ASU Football: Looking at Utah by the numbers

The 16th-ranked Utah Utes enter Saturday’s matchup with ASU football as one of the hottest teams in the country having won four straight games.

Last week in the Pac-12 was one of upset, and quite honestly, chaos. This included Cal defeating Washington without scoring an offensive touchdown, Arizona knocking off Oregon and the Oregon State Beavers coming back from a 31-3 deficit to upset Colorado.

The wild week gives currently last place in the Pac-12 South, Arizona State, a chance to shake up the conference even more against division frontrunner Utah.

The Utes come into Tempe on a four-game winning streak and are looking to secure their first Pac-12 South title in school history. Here’s how Utah stacks up by the numbers.

164 points the last four games

After scoring 41 points to begin the season against Big Sky opponent Weber State, the Utes offense seemed to disappear for the next three games. Utah scored 17 points against a stout Northern Illinois defense, seven against one of the Pac-12’s best defenses in Washington, and 24 against Washington State for a total of 48 points in the three-game span.

The Utes offense, led by quarterback Tyler Huntley and running back Zack Moss, came back to life the following four games as Utah has won their previous four games while averaging 41 points per game.

During the four-game span, the Utes scored 164 points compared to their first four games of the season in which they scored 89 with of course 41 of those coming in game one.

48 catches by Britain Covey

Watching Covey play you would have never guessed that the now sophomore spent the last two years not playing football. The five-foot-eight-inch receiver spent the last two years serving an LDS mission after a 43 reception and 519-yard campaign as a freshman in 2015.

The sophomore wideout has returned to form since his return as he has surpassed both marks from his freshman season in just eights games as he leads the team in both receptions at 48 and yards at 531.

Covey leads the team by a wide margin in both categories as the next closest player in receptions is 27 receptions behind Covey while the next closest in yards is 281 yards below the sophomore’s yardage output.

No. 3 ranked rushing defense

The rushing defense has been a strong point for the Utes all season long as the defense has held opponents to 2.7 yards per attempt and an average of 81.1 yards on the ground a game. The key to this stifling defense? Linebackers Chase Hansen and Cody Barton.

The duo of Hansen and Barton has been a lethal one of the defensive side of the ball for Utah as the pair leads the team in tackles with a combined 128 between the two. Hansen has a slight edge over Barton in tackles at 68 compared to 60 for Barton and leads the team with 14 tackles for loss to go alongside four sacks and two interceptions.

No. 1 ranked red zone defense

The defense not only thrives against the run game, but the Utes also possess the top-ranked red zone defense in the nation. Utah has limited opponents to 12 scores, nine touchdowns, and three field goals, on 22 attempts for a red zone conversion percentage of .545.

This red zone defense will be key for the Utes as they will look to limit an Arizona State offense that has converted on 23 of their 26 red zone opportunities with a touchdown to field goal ratio of 17:6.

36 punt return yards allowed

Special teams have been a key focus for head coach Kyle Whittingham’s group during his 14-year tenure as the Utes have remained among the top special team’s units seemingly every year. This is evident in former Utah punter Tom Hackett taking home the Ray Guy Award twice in his time in Salt Lake City in both 2014 and 2015.

The punting has not fallen off since Hackett left as senior Mitch Wishnowsky has collected two-time All-American honors and the Ray Guy Award as well during his time at Utah. The punting unit will look to face one of the top return men in the conference in N’Keal Harry who ran back a punt a week ago for 92 yards against USC.

The mark was almost three times as many yards as the Utes have given up all season as Wishnowsky is able to almost completely take out the return game due to his punts.

Under 40-yard field goals

Not only is Utah remarkable through their punting attack with perennial Ray Guy Award Finalists at the helm year in and out, but they also possess dangerous field goal specialists as well.

Most recently the Utes have produced now Chicago Bears kicker Andy Phillips who was a four-time semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award while also earning All-Pac-12 selections all four years.

Replacing Phillips was no small task as the former kicker set the school career record in made field goals (84), field goal attempts (100) and points scored (427).

The replacement for the acclaimed Phillips? Matt Gay who won the Lou Groza Award as the nation’s top kicker his first year on campus. The senior has knocked through 12 of his 15 attempts on the season and is a perfect 7-for-7 in field goals under 40 yards.

On paper, the Utes appear to be a top team in the south, but the team has yet to overcome the drought of not winning a conference title since Utah joined the Pac-12 in 2011.