California 24, Utah 21
BERKELEY, Calif. — Utah's defense scored this season before its offense did, but one defensive touchdown by Andre Dyson on an interception return wasn't quite enough.
The Utes — who, to be fair, saw what they thought were two Steve Smith touchdowns called back — started slowly for the second straight week and self-destructed again with three fumbles in the third quarter, good for 17 Bear points, then made a gallant but just-short comeback Saturday afternoon to save Cal the embarrassment of losing a season-opener at home.
The Bears survived the Utes
24-21, leaving Utah 0-2 for the season on its tour of the Pac-10. Utah hosts Pac-10 bottom feeder Washington State next Saturday.
It was Cal's fifth straight season-opening win and came one day after coach Tom Holmoe, the former BYU cornerback, signed a one-year contract extension. He had put signing off for a year because he'd wanted to do it after a winning season, which he's never had, but it became such a public issue, he said, that he accepted an extra year to put an end to the distraction.
His Bears went ahead on a 51-yard drive and 1-yard run by Saleem Muhammad with 3:59 left in the first quarter, then gratefully made hay with Utah's three third-quarter lost fumbles for a 12-yard TD pass from Kyle Boller to James Smith, a 13-yard Joe Igber run and a 27-yard field goal by Pleasant Grove's Mark-Christian Jensen after a fumble by Smith on a kickoff. "I'm going to go on with my life and not kill myself," Smith said.
Utah and Smith came close to messing up Holmoe's celebration, coming back with 14 points in the fourth quarter. Then the Ute offense got the ball back for one more chance with 1:14 left in the game. Quarterback Darnell Arceneaux, who had replaced T.D. Croshaw with two seconds left in the first quarter, and Smith hooked up for a 41-yard play to the 50. End of success.
Smith and a defender interfered with each other, costing Utah precious seconds. After an incomplete pass left seven seconds on the clock, Utah spiked the ball, then was called for delay of game when receiver Phillippe Wells argued downfield with a defender while the Utes were trying to line up for a 50-yard field goal. A now-55-yard field-goal attempt by Golden Whetman was about 8 yards short.
"No composure whatsoever," said Utah coach Ron McBride. "This is a very tough one to lose."
"We've got to play a better first half," said Dyson, who returned an interception 58 yards to help Utah tie the score 7-7 at 8:11 of the second quarter after tackle Lauvale Sape hit Boller's arm on a throw. "The ball was up in the air. It was like catching a punt. I saw all those people just running, and they had great angles, but I was just lucky enough to get it into the end zone."
Utah's honors-laden cornerback had already seen a lot of balls in the air as Cal went at him on its first four plays of the game, catching him on a 45-yard pass on its first play from scrimmage and then trying several more times as well. "But I got one back, so it's better than last week," said Dyson.
"We can't win if we lose the turnover margin. That's another thing that's going to change," said feisty-sounding third-string Ute senior tailback Nick Morgan, who scored the first TD of his career and first U. offensive TD of 2000 with 7:51 left. "We've got the mechanics to have one of the best offenses around. I'm guaranteeing that the rest of the season we are coming out ready to play."
Utah didn't do that for the second straight game. It was dreadful offensively again in the first half, this time with 72 total net yards of offense while Cal came up with 210 but was still tied 7-7. The Utah defense surrendered just 119 second-half yards, much of it — 95 yards — on the scoring drives right after Utah's fumbles. For the game, Cal had 329 total yards to Utah's 297.
Utah might have righted its season had Smith been given credit for a diving catch in the end zone with 0:33 left.
"Yeah, I caught it. Everybody in the nation knows I caught it except the guy in the stripes, and he's the one that matters. I thought it was a democracy," said Smith. One official signaled it a catch, and another came in and waved it off as a bounce.
"That wasn't even a tough call," said McBride. "I was sitting right there and saw him catch it. That was an easy one. I'm not going to criticize the officials. I'm sure that's what he thought he saw."
Smith also returned a punt about 80 yards for what he thought was a score with 5:21 left in the third quarter, but Yohance Scott was called for an illegal block in the back, and the play came back. That led to the drive that gave the Bears their 21-7 lead as Wells fumbled on a middle screen when hit by pre-season All-American Andre Carter, who also recovered the ball. Carter also had three tackles for loss and a sack.
With Utah's defense threatening to shove Cal back into its own end zone, the Bears quick-kicked on third down, and on 4th-and-an-inch, after an Arceneaux sneak into the middle failed to get the inch on third down, Morgan lit Utah's fire with his TD. It was a play he said he's seen "a million times" in practice, and he knew to bounce it outside. "I saw it before I took the handoff," he said.
Cal punted in four plays on its next possession, and Smith returned it 36 yards for a score and a share of Utah's record book. In one season plus one game, he has tied the Ute record for career punt-runback TDs with four.
"I've been waiting 10 months to do something," Smith said, referring to how he sat out the Las Vegas Bowl game in December after breaking a neck vertebrae in the last regular-season game of 1999. "They showed me no respect and kicked it straight to me," Smith said, "and I made them pay for it."