First look at Rose Bowl: Keys to victory for Utah, Penn State

For the 2nd twelvemonth successful a row, Utah has proven that it is the champion squad successful the Pac-12 and volition beryllium facing a Big Ten foe successful the Rose Bowl. What was a high-powered matchup betwixt the Utes and Ohio State past twelvemonth could spot a akin script play retired successful Pasadena connected Jan. 2.

Utah volition person to lucifer Penn State -- which is nary alien to shootouts astatine the Rose Bowl (see: 2017) -- stroke for stroke successful a matchup of apical 20 offenses to debar going 0-2 into the Granddaddy of Them All.

The Utes and backmost Cameron Rising travel into the crippled with plentifulness of assurance aft taking down USC doubly this season, including successful the Pac-12 championship, portion the Nittany Lions had a sneaky 10-2 play successful which their lone losses were to the 2 Big Ten teams playing successful the College Football Playoff.

No. 8 Utah vs. No. 11 Penn State
Rose Bowl Game
When: Monday, Jan. 2 astatine 5 p.m. ET
Where: Pasadena, California
How to watch: ESPN and ESPN App
Opening enactment via Caesars Sportsbook: Utah by 2.5

Utah

Key player: It has to beryllium Cam Rising successful what could beryllium his past crippled nether halfway for the Utes. In conscionable 2 seasons, Rising has done astir everything successful his powerfulness to permission his people arsenic 1 of the program's champion quarterbacks, and helium has a twelvemonth of eligibility left. This season, Rising passed for astir 3,000 yards and his QBR was among the 10 champion successful the country. Rising arguably had his champion games connected the biggest stages this season, and helium apt volition request to bash somewhat amended than his 217-yard, two-touchdown show successful past year's Rose Bowl against Ohio State. As Kyle Whittingham said aft the Pac-12 championship, arsenic Rising goes, truthful goes Utah. And for the Utes to triumph their archetypal vessel crippled since 2017, it'll beryllium up to Rising to pb them.

X factor: Ja'Quinden Jackson. With moving backmost Tavion Thomas done astatine Utah aft a tumultuous play and a toed injury, Utah needed idiosyncratic successful the backfield to measurement up. Sophomore Micah Bernard has done his part, but erstwhile looking up to this crippled and adjacent season, it's Jackson, a freshman, who could beryllium a game-changer for the Utes offense. In the Pac-12 rubric game, Jackson had 105 yards and 2 touchdowns connected 13 carries and looked acceptable to instrumentality connected a bigger role. The Rose Bowl could beryllium the cleanable mounting for him to bash conscionable that.

How Utah wins: Defense. Last year's shootout against Ohio State successful this crippled proved the Utes had the discourtesy to bent with the Buckeyes, but they couldn't bash capable connected defence to outlast them. Penn State's discourtesy is not rather astatine the level of the C.J. Stroud-led unit, but the Nittany Lions are inactive a top-20 scoring discourtesy and volition beryllium a handful. To the Utes' credit, they conscionable proved they could halt a top-three discourtesy successful USC. Limiting backmost Sean Clifford and moving backmost Nicholas Singleton volition spell a agelong mode toward the Utes earning their archetypal Rose Bowl win.

Penn State

Key player: Sixth-year elder backmost Sean Clifford volition adjacent retired rather the travel astatine Penn State successful what volition beryllium the 5th Rose Bowl quality successful schoolhouse history. A four-year starter, Clifford is the school's all-time person successful passing yards (10,382) and passing touchdowns (84), but has gone underappreciated astatine times. It's his enactment that coaches and teammates respect truthful much, arsenic good arsenic the mode he's gone astir his concern contempt immoderate fans calling for talented freshman Drew Allar. Some of that comes with the territory erstwhile you've been the backmost arsenic agelong arsenic the 24-year-old Clifford has astatine Penn State. But this is his accidental to spell retired a victor aft returning for his elder play and starring the Nittany Lions to their archetypal 11-win play since his archetypal play arsenic the starter successful 2019.

X factor: The existent freshman tandem of Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen has been sensational for Penn State. Good luck successful uncovering 2 first-year moving backs connected the aforesaid squad much talented than Singleton and Allen, who person combined for 1,771 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns. They're some pugnacious runners betwixt the tackles and person combined for 49 runs of 10 yards oregon longer; Singleton has 11 runs of 20 yards oregon longer. Penn State's moving crippled is intelligibly successful bully hands for the future, and the contiguous aboriginal is going against a Utah rushing defence that is ranked 16th nationally and allows conscionable 107 yards per crippled connected the ground.

How Penn State wins: The Nittany Lions request to beryllium capable to found their moving crippled and instrumentality immoderate of the unit disconnected Clifford. The Utes truly get aft the quarterback. They're tied for eighth nationally with 38 sacks and volition bash their champion to get Clifford successful third-and-long situations. The champion mode to debar that is to person occurrence moving the shot connected archetypal and 2nd down. Penn State volition beryllium without apical cornerback Joey Porter Jr., who is skipping the crippled to hole for the NFL draft. The Nittany Lions person created a ton of antagonistic plays connected defence and fertile seventh nationally with 95 tackles for loss. That's going to beryllium important successful this game, arsenic Penn State tries to forestall Rising from getting into a bushed and alternatively unit him into mistakes.