No. 10 Utes face biggest test yet in No. 14 Houston and QB Conner Weigman

It’s impressive for any team to be undefeated at the midway point of the season.

Just five teams, including the Big 12’s Utah, BYU and Texas Tech, are left with an unblemished record as the second half of the college football schedule gets underway.

Utah hasn’t exactly played a murderers’ row of teams so far, notching wins over Idaho, Arkansas, Utah State, Iowa State, Kansas and Colorado, but the feat is still impressive, especially when you look at the landscape of college football this season.

There have been upsets galore each week, so the fact that Utah has been able to take care of business, with a new coach, a lot of new staff members and a decent amount of new players isn’t something to take for granted.

“You look across college football today, like I say every week, winning is hard and we’re fortunate enough to be on the winning side,” Utah coach Morgan Scalley said after the Utes’ narrow win over the Buffaloes last week.

After three dominant wins to open the season, cracks in the facade started to show a bit against Iowa State, but the Utes found a new gear in the fourth quarter to win going away. In Utah’s next game after a bye, Kansas got within three, but once again, the Utes dominated the fourth quarter to win 41-24.

At Colorado last week, a bad third quarter and poor end-of-game decision making threatened Utah with its first loss of the season, but the Utes were able to hold on thanks to a defensive stand on the Buffaloes’ final drive.

Utah is undefeated and the No. 10 team in the latest Associated Press poll, but forgive the nation if they’re not totally sold on the Utes yet.

Per ESPN, Utah’s schedule strength through six games ranks No. 99 in the country and is the second-easiest of any team in a Power Four conference.

Only Virginia Tech, at No. 112, has had a softer schedule.

All along, the real test for the 2026 Utes was going to be the latter half of the schedule, which ranks No. 39 in remaining SOS. In the next four weeks, Utah will face No. 14 Houston and No. 2 BYU at home and take a road trip to No. 25 Arizona. A road game at Cincinnati on Halloween is no guaranteed win, either.

Are the Utes Big 12 contenders or pretenders?

The next four weeks will tell us all we need to know about Scalley’s team, starting with a big-time matchup against Houston this Saturday.

“It’s a good opportunity to show the world what we can do, and we’re excited. We’re practicing well, so we’re ready to go,” said safety Rabbit Evans.

Houston comes to Salt Lake City riding high on a four-game win streak. The Cougars’ only loss came on the road to Texas Tech in a game that came down to the wire, as quarterback Conner Weigman was just short on the game-deciding two-point conversion.

Since that tight loss, Houston has been on a roll, especially on offense.

Weigman is without a doubt the best quarterback Utah has faced to date. The Texas A&M transfer has been having a sensational season, racking up 1,771 yards and 20 touchdowns with only two interceptions on a 67.7% completion rate.

Weigman can also make teams pay on the ground as well — he’s added 229 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns.

“He’s special. That guy has been slinging it all over the place and he’s a tough runner as well,” said Utes safeties coach Derrick Odum. We have our hands full. He’s a guy that doesn’t make many mistakes throwing the ball … he’s really good with the football. He takes care of it.

“He’s a really good runner in space and he gives their receivers a chance to make a play. He puts it in a spot where they can only make it and if it’s not them, it’s going to be out of bounds, so he’s a special player. He’s the best we’ve faced this year.”

Weigman’s offensive line is keeping him clean 76.1% of the time, per Pro Football Focus. When kept clean, he’s been deadly, completing 69.8% of his passes. When he’s under pressure, something that’s happened on just 23.9% of his dropbacks, that number drops to 58.3%, but that’s still one of the best completion rates in the country while facing pressure.

“What does it take to make him uncomfortable? You may not make him uncomfortable. You may just need to force him into bad things, bad throws, throws he doesn’t want to make,” Scalley said.

“A lot of that comes with pre-snap disguises and stuff like that, but he’s a veteran that’s seen a lot and been through a lot, so I have a lot of respect for that young man, how competitive he is.”

While Weigman is good against the blitz, Utah can’t afford to let him be comfortable in the pocket. The Utes’ pass rush hasn’t lived up to the “Sack Lake City” name through six games, totaling just 1.83 sacks per game, which is No. 84 in the nation.

No defensive ends have registered a sack halfway through the season, a stark contrast to last season when John Henry Daley was terrorizing opposing defenses.

Despite that, Utah is still No. 3 in the nation in pass efficiency defense, a formula that takes into account “completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdown rate, and interception rate.” Though the Utes rank No. 76 in passing yards allowed — 214.5 per game — Utah’s defense has made stands when it matters and has given up just 14.83 points per game.

Scalley points to the fact that quarterbacks, knowing the Utes are a pressure-heavy team, have been getting the ball out fast against Utah, and the Utes have also had a number of pass breakups at the line of scrimmage.

“Ae you forcing the quarterback to throw the ball before he wants to throw it? Yes, we’re getting hurries. Now, if there was a large bulk of plays where we’ve got a four-man rush and he’s got longer than 3.4 seconds to throw the ball, those are the plays we need to identify and say, what is the issue? Why are we not getting home?” Scalley said.

“The good thing is there’s just not a lot of those. With the pressure that we are creating, we’re forcing them to throw the ball sooner than they’d like, and we’re batting down balls, we’re getting interceptions.”

To Scalley’s point, quarterbacks are completing just 49.3% of their passes against the Utes.

Utah defense has been one of the best in the country, but as the schedule stiffens, the Utes are going to have to get to the quarterback more often, especially because they play a lot of man defense. If Weigman has a lot of time to throw the ball, it’s going to be hard for Utah’s secondary to stick with Houston’s talented receivers over and over again.

Add in some communication issues that have plagued the secondary at times and led to some big plays by opposing teams, and there’s important things to fix ahead of facing a great Cougar offense.

That said, the Utes are confident the issues have been identified and can be fixed ahed of their biggest test of the season so far.

“We just got to tighten a few things up within our group. Props to them. They did make some awesome plays, but I would say the majority of the points on the board and big plays that were made were our fault, lack of communication or undisciplined football,” said safety/cornerback Jackson Bennee.

“So while they did do a good job, I’d say mainly it was on us. So yeah, it’s just an easy fix there. Something we got to be more conscious of and aware of and we’ll be fine.”

Houston has an excellent offensive line, excellent receivers including Amare Thomas and a great tight end in Patrick Overmyer. The Cougars also boast one of the nation’s best rushing attacks, led by running backs Makhi Hughes and Re’Shaun Sanford II, in an exciting matchup that pits one of the most productive rushing teams in the nation against one of the country’s best rush defenses.

The “real” season starts now for the Utes.

“The challenge in our O-line room with first-time starters is, alright, now we’re halfway through and you’re beat up and it’s a lot of pressure and the games are big. Well, they’re just going to get bigger,” said offensive line coach Jordan Gross.

“The second half of our schedule is loaded with quality opponents, and there’s a lot of excitement that comes with that.”