This is the Depth Dossier: the Utah Utes, Week 7.

Utah stayed unbeaten, but it had to survive itself to do it, holding off Colorado 27 to 24 at Folsom Field after blowing a 13 to nothing lead and nearly handing the Rocky Mountain Showdown right back to the Buffaloes.

Quarterback Isaac Wilson threw two interceptions that fueled Colorado's rally, but wide receiver Braden Pegan bailed the offense out with touchdown catches in both the third and fourth quarters. Running back Wayshawn Parker kept the ground game humming with 98 yards on 23 carries, and the secondary came through late, with defensive backs Rabbit Evans and James Chenault Junior both picking off Colorado. Chenault's interception set up the clinching score. Utah controlled the ball most of the night, but needed every bit of that control to close it out.

This really was two different games stitched together. Utah opened with a patient, 17-play drive covering 84 yards that chewed up the clock and built a 13 to nothing lead that looked like it was heading toward a blowout. Then Colorado scored 17 unanswered points in the third quarter, sparked by a 68-yard touchdown pass from Wilson to wide receiver JaQuail Smith, and suddenly Utah trailed 17 to 13. Pegan's 16-yard touchdown late in the third quarter put Utah back in front, and his 6-yard score in the fourth sealed it.

Here's the thing, though. The final score says close game. The numbers underneath say something closer to a near-blowout that almost slipped away. Utah ran 78 plays to Colorado's 47 and held the ball for over 36 minutes compared to Colorado's roughly 22. Normally that kind of gap ends in a comfortable win, not a nail-biter. The difference was style. Utah moved the ball steadily, averaging a little over 5 yards a play across all those snaps, while Colorado made its far fewer snaps count by hunting big plays and averaging better than 7 yards a play.

Red zone finishing didn't help either. Utah drove into Colorado territory repeatedly in the first half but settled for short field goals instead of touchdowns, leaving points on the board that could have put the game away early. Both teams turned the ball over twice, so that part was even on paper, but Wilson's two interceptions came at the worst possible time, right as Colorado was building momentum.

No injuries to report this week, so the depth chart story is all about roles shifting.

Up front on the defensive line, the rotation keeps widening. Jireh Moe is now playing about three-quarters of the snaps, Ethan May and Karson Kaufusi are both up to roughly two-thirds, and Paul Fitzgerald is getting about a third of the reps. Meanwhile, Lucas Samsula has slid down to spot duty and Pupu Sepulona has taken a downgrade too, so the staff is clearly leaning into the Moe, May and Kaufusi trio.

The secondary shuffled as well. Nate Tilmon jumped up to about a third of the snaps, while Nate Ritchie dropped to roughly three-quarters, Elijah Davis eased down to two-thirds, and Rabbit Evans, even after his interception, also came down to about two-thirds of the snaps. At linebacker, Johnathan Hall dipped to around three-quarters.

On offense, Pegan's two-touchdown game is the one to watch. He hadn't been a headline name in the passing attack before this, and an eight-catch, multi-touchdown performance in a game Utah badly needed him in usually isn't a one-off. Going forward, the question is whether his target share holds up, and whether this defensive line and secondary shuffling keeps trending the same direction next week.

This was the depth dossier. For everything college football, be it depth charts, data or dossiers, head over to C F B Depth dot com. We will be back next week. This was an AI-generated podcast from content developed by real human beings passionate about college football.