The Utes were on the road in this one to take on the Baylor Bears in McLane Stadium on the banks of the Brazos River in Waco Texas. Think of a smaller Husky Stadium complete with sail-gating and you’ll get the idea. The Bears had a rough year last season winning just enough to become bowl eligible but lost all their games against ranked opponents and also losing to Air Force 30-15 in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl to end the season. Playing once again without their starting QB, Cam Rising, the Utes were behind the entire game and only finally tied it up at 13 a piece with just under two minutes left in the 4th Qtr. After a 26 yard return off of Cole Becker’s 65 yard kick-off it looked as though the Bears were set up to get down the field and kick a field goal to win the game. But a False Start Penalty, a run for a loss, an incomplete pass and an interception would give the ball back to Utah with 1.5 minutes remaining at the Baylor 29 yard line. Six running plays later Sophomore RB Jaylon Glover would run 11 yards into the end zone with just 17 seconds left to give Utah a 20-13 win and keep them undefeated.
As noted in the AP write-up for ESPN regarding the recovering Utah starting QB; “Rising is still recovering from a torn ACL in the Rose Bowl eight months ago. The Utes starter each of the past two seasons was able to do everything in practice this week without any limits, but they stuck with Barnes and Johnson like in the season-opening 24-11 win over Florida. Barnes started again and was 6 of 19 passing for 71 yards.
According to Whittingham, ‘Cam is doing really well. It’s just a matter of having complete confidence in the knee, and the medical staff saying we’re going to turn him loose,’ adding that could be next week but cautioning that he is still day to day.”
The QB-by-committee team for Utah of Freshman Nate Johnson and Junior Bryson Barnes completed just 12-of-26 collectively with Barnes really dragging that percentage down while connecting on just 12-of-26 and an interception with neither QB ever getting into the end zone in the air. Fortunately for Utah, Baylor had no answer for their ground game as the Utes picked up 224 yards and 2 TD’s on 47 attempts with Sophomore Ja’Quindon Jackson collecting more than half of the yards and RB’s Jaylon Glover and QB Nate Johnson picking up a TD each. Baylor’s Sophomore QB Sawyer Robertson struggled as well while connecting on just over 40% of his passes for 218 yards, no TD’s, but 2 interceptions with that second one resulting in a loss for the Bears—their sixth in a row dating back to last year.
Utah won the 1st Down battle, 20-to-14; converted their 3rd down attempts very close to 50% compared to under 30% for the Bears; out rushed Baylor by about 100 yards and led in total yards of offense which is easy to do when you have possession of the ball for twelve more minutes than your opponent. The Utes head home this next week where they’ll host FCS team Weber State where I imagine we’ll see Cam Rising in the game long enough to get his feet wet and his timing back prior to the Ute’s conference opener against UCLA.