The University of Utah finished a crazy Saturday night with another upset. The weekend started with Arizona going up to Eugene and defeating the #2 ranked Oregon Ducks. Then the Utah State Aggies head down to Provo and took down #18 BYU and took the Wagon Wheel back to Logan. When Saturday rolls around, we see losses from #3 Alabama to the hands of #11 Ole Miss 23-17, #4 Oklahoma falling to #25 TCU 37-33, #15 LSU suffers their worse loss in the Les Miles era 41-7. Then the high powered offense of #6 Texas A&M losses to #12 Mississippi State 48-31. #16 USC picks up their second loss after a last second Hail Mary Touchdown to Arizona State 38-34. #17 Wisconsin falls to Northwestern 20-14. But the night cap was all that mattered in the state of Utah as the Utes roll into the Rose Bowl and takes down #8 UCLA 30-28.
Travis Wilson starts the game at Quarterback but didn’t provide much production on Offense, still struggling from the disappointing loss to Washington State last week at Rice Eccles Stadium. Wilson completed only 2 of his 5 pass attempts for 5 yards in two series. After a 27 yard Interception Return for a Touchdown by Tevin Carter, the Utes then switch to Oklahoma transfer Kendal Thompson. Thompson provided a much needed spark for the Utes as he and Devontae Booker ran the ball effectively. On the ninth play of the drive Thompson connects with Dres Anderson for 42 yards. Note: Dres didn’t have a single catch last week against Washington State. The Utes then led 14-0 before the Bruins scored on a 4 yard run to pull within 7 points. Kicker and Captain Andy Phillips connects on a 48 yard field goal to give the Utes a 17-7 lead heading into the locker room. UCLA came out of halftime with a 1 yard touchdown run to cut the Utes lead to 3 points. As UCLA attempted the comeback, the Utes defense didn’t want any part of it as they put presser on Heisman Candidate Quarterback Brett Hundley. The stout defense from Utah sacked the star Quarterback 10 times, yes that isn’t a typo, 10 times. Nate Orchard collected 4 of those sacks. Utes Running Back Devontae Booker picked up where he left off against Washington State as he ran the ball 33 times for 156 yards and 1 Touchdown. The Touchdown from Booker came in the 3rd quarter to give the Utes a 24-14 lead heading into the 4th Quarter. The Bruins came into the 4th quarter determined as Hundley connected with Devin Fuller for a 93 yard Touchdown pass putting the Bruins within 3 points once again. The Utes answered back with another Field Goal from Andy Phillips, this time a 45 yard attempt. Then the UCLA offense woke up as Hundley trucked down the field and hit Massington for 40 yard Touchdown pass giving the Bruins their first lead of the night 28-27. UCLA gave Kendal Thompson 4:50 to attempt the upset. Between Thompson and Booker, the Utes did just that giving Andy Phillips a chip shot from 29 yards giving the Utes a 30-28 lead over UCLA. Hundley took the Bruins down the field as far as he could giving kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn a 55 yard attempt to win the game. The attempt missed wide right but the Utes were penalized for “running into the kicker,” moving the Bruins up five yards for one last 50 yard attempt. The kick had enough power just just missed the uprights giving the Utes a signature win and completing an upset over #8 UCLA. Brett Hundley ended the game with 16/21 passing for 269 yards and 2 Touchdowns with 1 Interception. Up next for UCLA is a matchup with the Oregon Ducks.
The recent polls came out after the crazy weekend and the Utes cracked the Top 25 at #24 in the country. Here are the full rankings that were released today: http://espn.go.com/college-football/rankings
Up next for the Utes is a bye week which is much needed. This will give the Utah coaching staff time to figure out the Quarterback situation. Whittingham declined to name a starting Quarterback right now but just based off of the performances between Kendal and Travis, I would say that Kendal is your starter when the Utes take on Oregon State in Corvallis on Thursday, October 16th.
Make sure you check out all of the postgame audio from the broadcast in the Recent Audio archive. We will have you covered all week with everything happening up on the hill on ESPN 700.
