LARAMIE, Wyo. — Coming into Saturday's game, Utah junior cornerback Sean Smith hadn't scored a touchdown since his high school playing days in southern California.
The running back-turned receiver-turned defensive back wanted it, missed it, talked about it, too.
"I haven't scored in a long time," he reminded reporters.
Which made this afternoon all the sweeter for Smith.
Though it was officially homecoming for Wyoming, Smith enjoyed a little reunion of his own during the Utes' dominating defensive performance. The 6-3 speedster had two interceptions and reunited with his long-lost friend — the end zone — in Utah's 40-7 walloping of Wyoming at War Memorial Stadium.
Though he didn't crack open his yearbook or swap prom stories, this game brought out some nostalgic feelings for Smith.
"It felt good to score. It's been a long time. I'm way past due," Smith said. "It brings back a whole lot of memories."
And sparked the Utes, too.
Coach Kyle Whittingham called Smith's first highly anticipated return to paydirt — a 25-yard interception return that put Utah up 7-0 four minutes into the game — a "huge" tone-setting play. Defensive end Paul Kruger jumped and got a piece of the pass headed for the tight end, and Smith was in one of those right-place-right-time situations.
"He tipped it and luckily for me it came right to me," Smith said.
Smith then quickly made his 25-yard speedy stroll to memory lane.
Smith's second interception didn't result in another touchdown, but he had the ball in the end zone. That's why he might have been hearing "no, no, no" instead of "go, go, go" when he picked off a touchdown toss attempt by Wyoming's Karsten Sween — using a tricky one-handed athletic move — in the Utes' end zone and then tried and hoped to bring it back the length of the field for yet another score.
He craved another return trip.
Whittingham credited Smith, who was converted to a receiver in 2006 and then a DB after that, for making "a couple of nice plays" with his INTs. But he added one of those admonishing "buts" in regards to Smith's second takeaway. Midway through the third quarter, he snagged the errant fourth-down pass with one hand inside of the end zone. Wow, great catch, but ...
"If we're really heads-up, we drop it because it's fourth down or you take a knee after you've caught it, so we made two errors out of those," Whittingham said with a slight grin. "Still, heck of an athletic play on his part."
Smith ended up returning the ball to the 31, but his eyes widened and he got tunnel vision for a goal line 100 yards away. He didn't want to let years go between his first visit to the end zone in college and his second. The 21-year-old got used to crossing the goal line as a teenager at Blair High School in Pasadena, where he scored 18 rushing TDs and was recruited by the U. to be a running back.
Another tipped pass turned into an interception — one of the Utes' six takeaways (three INTs, two fumble recoveries and one blocked punt) — for Utah in the second quarter. Defensive end Derrick Shelby batted a pass up, and defensive lineman Greg Newman, whose helmet had just been knocked off his head, scooped it out of the air.
That heads-up, helmet-off play set up the struggling Utah offense's first sustained drive of the game — a 15-play, 63-yard march that ate up 6:09 and put the Utes up 27-0 at the half.
Smith said the defensive players — throw the special-teams guys in there, too — took it upon themselves to pick up the slack on this windy day.
"The offense was struggling, so the defense had to cause turnovers and put points on the board," Smith said, "so I was glad to do my job."
Especially the part where he visited the end zone again.
E-mail: jody@desnews.com