No. 10 Utah at No. 19 Oregon State: How to watch, listen to or stream the game

Joe Coles
·3 min read
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Utah Utes safety Sione Vaki (28) celebrates his sack on UCLA in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023.
Utah Utes safety Sione Vaki (28) celebrates his sack on UCLA in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

No. 10 Utah (4-0, 1-0 Pac-12) vs. No. 19 Oregon State (3-1, 0-1 Pac-12)

Kickoff: Friday, 7 p.m. MDT.
Venue: Reser Stadium.
TV: Fox Sports 1.
Livestream: foxsports.com/live.
Radio: ESPN 700 AM/92.1 FM.
Series: Tied 12-12-1.
Weather: Cloudy with temperatures in the low 60s at kickoff.

The trends

For Utah: Utah beat No. 22 UCLA at Rice-Eccles Stadium to improve to 4-0, besting Florida and Baylor to open the season.

For Oregon State: The Beavers started 3-0, but fell last week against Washington State in their first Pac-12 contest, 38-35.

What to watch for

Oregon State’s rushing defense is one of the best in the country, ranking No. 7, allowing just 69.8 rushing yards per game.

If Nate Johnson plays, it stands to reason that Utah will run the ball more. Ja’Quinden Jackson is still dealing with an ongoing ankle injury that has affected him throughout the season, Micah Bernard is out for the season, and Chris Curry is still feeling lingering effects of his season-ending injury last year and is still trying to ramp up fully.

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Jaylon Glover could get the bulk of the carries if Jackson isn’t at full strength. Utah’s offensive line didn’t have its best performance last week, but UCLA was stacking the box with Utah running 74% of the time.

Utah will try and get the run going early on to open up some play-action passes, but Utah is up against a big challenge in Oregon State’s defensive front on Friday.

Key player

Oregon State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei throws the ball against San Jose State in San Jose, Calif., Sunday, Sept. 3, 2023. | Josie Lepe, Associated Press
Oregon State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei throws the ball against San Jose State in San Jose, Calif., Sunday, Sept. 3, 2023. | Josie Lepe, Associated Press

DJ Uiagalelei, Oregon State quarterback: The Beavers are first and foremost a running team and rank No. 9 in the country with 224.8 rushing yards per game.

Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith got former Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei out of the transfer portal to try and add that extra dimension to the Beavers’ offense.

Uiagalelei is completing passes at a 57.8% clip and has thrown for 828 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions.

The junior quarterback can elevate Oregon State’s offense when he’s on and makes opponents respect the Beavers’ passing game.

Quotable

“Head to Oregon State this week. They’re a really good football team. I know they had a tough loss on Saturday, but they’re an outstanding team and last time we were up there we didn’t fare so well so we got to try to play better than we did last time.” — Utah coach Kyle Whittingham

“They do everything well. I mean these guys are physical at the line of scrimmage. They play the scheme, they don’t give you anything easy, they don’t bust out there, they’re not giving you free access throws. They challenge you. They’re athletic at linebacker, they got pass rush ability. They don’t have to blitz, but they’re going to blitz when they want to. I mean it’s a long history and they’re playing dominant defense right now.”— Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith

Next up

Utah: Bye week.
Oregon State: at Cal on Oct. 7

Utah schedule

Aug. 31 — Utah 24, Florida 11.
Sept. 9 — Utah 20, Baylor 13.
Sept. 16 — Utah 31, Weber State 7.
Sept. 23 — Utah 14, UCLA 7.
Sept. 29 — at Oregon State (7 p.m. MDT, Fox Sports 1).
Oct. 14 — vs. California.
Oct. 21 — at USC.
Oct. 28 — vs. Oregon.
Nov. 4 — vs. Arizona State.
Nov. 11 — at Washington.
Nov. 18 — at Arizona.
Nov. 25 — vs. Colorado.