SALT LAKE CITY — After a subpar offensive performance by his team the previous week at Arizona State, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham opened up the quarterback competition between Travis Wilson and Kendal Thompson for Saturday night’s game with Oregon.
Thompson replaced Wilson in the Utes' victory over UCLA, only to have Wilson replace Thompson in the second half of an overtime win over Oregon State.
The Utes kept the starting quarterback a secret all week until Thompson trotted out on the field for the Utes’ first possession. He promptly led the Utes on a nine-play, 51-yard touchdown drive.
However, on Utah’s second possession, Thompson went out with a knee injury when his leg just seemed to buckle after a pass play. On the previous play he limped after getting tackled on the sideline.
After the game, Whittingham confirmed that Thompson is out for the season with a knee injury.
Wilson came in for Thompson, and on his second play threw an apparent 79-yard touchdown pass to Kaelin Clay, who inexplicably dropped the ball at the 1-yard line, resulting in a 100-yard touchdown return for the Ducks.
Wilson finished with 18 completions in 28 attempts for 297 yards and two touchdowns.
Afterward Whittingham said he was pleased overall with Wilson's performance.
"I thought he came in and battled,'' he said. "He nearly threw for 300 yards and he responded well tonight.''
As far as who will be Wilson's backup next week with Thompson out, Whittingham said it would be either Brandon Cox or Conner Manning, who are both redshirt freshmen.
BOOKER BREAKS 1,000: Devontae Booker became the 12th Utah player to surpass the 1,000-yard season rushing mark with an 8-yard run in the first quarter.
Booker came into the game with 990 yards on the season and picked up 39 yards in the first half. After rushing for an average of 59 yards in three nonconference games, Booker rushed for 811 yards in five Pac-12 games, an average of 162 yards per game.
However, he was bottled up much of the night by the Oregon defense and finished with just 65 yards on 18 carries. Booker was more of a threat as a receiver as he led the Utes with eight receptions for 110 yards.
Booker now has 1,055 yards rushing this season and if he continues at his current pace, he could break the record of 1,519 yards set by John White in 2011.
Other Ute runners who have gone over 1,000 yards include Carl Monroe, Dameon Hunter, Darrell Mack, Mike Anderson, Del Rodgers, Quinton Ganther, Keith Williams, Eddie Wide, Eddie Johnson and Eddie Lewis.
SCOTT TALKS: Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott was in town for the game, traveling from Arizona, where he was on hand for most of the Notre Dame-Arizona State contest earlier in the afternoon.
Scott spoke on a variety of subjects, including the new national playoff and college football autonomy. He also said he’s happy that Utah has been competitive so far this season after three mediocre-to-poor seasons.
“It’s exciting,’’ Scott said. “There’s a great football tradition here and there’s a great fan base here. There was some frustration in the first few years in the conference when they weren’t doing as well in prior years. There was an adjustment coming in to the conference on a lot of levels, so it’s exciting to see the program develop the way it has and be so competitive and be ranked and be right there in the mix in the Pac-12 South, which is really tough this year.’’
RECENT HISTORY: Going into the game, the Utes were 4-8 against Oregon in games played in Salt Lake and 8-19 overall.
In the three games since 1990, the Utes were 2-1 against the Ducks after being underdogs going into each game.
In 1991 as 14-point underdogs, the Utes took a 24-17 victory when they jumped out to a 24-0 lead early in the second quarter and hung on to win.
In 1995, they used a 71-yard run on a fake punt and a 97-yard interception return to take a 17-7 lead, but eventually lost 27-20.
Then in 2003, Urban Meyer’s first season, the Utes won 17-13 over the No. 22-ranked Ducks behind sophomore quarterback Alex Smith, who was making his third career start and passed for 340 yards and two touchdowns.
GAME NOTES: Ute receiver Tim Patrick went down with an apparent broken leg injury early in the second half ... Despite trailing at halftime 24-10, Utah outgained the Ducks 243 to 217 in the first half. ... Oregon, one of the first teams to use a variety of uniforms, wore white jerseys with duck wings on the shoulders with green numbers and yellow pants. For the first time this season, Utah went with the combo of black jerseys, black helmets and red pants. ... Wilson came into the game as the only quarterback in the nation with at least 100 passes who hadn’t thrown an interception, but he was intercepted in the third quarter and again in the fourth. ... The crowd of 47,528 was the second-largest in Ute history behind the USC game two weeks ago. ... Cornerback Eric Rowe was back in the lineup after missing last week's game and finished with seven tackles. ... Former Ute football great Eric Weddle, sporting a mohawk, was on hand for the game and mugged for the stadium cameras in the first quarter.