Bowl Predictions, Fiesta Bowl
Fiesta Bowl: Pittsburgh (41) vs. Utah (4)
Pittsburgh needed a miracle to be here. They became the biggest fans that Syracuse ever had in the Orange's game against Boston College. When the Orange ran all over the Eagles, Pittsburgh was all but eating chips and salsa. The end of the Panther season saw them win 6 of 7 and come out on top by barely scraping into the BCS final standings, winning the tie breaker with Syracuse. This will be Walt Harris's final game as head coach before moving on to Stanford next season. Instead the Panthers will be led by Dave Wannstedt, a former Pittsburgh player and assistant. When he takes over, he will be taking over with a great combo in junior quarterback Tyler Palko and sophomore receiver Greg Lee. Palko was probably the best quarterback that no one had heard of until his performance against Notre Dame late in the season. He made sure they remembered his name when Pittsburgh trounced South Florida on the final week of the season. Palko threw for 2816 yards and 23 touchdowns. Nine of those touchdowns and 1204 of those yards went to Lee who was the top receiver for the Panthers. Both look to be back next year when Pittsburgh will most likely be favored along with Louisville in the new look Big East. The Panther defense won't stop you from gaining many yards. What they will do is force turnovers. They were +12 in that category and will be looking to try and exploit that in the Fiesta Bowl.
Urban Meyer is also coaching his final game for Utah before moving on to Florida next season. Meyer has taken the Utah team from 5-6 two years ago to 10-2 last year and an undefeated mark and a BCS bowl this year. The first team from a non-BCS conference to break the fabled formula, Utah will be looking to pull a bigger upset than that and win the Fiesta Bowl, a first for a team from the Mountain West conference. Meyer will be looking to leadership from his quarterback Alex Smith. Smith was a Heisman finalist and when he sat on the stage, he was the only player not playing in the Orange Bowl making him the one to watch in this game. Smith tallied 2624 yards and 28 touchdowns while only throwing 4 interceptions. Smith has only lost one game as a starter and thrown only 7 interceptions the pat two seasons. In the spread offense, Smith will be looking to pick apart the Panther defense by hitting his two main receivers Steve Savoy and Paris Warren who caught 22 of his touchdown passes. And don't think Smith won't run the ball. He was the third leading rusher on the team and tallied 10 touchdowns of his own on the ground. Running with Smith will be Marty Johnson and Quinton Ganther. Johnson is a senior and got 14 touchdowns this year but saw limited action in the Utes' last game. Look for Utah to use the run to set up their long passing attack against the vulnerable Pittsburgh defense. Utah's defense was +16 in turnovers for second in the nation in that category. Look for the turnover battle to be big in this game as neither defense will be stopping the chains from moving very often.
MRI Predicts: Utah
Confidence factor: 82.26%, 28 out of 28
