Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz, Caroline Fenton and Adam Breneman discuss the Utes' big win over the Cowboys without starting quarterback Cam Rising. Hear the full conversation on the “College Football Power Hour” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

View more

Video Transcript

A lot of people are, are saying this guy is falling about Oklahoma State and I think that that does two things.

I think it sort of undervalues a little of what we saw and it drastically undervalues Utah in this process.

Like, I don't know what Utah is going to have to do to get the street cred that Utah has kind of earned in this process.

I just don't know when we will as a college football collective mindset just acknowledge that like, hey, Utah is one of those teams.

It's actually always gonna kind of be upper echelon in their conference.

They're gonna kick the snot out of some people and they did that today.

And I'm like, I don't think that this was an Oklahoma State problem.

I think this was an indication that Utah is actually a much better program than we think right now.

The, the frustrating part for Oklahoma State is you're going against the Utah team without cameras, their star quarterback.

And when that, when Utah doesn't have cameras, they're a completely different team and still lost to them.

Uh at home is it is a tough pill to swallow for Oklahoma state.

My, my thoughts, Oklahoma State with this and I've had these thoughts for a long time.

They're not terrible.

They're a good team but they have a ceiling at Oklahoma State.

Uh, their defense is not very good, but that doesn't mean they can't win a big 12 championship or make the championship game, uh, when the conference is wide open.

But Utah also plays a different style of football than, than, than Oklahoma's, than Oklahoma State plays when it comes to some of the past game stuff.

They do.

What, what Oklahoma State is used to seeing, uh throughout the year and, and, and in, in the past game and some of that zone RPO stuff that Utah quite frankly doesn't really do that.

Oklahoma State sees all the time.

So I think there's a tough matchup for Oklahoma State, but they have a ceiling.

I don't ever see Oklahoma State going and running the table and becoming a top five, top 10 team in college football.

And the frustrating part is just that this was the Utah team that was vulnerable that was exposed without their star quarterback had Isaac Wilson starting Zach Wilson's brother and, and couldn't get the job done.

But I also, I'll counter that quickly and just say what if Utah is so good that even with their backup quarterback, they still put up 456 yards even with three turnovers, they still found a way to get this win even in a game where, like, I mean, they dominated in every, like, 42 minutes time of possession, 42 minutes time of possession.

You, you think about that's all coming from a team that frankly, uh, there, there's just, I think Utah is that good.

Like, I know they're number 12 and I think that's probably right, but it felt like today what we were watching, we always say we're gonna figure out who the haves and the have nots are.

Like, I think Utah is a team that, that clean some things up and if they get cam rising back has the chance to make some noise in the playoffs.

I don't think Oklahoma State, is that right now?

So like, I guess maybe my, my expectations were less coming into the game.

So Caroline, I feel less panic in this.

I don't think it's a panic worthy kind of loss mostly because that was a competitive football game.

It was sloppy like Oklahoma turned the ball over, excuse me.

Oklahoma State turned the ball over.

Utah turned that into opportunities, scored a touchdown off of an interception, not a pick six necessarily, but on the next possession.

So I look at that and I can say, ok, well, those are definitive things that we can circle and say we messed that up and we gave our opponent opportunities in a close game and we can't be doing those kinds of things.

I'm with you.

I don't view Oklahoma State as a national title contender.

I do think that they're a very good football team and I look at the big 12, I don't think that there's going to be any team in the big 12 that gets out unscathed because I think that this is a deep enough conference.

So one loss, one conference loss I don't think is the end of the world if Oklahoma State has visions of getting into the big 12 title game.

Close