After losing a close one to SEC’s Florida last year in their opener on the road at the Swamp, Utah played host to the Gators Week-1 this year at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake—albeit without their starting QB, Cam Rising, who tore his ACL in the 3rd Qtr of last year’s Rose Bowl against Penn State. But you don’t need your starting QB to play great defense which is what Utah does on a regular basis year-in and year-out. Picking up five sacks, one turnover, and seven tackles for loss, the Utes kept the pressure up while holding the Gators to just three points through three quarters. In the meantime backup Jr. QB, Bryson Barnes, connected on 12-of-18 for 159 yards, 1 TD, and no picks while the Utah ground game rushed 30 times for 105 yards and two more scores.
Although Graham Mertz, QB for Florida, connected on 70% of his passes for 333 yards it didn’t amount to much on the scoreboard—just one TD with less than a minute to play in the 3rd Qtr. Add to that a non-existent running game—13 yards on 21 carries—and other than a field goal in the 1st Qtr the Gators just couldn’t score enough in spite of converting more first downs, 17-14; gaining more total yards, 346-270; and winning the time-of-possession by almost four minutes. In spite of the 24-11 win, Coach Whittingham had to be disappointed in the unusual mediocre running game for the Utes. Fortunately, even when they failed to move the chains their brilliant punter Jack Bouwmeester averaged just about 52 yards per punt on six punts–two over 60 yards and three inside the 20. Glad to start the season with a win instead of a loss Utah hits the road for their next game at Baylor on Saturday, September 9th.