Took a whille for some scoring to take place in this one. As a matter of fact, as far as the Aztecs go they didn’t score their first TD until there was only 3:56 left in the 4th Qtr on an 18 yard Kyle Crum pass to Freshman WR Josh Nicholson which saved them from a 35-0 shutout. It took Utah a while to get points on the board as well, but not nearly that long. After being forced to punt their first four possessions of the game the Utes finally put a productive 7 play 77 yard drive together complete with a Cameron Rising 30 yard TD pass to Senior TE Brant Kuithe to go up 7-0 six minutes into the 2nd Qtr. They followed that up by holding San Diego State to a three-and-out on their next possession and adding back-to-back TD’s, one courtesy of an Aztec fumbled kick-off, to go up 21-0 by the half.
Utah would add 14 more unanswered points in the 3rd Qtr with the first coming after an interception at the Aztec 37 yard line on their first drive after the break. After holding San Diego State to a three-and-out on their next possession they would add the second on a four play, 55 yard drive highlighted by two Cameron Rising 25 yard plus passes followed by a TD reception by DeVaughn Vele to go up 35-0 half-way through the third.
Utah’s Junior QB Cam Rising connected on 18-of-30 for 224 yards and a career high 4 TD’s with no interceptions. The Utes rushed 38 times for 174 yards and 1 TD by Junior RB Tavion Thomas. As the AP pointed out in their Recap for ESPN, Rising is the first Utah QB since 2017 to pass for 200 or more yards in their first three games of the season. Utah led in 1st Downs, 22-9; Passing Yards, 224-to-60; Total Yards, 398-to-173 and were efficient better than 50% of the time on 3rd down. San Diego State lost their starting QB, Senior Braxton Burmeister, to an eye injury in the 1st Qtr and Freshman QB Kyle Crum never got it going connecting on just 5-of-16 for 53 yards, 1 TD, and 1 interception. The Aztec running game although more productive, rushing 34 times for 113 yards, didn’t score. Utah hits the road for their conference opener next week at Arizona State.