players in the West Coast Conference, and BYU guard TJ Haws made the list at No. 5.

Speaking of Haws, Hope wrote, “After a few stand-out performances, TJ Haws established himself as a top player in the WCC.”

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