With Arizona getting ready to face No. 14 Utah on Saturday, GOAZCATS.com took the time to reach out to UteNation to ask questions about the Utes to learn more about the team ahead of this weekend's matchup in Salt Lake City.
Staff writer Troy Hutchison talked to UteNation site manager Alex Markham about the upcoming game to get his thoughts on the matchup and the state of the Utes' program.
Has Utah improved its kicking game from a season ago?
Lord no. It’s brutal. It’s so brutal that Kyle Whittingham has made wisecracks about it in press conferences during the season. He’s so irritated with it that he’s made comments about in-season walk-on tryouts and also jokingly asking reporters if they had any eligibility.
It’s so damn bad that they can’t trust their top two field goal kickers with chip shot kicks. Those same two also can’t kick the ball out of the end zone and the Utes are vulnerable to give up bigger kickoff returns because of it.
Additionally, the punting is bad. They’ve fixed their snapping issues, which combined, arguably cost them a CFP bid in 2021 and helped them lose the Rose Bowl. There’s no distance to their punts even though their punter booms punts in practice.
It’s absolutely something Arizona can take advantage of.
