SALT LAKE CITY — Going into Saturday night’s showdown between Utah and California, Bears' quarterback Jared Goff had thrown just four interceptions in his previous four games on 178 attempts.
The Ute defense surpassed that total with five interceptions in a late-night 30-24 victory at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
It took less than a half for Goff to match his season total as the Utah defense picked off four of his passes, which helped stake the Utes to a 24-17 halftime lead. Then in the second half, Dominique Hatfield made his second pick of the night to stop a drive late in the fourth quarter. However, the Utes couldn't rest easy until Boobie Hobbs knocked down a fourth-down pass at the U. 12-yard-line with 26 seconds left.
"The secondary did a great job, especially against a team and quarterback like that,'' said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. "They were ball hawks out there tonight. I thought we did a nice job with our coverage, disguising our coverages and applying pressure.''
The first interception came on Cal’s first offensive series as Marcus Williams intercepted his fourth pass of the season off a tipped pass, returning it 18 yards to the Utah 33.
The next one came late in the first quarter when Hatfield intercepted Goff at the Cal 25-yard line. However, the Utes couldn’t capitalize as Andy Phillips missed a 48-yard field goal.
The third pick came right after Utah’s Travis Wilson had been intercepted as Justin Thomas picked off the pass at the goal line and returned it to the 5.
Paul got the fourth pick of the half after Hunter Dimick deflected Goff’s pass at the line of scrimmage. That led to Utah’s third touchdown of the half as Devontae Booker ran it in.
In all Cal had five first-half turnovers, with the other being a fumble caused by Gionni Paul and recovered by Williams and six on the night, including Hatfield's fourth-quarter pick.
The Utes had two first-half turnovers, both interceptions of Wilson passes, and another in the third quarter when Booker fumbled at the U. 27.
SCOTT TALKS: Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott was on hand for the nationally televised game and had a lot of good things to say about Utah and the strength of the conference this year.
When asked about Utah and Cal being the only unbeaten teams in the league right now and playing on EPSN, he joked, “Everyone circled this game, right?"
He then talked seriously about the competitiveness and parity of the conference.
“I think most people said at the beginning of the season that it's really hard to pick our conference and know what the pecking order will be,’’ he said. “It’s got a lot of depth and competitiveness. On any given day a team is capable of winning in the conference. We’ve got a lot of parity in the conference.''
Scott also said there was “no news” on getting on the Pac-12 Network on DirectTV.
“We'd love to see them carry it,’’ he said. “But it’s unlikely to be anytime soon. I’m disappointed because I was hopeful when AT&T bought DirectTV that would lead to a more reasonable approach and it didn’t.’’
"GAMEDAY" GATHERING: A crowd of a couple of thousand got up early to be on hand for ESPN's "College GameDay" at Presidents Circle in front of the Park Building.
Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Rece Davis and Desmond Howard were joined by former Utah Jazz great John Stockton, who was the surprise celebrity “picker.’’
Everyone picked Utah to win the game, with Corso donning the head of the Utah mascot Swoop. Stockton also donned a red Utah hat when he made his pick, saying “Sack Lake City” would prevail.
EXTRA POINTS: Devontae Booker's 222 yards was the second best rushing performance of his career, behind a 229-yard night against Oregon State last year . . . The crowd of 47,798 was the second-largest ever at Rice-Eccles Stadium. This was Utah’s 34th-straight home sellout ... The Utes were playing for the first time on a new FieldTurf surface that was installed during the break between their last home game against Utah State on Sept. 11 and Saturday. ... Utah wore throwback uniforms with an interlocking "UU" logo on white helmets and on the red jerseys with white pants. ... Most of the 1998 Utah basketball team that finished second in the NCAA tournament to Kentucky was introduced at halftime after being inducted into the Ute Hall of Fame the night before. Among those on hand were Andre Miller, Alex Jensen, Michael Doleac and Hanno Mottola. ... NFL scouts from Miami, Arizona and the New York Jets were on hand for the game.