PROVO — In the opening minute of BYU’s home game against Utah in 2011, quarterback Jake Heaps chased an errant shotgun snap and tried to throw the ball away rather than fall on it, which led to a Ute touchdown. It was the first of seven Cougars turnovers that night.
In 2008, quarterback Max Hall threw five interceptions and gave up one fumble, most of those in the fourth quarter, at Utah.
Last December at the Las Vegas Bowl, BYU surrendered five turnovers in its first five possessions — including a pair of pick-sixes — as Utah seized a 35-0 advantage with 4:38 left in the first quarter.
For the Cougars, it's like a recurring nightmare.
In the last seven meetings between BYU and Utah, one statistic has been the defining and decisive factor — turnovers. Since 2008, the Cougars have coughed up clusters of them against the Utes.
The turnover margin has been ludicrously lopsided in the Utes’ favor — 25-6 — in those seven games. It's one of the reasons why Utah owns a five-game winning streak against BYU.
In just the last three games, the Utes have eight takeaways, compared to zero for the Cougars.
Only once since 2008 has BYU won the turnover battle — in 2009 — and that’s the last time the Cougars won the rivalry game.
Last year, BYU mounted a furious rally after that abysmal start, yet fell 35-28. Ute coach Kyle Whittingham said after that bowl showdown that his team didn’t luck into those turnovers.
“We made those plays,” he said. “Those (turnovers) weren’t gift-wrapped."
But that was then.
The Cougars have a new head coach, Kalani Sitake, who served as Utah's defensive coordinator from 2009-2014. Ironically, Sitake’s defenses were responsible for many of those takeaways against BYU.
Now that Sitake is coaching in Provo, he’s not dwelling on the past against the Utes. He’s only looking at the fact that the Cougars had zero turnovers in last Saturday’s 18-16 season-opening win against Arizona.
“Everything that we’ve done since (Sitake’s) been here has always been about us,” said quarterback Taysom Hill. “Our mentality is no different. If we take care of ourselves and execute and make sure we win the turnover battle, we’ll put ourselves in a great situation to win the football game.”
BYU will try to follow the lead of senior running back Jamaal Williams, who has never fumbled in 521 career carries.
“We always emphasize ball security, no matter what game it is,” Williams said. “It showed when we played against Arizona and we had no turnovers and we expect that from ourselves going into this next game. … Ball security is always my No. 1 priority, and from there, just go out there and have fun.”
“I think that going into this game, and our game plan against Arizona with a new staff both on offense and defense, we want to dictate what we called offensively and what we called defensively, and a big key to that was time of possession and field position,” Hill said. “I think we were able to do that and we were really successful at it and had no turnovers. Looking to Utah, our mindset is the same. We’ll take our shots when we need to. We have some stuff prepared from what we expect to see from those guys, and we’ll do our best to make sure that it’s a clean football game, just like it was against Arizona, knowing that turnovers are a big part of the game.”
Whittingham said Utah’s game plan is always about getting more takeaways than every opponent, not just against BYU.
"Well, they're big every game. I mean there's no more important stat than the turnover margin, and I'm sure it'll be a big part of this game, just like it has been in the last several games in the rivalry, and really every week. There's nothing special about that stat other than we've had a pretty good run winning that turnover margin. But as far as the importance of it, it's every week — the importance of winning that battle."
Contributing: Dirk Facer
EMAIL: jeffc@deseretnews.com