What might prove to be Utah’s biggest game of the season is also, in many regards, its first game of the season.

Little of what has transpired over the past three weeks is applicable to the Saturday morning showdown with Texas Tech — a duel that matches two of the Big 12’s three ranked teams and the betting favorites for the conference title.

The best example of innate irrelevance: Utah’s season-opening blowout of UCLA, a 33-point victory in the Rose Bowl, sparkled at the time but has lost considerable luster with the Bruins’ implosions against UNLV and New Mexico.

The Utes only beat the Bruins by eight more points than New Mexico. UCLA might as well have been UTSA — the result tells us nothing about Utah’s hidden vulnerabilities that can only be exposed by an opponent of comparable tal

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