Former Utah State coach John L. Smith, now of Louisville, huffed and puffed, but he couldn't blow down Utah's new Rice-Eccles Stadium, christened Saturday night with an error-filled 45-22 Ute victory.
The stadium drew a crowd of 44,112 - a bit shy of a sellout in a 45,634-seat venue, but still a school record.It's only the second time in five games that a Ron McBride-coached Ute team has defeated tough-talking John L. Smack, who did not become the first coach to ever beat Mac's Utes with three different teams. Utah's other win was 40-20 in 1995, when Smith was at Utah State.
"We needed to get this monkey off our backs," said McBride, "just like we needed to get Utah State off our back." That was in reference to Smith's back-to-back Aggie wins in 1996 and 1997 over Utah. The Utes beat USU last week in the season opener in Logan.
The two coaches did not shake hands following the game.
Smith had to apologize already for comments made about his Louisville team last week, and he has made Utes mad for years with his "that's football" attitude on the Grabbie Aggie Incident in which Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala's privates were repeatedly violated three seasons ago.
Pent-up Ute anger at Smith, considered the Devil himself by McBride's troops and called John "Lucifer" Smith by his first USU team, plus an unwillingness to lose in the new stadium, carried Utah from a bogged-down middle of the first half.
In a game that saw seven interceptions, four by Utah and three by Louisville, Utah went up 14-0 just 1:50 into the game and was tied 14-14, but a call by Ute receiver Daniel Jones seemed to get Utah back in gear, and the Utes ran away to a 38-14 lead by the first drive in the fourth quarter and then tried to sit on the lead.
Sophomore Andre Dyson had two interceptions, two pass breakups, a fumble recover and five tackles. "Andre had an excellent game," McBride said.
"The defense came up big again," he added, "but the offense has to be more consistent. The offense responded real well, but we made too many mistakes."
A couple of times in the second half, last year's starting quarterback, senior Jonathan Crosswhite, replaced sophomore Darnell Arceneaux, and Crosswhite directed a drive for a field goal, went out, Arceneaux came back in, threw to tight end Matt Nickel for 22 yards, and Omar Bacon juked up the middle for a 13-yard touchdown run to make it 38-14. With Crosswhite back in, Bacon ran 38 yards off left tackle with a block from Jerome Anderson for his second TD and a 45-22 lead, just after Louisville scored for its first points of the second half.
It helped when Louisville's Lavell Boyd dropped a fourth-quarter touchdown pass in the end zone, helping Utah to make up for a certain Ute TD pass that was dropped in the first half.
That brought Crosswhite back, after Utah held on fourth down at its own 25.
The turning point probably came when Jones observed, according to KALL/K-news radio sideline reporter Bryan Rowley, that Louisville defenders weren't respecting him deep. On the sidelines, Jones talked to the coaching staff, which called a play for Jones going deep, and Jones snagged a 35-yard touchdown pass with 6:10 left in the first half to give Utah a 21-14 lead and momentum again.
The lead soon jumped to 28-14 after Andre Dyson's second interception of the game. That set up an Arceneaux 7-yard touchdown on the quarterback draw, and from there Utah was rarely threatened, though at the time, Utah went into halftime not sure if it was doing good or suffering from the Smith jinx.
After all, Boo Bendinger had dropped an uncovered, certain, 60-yard touchdown pass late in the first quarter, and Donny Utu had dropped another nice gainer. Jones, himself, had made a mistake in running the wrong route as Louisville got its only interception of the half.
Dyson's first pick, on Louisville's third play of the game led to a one-play touchdown drive, Arceneaux throwing to Bendinger for 29 yards just :56 into the game. Kautai Olevao"s interception, returned 7 yards, helped put Utah in the end zone again 54 seconds later after a 9- yard reverse by Jones to kick off the drive. Mike Anderson ran in from the 6 with 13:10 left in the first quarter. That's 1:50 into the game.
Phil Glover's interception bought some time, but when Glover let up on coverage of Louisville tight end Ibn Green on the left sideline, Green picked up a 32-yard gain on a third-and-29 play, and that kindled the Cardinals' first touchedown, a 5-yard run from running back Rafael Cooper.
A Louisville interception, by Antonio Roundtree, put the Cards at the Ute 21-yard line, but they moved backward 5 yards and missed a 43-yard field goal wide right.
Utah certainly seemed on a roll in its new stadium.
Then came a slightly underthrown 35-yard pass to Bendinger. He turned around and got both hands on it, completely free of coverage by probably 10 yards, then dropped it as the Jinx of John L. Smack tried its darnedest to manifest itself in Rice-Eccles.
Louisville's Redman then completed a 34-yard first-down pass to Arnold Jackson, and suddenly the Cards had the momentum. The Cards had to punt, and one play into Utah's drive, Jerome Anderson's 26-yard reception and a personal foul on Louisville gave the Utes an opportunity, but a high snap on third-and-9 scotched the idea, and the Cards tied the game up with a 10-play drive. Lavell Boyd caught a 5-yard pass from Redman with 7:26 left in the half to make it 14-14.
Than came Jones' complaint and touchdown just 1:16 minutes later, Jones actually making two 35-yard catches on the drive, and Dyson's second interception on Louisville's first play and Jerome Anderson's leaping grab on a third-and-7 play for a 23-yard gain set up the Arceneaux score. Freshman Ryan Kaneshiro made all four PAT kicks in the half.
It was a costly half. Utah lost tight end C.J. Johnson to a broken left ankle, the same ankle that kept him out all last season; running back Nick Morgan hurt a knee early in the half and will be out three weeks; Dyson was having problems breathing throughout the half and went for chest x- rays after his second interception but returned to the game. Defensive lineman Mike Thomas was also injured.