For a long time I was not a fan of Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham because he was Urban Meyer’s Defensive Coordinator for ten years and I really don’t like Urban Meyer. But I’ve been over it for a few years now and have to say that I found it painful to see Utah lose this one. I mean they lost to No. 14 Oklahoma State by just three points in Week-4, by three points to Houston in Week-10, and by just a single point to No. 9 BYU in this one—22-21—all without the QB who was projected to lead them to the Big-12 title and into the national playoff with a first round bye.
And the thing is, in spite of Utah’s first possession three-and-out and second possession interception that led to a BYU field goal and 3-0 lead at the end of the 1st Qtr, the Utes followed up with back-to-back-to-back TD’s to go up 21-10 at the break. Holding teams to under 20 points per game on average this year BYU decided at half-time that Utah had already gotten more than they were going to allow and held the Utes scoreless the rest of the way while putting up a TD and two more field goals—one after an interception and the last with time expiring to win it by just a point—ouch!
As reported in the AP’s Recap for ESPN regarding the 21-10 halftime deficit BYU head coach Kilani Sitake had this to say afterwards: “We felt like we got Utah’s best shot, but we [hadn’t] delivered ours yet and then we shut them out in the second half.” Whittingham had this to say: “Tough way to lose a ball game. Our players played hard. They did everything they could from start to finish. … It’s unfortunate that it turned out the way that it did.” And those two weren’t the only ones expressing an opinion afterwards. With BYU’s final drive extended by one extra play which enabled the game winning field goal on a defensive holding penalty called on fourth down. “Utah AD Mark Harlan took the microphone in the Utah press area before the coaches and players appeared and blasted the officiating crew for their ‘disgusting performance—This game was absolutely stolen from us,’ he said.” The disapproval of that call from the 54,000+ in Rice-Eccles literally shook the stadium.
For Utah, Sophomore QB Brandon Rose was 12-of-21 for 112 yards, 2 TD’s—one to Senior TE Brant Kuithe and the other to Senior RB Micah Bernard—and 1 pick in addition to rushing 7 times for another 55 yards. On the ground Kuithe also picked up their only rushing TD out of the wildcat formation while Bernard was their leading ground gainer with half of the team’s 147 yards on 17 carries. The Utah defense did everything they could to stay in the game and recorded three sacks, nine tackles for loss, and nine pass disruptions. The Cougar Junior QB, Jake Retzlaff, connected on just 45% of his throws for 219 yards with no TD’s or interceptions while also rushing eight times for their only offensive TD of the game. Credit Junior PK Will Ferrin and Junior WR Keenan Marion with all the rest of the points on the board. Ferrin picked up ten with three field goals and an extra point while Marion, doing double duty on Special Teams, ran a kick-off back 96 yards to the house for the rest. Utah hits the road to Boulder and a sold-out Folsom Field to take on now No. 18 Colorado this coming Saturday.