New co-mayor of Sack Lake City: Bradlee Anae ties Utah sack record in win over Colorado

SALT LAKE CITY — There’s a new co-mayor of Sack Lake City.

Bradlee Anae made sure that his senior night at Rice-Eccles Stadium was one for the record books, moving up the all-time Utah sack leaderboard. With 1.5 sacks in the 45-15 win against Colorado, Anae has registered 29.5 sacks in his career, moving into a tie with Hunter Dimick for the most sacks in school history. With at least two games left to go in the season, Anae has a fantastic chance to break the record and be crowned the new mayor of Salt Lake City. 

“Just grateful. I just wanted to break it tonight but that wasn’t the case. The stat-takers had me at half of a sack with that second one, but it’s all good,” Anae said.

The senior left end had one of his best games of the season, totaling five tackles to go with his 1.5 sacks.

“I believe he tied the all-time sack record tonight and he’s got more games to try and break that record, so that tells you how valuable he’s been over his career here. He’s a great pass rusher and he’s destined for the National Football League, and you’ll be watching him play for a lot of years,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said.

Anae got his first sack with 56 seconds left in the second quarter, ripping past Colorado’s Arlington Hambright to take down quarterback Steven Montez and force the Buffaloes to punt — setting up a Utah field goal to end the half.

Anae’s second sack — the half-sack — of the game came on third-and-17 with 1:20 remaining in the third quarter as he overpowered Hambright as Devin Lloyd came from the other side, sharing the sack. Demari Simpkins took the ensuing punt 66 yards for a touchdown.

It was a big game for Anae and the Utes with the Pac-12 South title on the line, and it was also an important game for Anae personally as it was his senior night. As he came out of the tunnel to be honored, Anae was buried in leis.

“I couldn’t even count. I barely could breathe. That’s how it is in Hawaii, just stack a bunch of leis. It helps you smell good,” Anae said.

Even with the added importance, Anae said he treated the game the same as any other. 

“It wasn’t any different from any other one. The guys, we all came in with the same attitude, the same mentality,” Anae said.

Even though the Utes held the Buffaloes to just two scores, Anae feels the defense can do better.

“As a defense, we don’t feel like were successful with this game. They scored twice and they weren’t supposed to score at all — that’s our mentality every game, no matter who it is. Just have to get better as a defense,” Anae said. 

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JAYLON JOHNSON UPDATE: After appearing to tweak his leg late in the third quarter, cornerback Jaylon Johnson was attended to by trainers in the third quarter and limped off the field but returned later in the game. 

“Jaylon is hopefully going to be OK. We’ll get a lot better gage on that tomorrow, but he went back in and was able to function — not 100%, but enough to take some more reps. It doesn’t appear to be real serious, but a lot of times you don’t know until the next day what the severity is,” Whittingham said.  

SEWELL CLEARED BY NCAA, PLAYS FIRST GAME: Defender Nephi Sewell played in his first game tonight after being cleared by the NCAA after transferring from Nevada. He had four tackles in his first action. Whittingham says that Utah will keep him under four games to preserve his redshirt. Sewell will still be a junior next year.

“It’s a big positive, especially on special teams. He’s not in the starting 11 on defense, but he was making plays on special teams. He’s a really good football player, so that adds to what we’re doing and it comes in good time because we’ve got some guys banged up that weren’t able to play tonight,” Whittingham said. 

EXTRA POINTS: Kicker Jadon Redding attempted his first field goal since the Washington game, making a 23-yard field goal at the end of the half to give Utah a 17-7 lead. ... A representative from the Alamo Bowl attended Saturday’s game. … The Utes tallied their eighth straight win, the longest winning streak for the program since the 2010 season. … Utah extended its winning streak at Rice-Eccles Stadium to 11 games in a row and capped off an undefeated season at home. … The Utes’ 11-1 regular season record is their best since the 2008 season, when Utah went 12-0 in the regular season.