Utah Utes @ Boise State Broncos MAACO BOWL Las Vegas Free Pick

Utah Utes @ Boise State Broncos MAACO BOWL Las Vegas Free Pick: I think the Utah Utes are a pretty dang good football team. They lost to Notre Dame late in the year, and while that can always make me think twice about a team, I’m just writing that off as a bad outing for the 19th ranked team in the country. Utah came back and beat a very tough San Diego State team the next week and finished off the season with a 1-point win over an improved BYU team. They don’t have the best passing or running game in the Nation, but the Utes can do both with efficiency and success – and that’s a big part of what makes them tough to beat. Oh, and they have a defense that absolutely shuts down the run – they’re a Top 10 team against the run. But, they happen to be playing Boise.

I think the Broncos have a special team. Nobody will ever know or get to see that because they happened to lose a heart breaker to Nevada when they missed a couple easy opportunities to win the game or keep themselves in it. That’s over with, though, and now they have to beat Utah. The thing about Boise is they’ve handled just about every opponent they’ve played, and nobody is better at preparing their team for a bowl than Boise’s head coach, Chris Peterson.

Coach Peterson is a mastermind, and the more he gets to prepare for a team the bigger his advantage gets. Utah has had trouble with explosive teams, and outside of the National Championship Finalists, I don’t think there’s a more explosive team in college football than Peterson’s Broncos.

I understand that 16.5 is a big number between two double-digit win teams, and that the value probably isn’t at it’s highest with Boise – but they can really put a game out of reach in a hurry – and I imagine that happens here.

#19 Utah Utes @ #10 Boise State Broncos (-16.5)