SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, July 15, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — As Kyle Whittingham enters his 12th season as the Utes head football coach, the preseason media poll projected his team to finish third in the PAC-12 Southern Division.
It is Utah’s best preseason media ranking since it was picked second in 2012. After being picked fifth in the preseason poll last year, the team shared in the Southern Division title.
Utah received one vote to win the 2016 Pac-12 Championships and two first-place votes among the 127 votes from the league’s media.
Stanford was picked overall to win the title, UCLA was chosen to win the South Division and USC came in second.
The Utes have been in the Pac-12 for five seasons and this year, the team is coming off its best season, finishing 10-3 overall and ranked among top 20 by both major polls.
“Third is better than fourth, fifth or sixth, so I guess that’s somewhat a show of respect,” Whittingham said.
During the two-day media event in Hollywood, Whittingham discussed Ute senior offensive lineman J.J. Dielman and senior defensive back Justin Thomas.
Dielman, who has started every game for the last two years, was second-team All-Pac-12 as a junior. Thomas collected 48 tackles, three interceptions and six pass breakups in 2015. The Utes have 14 returning starters for the Utes.
The Utes play Southern Utah University in the season opener on Sept. 1 at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
The next three games have been scheduled as follows:
Sept. 10: Vs. BYU at Rice-Eccles
Sept. 17: Vs. San Jose State at Spartan Stadium
Sept. 23: Vs. USC at Rice-Eccles Stadium
