Utah 8-4 (5-3), 3rd Mountain West
vs
Navy 8-4 (0-0) Independents

ESPN 9:00PM EST

Navy brings their #1 ranked rushing offense and #8 ranked scoring offense to San Diego to play against a Utah team that has held 4 of their last 6 opponents to 10 points or less. The Midshipmen also come into this bowl game with a new coach. Assistant coach Ken Niumatalolo was promoted to head coach only one day after Paul Johnson left to take the Georgia Tech job. Niumatalolo is familar with the triple option attack and that is why he was the #1 choice for the job.

Navy’s offense relies solely on Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada who leads the team in rushing with 782 yards and 11 touchdowns, and in passing with 830 yards and 6 touchdown passes. Enhada is a master of the triple option, but for Navy to win they must improve on a defense that is ranked 109th in scoring defense and 99th in total defense. Navy is able to stay with teams with their strong offense, but they give up an enormous amount of points. If they run into a team with an average or above average defense, they are in trouble. Check out Pitch Right for more Navy news.

Utah finished 3rd in the Mountain West and had a big non conference win over UCLA and took BYU to the limit before losing by 7 to them in the final game of the regular season. The Utes are riding a 6 bowl game winning streak and are ranked 15th in total defense and 35th in the country against the run. This should be their biggest test this season for their defense. On offense Darrell Mack is the leading rusher with 1128 yards and 10 touchdowns while QB Brian Johnson has thrown for 1621 yards and 10 touchdowns, but has shown he can turn the ball over at key times with 9 interceptions.

For Navy to win this game their defense must step up. They give up entirely too many points and put too much pressure on their offense to keep the other team off the field. Utah has played some high caliber teams and have faired well against them. I think Navy will be able to score points but no enough to pull out a victory because I cannot see Navy stopping the Utah offense from scoring more than 3 or 4 times the entire night. Utah 48 Navy 31.

Picking Utah to Win (65%)
ITB Brian Sakowski, ITB Charlie Swager, Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician, MidWest Coast Bias, Corn Nation, Sportsbone TV, Football Frontier, LSC Scoop, Kansas-It’s Business Time, The Enlightened Spartan, Sunny Verma, Jason Stiver, Richard Dixon, Pete Boivin, Mrs. CornNation, Lorena The Dodgerchick, Logan Jaffe, Dan Schoonover, Brian Isaacson, Timmy B, Matt Kieta

Picking Navy to Win (35%)
ITB Ron Juckett, MizzouRAH, Pitch Right, Bastard Sons of Pinfall Marks, Rizzo Sports, Jeff Brancolini, Rodney Polston, Cyril Tircuit, Lou Nemec, Greg Gowins, Brant Chruscial