Air Force 23, Utah 14
The fans have certainly quit on the Utes, shuffling out of Rice-Eccles Stadium quickly. Or not coming at all.
But the Utes?
They say they're still game, even if they don't seem to have any game to speak of.
"The team battled hard for all four quarters," said coach Ron McBride after Utah's fourth straight loss, 23-14 to Air Force, which probably beat the Utes more strongly and confidently than any other Ute opponent this year. The preseason-favorite Utes are now 0-1 in the Mountain West.
McBride said 3-0 Air Force is a good team because it makes plays to win, and the Utes are not a good team because they have not learned how to make winning plays.
But he bristled when asked if it was time to re-tool the personnel
because quarterback Darnell Arceneaux can't hit his receivers, kicker Golden Whetman forgot to go on the field again to punt and missed two more field goals and the Utes just can't make breaks for themselves or do anything even when they do get a gift.
For instance, Air Force dropped a punt recovered by Ute John Rowbotham at the AFA 13-yard line with 9:25 left in the third quarter and the offense couldn't get closer than the 9. Whetman's low 27-yard field goal attempt was blocked.
But McBride was defensive. "No, are you kidding?" he snapped. "These guys played as hard as they could play today."
The Falcons are just better.
The Utes, however, seem united in saying they still have faith in each other.
"We played well enough to win," insisted cornerback Andre Dyson, whose brother Patrick returned a kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown with 6:35 left in the second quarter to leave Utah down 17-14 at the half. It was Patrick Dyson's second kickoff return for score in two years. Andre Dyson said he felt only "shock and disappointment" at losing.
"A lot of us left it on the field today. We gave everything we had," said Arceneaux, who was 16-for-28 for 195 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. Several times he overthrew Cliff Russell (four catches, 47 yards) or Steve Smith (eight catches, 95 yards), and McBride said the receivers weren't in the wrong place. But Arceneaux was sometimes running for his life with four sacks.
"We've got every position, we've got players, we've got everything, we've got heart, we've got dedication," Arceneaux said. "For some reason, football gods or something, when we need a play or something to happen our way, it's just not happening.
"We're a very close team; there's no offense and defense — we're just one big family. We just need to get one (win). I'm just searching for one."
"We've got no wins. We've got to turn it around and play on another level, hustle every day in practice," said the newest Ute of all. Junior-college transfer running back Adam Tate joined the team the Tuesday before the first game of the season and on Saturday gave Utah a running game, doing a good impression of Mike Anderson with 112 yards rushing and a 14-yard touchdown run in the first quarter to tie the game 7-7.
"We've just got to work hard in practice," said Tate, miffed at not playing the last 20 minutes because coaches thought he looked tired and because they deemed it a time when they needed to pass. Tate is still learning blocking schemes, so the staff is more comfortable with Nick Morgan and Dameon Hunter on the field in blocking situations.
"Everyone's got to remember this feeling of being 0-4 and losing," said Tate, frustrated because he thought he could have helped in the second half. "We need to turn it around and remember the past when we go into each game. We stepped up a little bit, but we didn't step up enough."
Maybe that was because Air Force already knows how to do that.
"We wanted to come out and set the tone early on the football game. We put our best guy on their best guy, and let's see who's going to go win the football game," said Falcon quarterback Mike Thiessen, who threw a 50-yard pass on the first AFA play from scrimmage to 6-foot-6 Ryan Fleming over Andre Dyson, who is 5-10.
"I think we set the tone that we're going to attack them," said Thiessen, the first AFA quarterback in the option era (since 1980) to throw for more than two touchdowns in back-to-back games. He had four vs. BYU and another two Saturday, one for 45 yards in the second quarter to Fleming and the back-breaker in the fourth for 19 yards to Chris Jessop.
Halfback Scotty McKay scored the game's first TD on a 15-yard run four plays after Fleming's 50-yard catch that he simply took away from Dyson.
Thiessen said the pass was Air Force's advantage because Utah's defense dealt fairly successfully with the Falcons option, though it did gain 242 rushing yards split amongst five runners led by McKay's 63. Thiessen added another 149 yards through the air.
Utah used all three of its healthy safeties on defense at one time, putting Brandon Dart at the defensive end spot to start with Kimball Christianson and Arnold Parker deeper in the backfield. Christianson, who had 20 tackles last year at Air Force, again led the Utes with 16 tackles followed by Parker's 11. Corey Nelson had 11 for AFA.
Tate rushed for 91 first-half yards with that extra blocking help from Morgan, and McBride said both played well.
The Utes are at Utah State next Saturday in their final non-league game. "We've just got to keep digging, keep believing," said McBride.
E-mail: lham@desnews.com