After three years of frustration, having to live with the talk about those defeats to Utah football teams that always scored exactly 34 points, the BYU Cougars redeemed themselves in a big way Saturday afternoon at Rice Stadium.
With a berth in the WAC championship game on the line and a possible major bowl berth looming in the future, the Cougars ran - literally - past the Utes 37-17 before 35,378 fans.Or was that really BYU out there in the white and blue uniforms? Could that possibly have been the same team that has written the majority of the NCAA passing records during the past two decades, running the ball nearly every play?
Believe it or not, it was.
Nearly disregarding the forward pass altogether, the Cougars ran the ball an almost unheard of 63 times, piling up 366 yards in the process. Two Cougar running backs ran for more than 100 yards, more than 150, in fact, with junior Brian McKenzie racking up 176 yards and freshman Ronney Jenkins getting 156. It marked the first time in a decade that BYU had two running backs get more than 100 yards in the same game, the last time coming against Utah in 1986.
Meanwhile, the Cougars passed just 12 times, completing seven for only 70 yards, the fewest number of passing yards since a 1975 loss at Colorado State. But the Cougars didn't care about the lack of passing yards as long as they got the victory.
"It's a big win, no question," said BYU coach LaVell Edwards. "We felt like we had to run the ball if we were going to be successful today. Those are a couple of pretty good young backs we've got."
Pretty good? The Utes had never seen anything like it, particularly from BYU.
"That's the best running attack I've ever seen," said Ute defensive end Nate Kia. "We expected them to come out and run the ball up the middle on us, but we had no answers for them."
"Their running game was awesome," added defensive end Chad Kauhaahaa.
Not only did the Cougars run all over the Utes, their defense almost completely shut down Utah's sometimes-potent offense. On this day, the Utes only made it halfway to 34 points, the number they had put up in three straight victories over the Cougars. BYU was so dominant early on, that the big question was whether the Utes would even get 34 yards for the day.
"I knew the game would be won or lost on the lines and I was disappointed in the lack of physical-ness on both offense and defense," said Ute coach Ron McBride. "BYU came in and physically took over the game. They certainly deserved to win."
Right from the start, the Cougars set the tone, as McKenzie ran off the left side for a 39-yard gain on the first play of the game against a disorganized Ute defense with only 10 men on the field. Coincidentally, the Cougars began the second half the same way, with a 39-yard run off the left side by McKenzie.
The Cougars scored on their first three drives, but only led 13-0 after one quarter because the Ute defense at least stiffened in the red zone, forcing the Cougars to settle for a pair of 22-yard field goals by Ethan Pochman, along with a 12-yard run by McKenzie.
"We wanted to control the game and keep the clock going," said BYU quarterback coach Robbie Bosco. "Right from the beginning it was working, so we stayed with it."
"I was surprised they were that patient," said McBride.
On the other side, Utah's offense was simply abysmal in the first quarter. The Utes went absolutely nowhere on three drives and had zero first downs and a grand total of four yards for the quarter. That's right, FOUR total yards.
Quarterback Mike Fouts got off to a rocky start and really never got in sync the rest of the day. On his first pass, he missed a wide-open Jeff Jex by five yards. His second pass was thrown right at BYU linebacker Shay Muirbrook, who returned it to the 20-yard line, setting up the touchdown run by McKenzie.
The Cougars also scored on their fourth possession, chewing up more than eight minutes on a 65-yard drive that took 16 plays. Jenkins went the final four yards for the score to make it 20-0.
A rout was in the making, but the Ute offense finally woke up thanks to Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala, who was back after a three-game layoff with a knee injury. The big Hawaiian broke loose and bulled his way 39 yards to give Utah its initial first down of the contest, midway through the second quarter. When the drive stalled, the Utes settled for a 38-yard field goal by Daniel Pulsipher.
Late in the half, the Ute defense finally forced a punt, answering the mystery of who the Utes would use as punt returner, Harold Lusk or Kevin Dyson. The answer? Both, as the Utes used a rare two-deep punt formation.
As McBride said later, a 20-3 margin wasn't insurmountable and despite being thoroughly dominated in the first half, the Utes had a chance to cut the margin early in the second half with the second-half kickoff coming their way. However, they stalled at midfield and BYU took just three plays to move 74 yards with Jenkins going 17 yards, making it 27-3, the same lead Utah had in last year's game in Provo during the third quarter.
The Utes finally put a touchdown drive together and scored on a 1-yard run by Fuamatu- Ma'afala. After having a 2-point score from their "Duck" formation nullified by a penalty, the Utes came back and scored from the 8 on a pass to Rocky Henry, with Terence Keehan springing him with a monster block.
BYU controlled another five minutes of the clock only to come away with another field goal, this one from 41 yards out by Pochman, before Utah moved 80 yards with Fouts hitting Kevin Dyson from 19 yards out to make it 30-17 with 13:23 left.
The Utes certainly had a chance at this point - a couple of hours later, UCLA came back from a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat USC - but BYU came up with a pair of key plays after the Utes got the ball back with 8:08 left. Keehan, who had a couple of great catches on the day, looked like he had a 30-yard pass reception, only to have BYU's Eddie Sampson break it up with a vicious hit. Then Byron Frisch dragged Fouts down for a 13-yard loss to force a punt from deep in Utah territory.
That gave the Cougars great field position and they moved 40 yards in seven plays for the final touchdown on a 5-yarder by Jenkins.
"I knew I was going to get the ball, but not that much," said Jenkins. "The linemen did a great job of blocking just like they did all season."
The linemen, who should get much of the credit for the Cougars remarkable running game, included Larry Moore, James Johnson, Matt Cox, John Tait, Ben Archibald and Eric Bateman, who had to leave the game with an ankle injury.
The Cougars now look toward the WAC title game against Wyoming in Las Vegas Dec. 7 with the possibility of a Fiesta or Cotton Bowl berth beyond that.
The Utes, meanwhile, must play a waiting game to see if they might get selected to play in a bowl game, most likely the Copper Bowl on Dec. 27. The players all seemed to believe they deserved to go to a bowl, while McBride didn't seem quite so sure.
"Well, I'll have to take a look at the film," he said when asked about a possible bowl berth, but then added, "Anytime you're 8-3 you deserve a bowl bid. I know that we're a much better team than we showed today."