Despite having a milestone game and generating a good share of BYU's offense, Cougar running back Harvey Unga was feeling a lot like a goat when Utah scored late in Saturday's game to go up 10-9.
But those feelings of guilt quickly turned into elation when Unga scored the winning touchdown on an 11-yard run with 38 seconds remaining.
"It always feels good to get a second chance. But it feels great to make the most of that second chance," Unga said.
Unga's goat mood came from a fumble he had deep in Utah territory in the first quarter and back-to-back dropped passes he had on a fourth-quarter drive that could have put the game out of reach.
When the Utes went downfield after Unga's second dropped pass and took the lead late, BYU fans had probably forgotten that he had given Utah tacklers fits all day with 141 yards rushing on 23 carries. Many probably didn't care that in the second quarter Unga had passed 1,000 yards rushing on the season, making him the first Cougar freshman to ever do so and only the eighth rusher in BYU history to reach that mark. At the time, the fact that the power back out of Timpview High had rushed for 100 yards for a sixth time this season seemed pretty insignificant when the Cougars were one point down on the scoreboard.
The fumble on Utah's 25, which came on the same drive in which Unga had a 44-yard run, spoiled BYU's first scoring chance. Then, on the Cougars' second-to-last drive with BYU up 9-3, he dropped a pass on a third-and-five on Utah's 31. One play later, on fourth-and-five, quarterback Max Hall again found Unga wide open behind defenders near the 5-yard line for what looked like a sure score — only to have the pass again fall off of Unga's fingertips. Instead of being up by two scores, the Cougars quickly found themselves trailing and in a dire situation.
"I was standing on the sidelines and the whole time it was eating away at me little bit by little bit. I kept thinking that if we don't come out on top, I don't even know what I'm going to do," Unga said.
The Cougar coaches told Unga not to get down and to remain positive in case he got a second chance — which he did. On a conservative call designed to make sure BYU at least got a field-goal try to regain the lead, Unga took a handoff and ran right to stretch Utah's defense. But when he saw an inside gap in the blocking and Utah's defender overpursuing, he turned left and powered the 11 yards into the end zone — giving BYU a much more sure thing than a 30-yard field-goal try.
"When I saw (that fourth-down pass) go off of his fingertips I was disappointed for him," BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "But then to see him score a touchdown after that and have a chance to fight back was a great thing." Note: Since the beginning of the LaVell Edwards era, BYU is 12-1 against Utah when having a 100-yard rusher.
E-mail: jimr@desnews.com