Defensive tackle Mike Thomas and coach Ron McBride went straight to the stands, where Utah's band and fans were wailing their hearts out with joy over Utah's third straight win against BYU in Cougar Stadium.
The rest of the Utes milled around in the northwest corner of the end zone, hugging each other and fans and friends who burst onto the field long after the final tackle. The people in red just plain didn't want to leave the field, where their unfulfilled season ended with a gigantic positive.After a season of so much promise (3-1 to start) had bogged down with injuries and inadequacies, to come back with two straight wins over teams that had designs on the WAC Mountain Division title was an overwhelming rush, especially Saturday's 20-14 victory over BYU.
Ute defensive coordinator Kyle Whittingham, a former BYU player, was almost speechless until long after the game that showcased his defense that has been the strong-but-silent type (a synonym for bend-but-don't-break-too-often type) all season and that held BYU to 196 yards of total offense. Cougar punter J.D. Hartsfield had 244 yards.
"I'm feeling relief," Whittingham finally admitted. "I've been stressed out about this game for a long time. I can't say enough about the way the kids played." John Frank had eight tackles, a sack and a half and a tackle for loss to lead the defense, coming on especially strong late in the third quarter and early in the fourth.
"We came to win," said McBride, saying he was "extremely happy and extremely tired." Beating BYU "lets you feel good about yourself," he said. "Anytime you beat BYU, it's fine, because they are your rival. You've got to feel good about it."
Said BYU coach LaVell Edwards, whose club finishes the regular season with two straight losses: "It's the first time since I've been coaching that November's been this way. It's really frustrating. There is nothing more to say than just to congratulate the Utes."
BYU and Utah both finish the season 6-5. Utah ends up 5-3 in the WAC, while BYU falls to 4-4. Likely, neither team will have any chance at a bowl game.
Utah freshman quarterback Darnell Arceneaux, who engineered both wins in his first two starts, was still pinching himself while standing in a cramped hallway that served as a media interview area. Standing there with a lei of candy and another of flowers hung around his neck, the youngster from Honolulu said he was still asking himself, "Did we really do it?"
"This is such a big win. I didn't know what to expect," he said of this rivalry that absorbs the whole state.
"This team could have cashed it in after Tulsa (a 21-13 loss to the second-worst team in the WAC Nov. 1)," said McBride. "But they became a great team and played their best two games of the year."
Ute wide receiver Kevin Dyson has had an up-and-down senior season, setting Utah's career record for catches (192) but unable to have that special kind of year that leads a team to a spectacular record. But Dyson had that kind of game Saturday.
"I'm just so happy to go out like this. I'm sad to be leaving, but what a way to go out," said Dyson, who truly took command of the field to finish his career (including a redshirt season) with a 4-1 record against the Y. "I told Darnell the second half to throw me the ball. I was in the zone. I wanted the ball."
"That guy played his heart out," said Arceneaux. "I don't think any wide receiver in the country could do some of the things he did. He said, `It's my senior year, Darnell, get me the ball. I'm open. If I'm not open, I'm going to get open.' That's what you want out of your seniors, to make plays like that."
"I wish he was a sophomore, or I was older," said Arceneaux (13-for-21-208 yards with two interceptions and 63 yards rushing), who saw Dyson grab nine of his passes for 143 yards, including a 27-yarder on third-and-8 that he took away from BYU's best defensive back, Omarr Morgan. Dyson said he didn't know if the pass was to him or to Daniel Jones.
It looked more like an interception for Dyson than a reception as he flew in front of Morgan at the last second for a catch that allowed the Utes to continue a drive that eventually became the winning score. Four seconds into the fourth quarter, three plays after Dyson's catch, Arceneaux dove for the end zone, arm outstretched with the ball in a hand that crossed the goal line before the rookie QB did.
BYU had been ahead 14-10, but Areceneaux's second score gave Utah a 17-14 lead.
"Arceneaux is like a darned magician, he makes so many plays," McBride said, adding, "Dyson is a big-time player."
BYU followed Arceneaux's second score with a 14-play drive that took the Cougars from their own 32 to Utah's 35 and then missed a 53-yard field goal attempt. On the drive, a 5-yard Brian McKenzie run put him over the 1,000-yard mark for the season, but that was BYU's only consolation.
Utah held the ball for nearly seven more minutes with a 15-play drive, and sophomore kicker Tommy Truhe, who missed twice earlier, put a 32-yard field goal squarely between the uprights for the final 20-14 score with 1:39 left in the game.
McBride said the coaches deliberated about kicking the field goal after two misses but finally decided three points would at least mean BYU would have to get a TD in the last 90 seconds to win, and Utah's defense wasn't allowing much yardage.
Edwards said those two long drives were what did BYU in. "They took a lot of time," he said, noting that, "The whole second half, it was our inability to move the football." That and one or two inopportune penalties on the drive with the missed field goal.
"We weren't able to make the big plays at the appropriate time," Edwards said. "We had some dropped passes. Who knows why it didn't work out. It was not for lack of effort. We just didn't get it done."
Utah opened with a drive for a 28-yard field goal, then missed a field goal after a Phil Glover interception of BYU quarterback Kevin Feterik (who completed 10-of-16 passes for 70 yards). A 31-yard Dyson reception helped set up Arceneaux's 4-yard TD run for a 10-0 lead. BYU came right back with a drive from its 47 to score in five plays, McKenzie getting the first of his two TDs for the day on a 1-yard run.
Coug safety Tyler Nelson then intercepted Arceneaux (his first of two picks) at the Ute 29, and McKenzie polished off the last 15 yards on one run for a touchdown and 14-10 BYU lead with 12:11 to play in the second quarter.
"In the second quarter," said McBride, "it looked like we let them back in the game. But then we stopped them on the first drive in the third quarter. Our defense did shut them out the rest of the way. The offense kept knocking at the door, and they finally made it."
McKenzie finished his career with 26 carries for 95 yards, giving him 1,045 yards this season, 95 more than he had last season.
Dyson ends as Utah's No. 2 career receiving-yards leader with 2,726. Ute senior running back Juan Johnson gained 51 yards on 14 rushes, and junior Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala ran 17 times for 60 yards. Defensively, Ute safety Robert Love tied Frank with eight tackles, and rover Phil Glover had six. For BYU, end Byron Frisch made 11 tackles with a sack, two quarterback hurries and two tackles for loss, and Darren Yancey and Rob Morris had eight tackles each.