Utah falls to No. 22 Iowa State as Utes lose seventh straight Big 12 game, ensuring losing season

Utah made it interesting in the fourth quarter, but the final result was the same as the last six games.

On Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium, the Utes lost for the seventh consecutive time, dropping their record to 4-7 and ensuring their first losing season since 2013.

For just the third time in the Kyle Whittingham era, excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season in which Utah finished 3-2 but elected to forgo a bowl, the Utes will not be playing past November.

Utah’s season — one of the most disappointing in program history — will end on Black Friday in Orlando, Florida, at UCF.

Despite being outgained 405-224 on offense and failing to move the ball throughout the majority of the game once again, Utah had a four-point lead with 5:51 remaining and was threatening to upset No. 22 Iowa State and throw a wrench into the Big 12 championship race.

After Isaac Wilson went to the locker room with an injury with three minutes left in the third quarter — the fourth Utah quarterback to suffer an injury this season, joining Cam Rising, Brandon Rose and Sam Huard — it was Luke Bottari who was tasked with leading a comeback and sparking an offense that had failed to get much going throughout the game.

Spark the offense, he did.

Nicknamed the “Bottari Ferrari,” Utah’s fifth-string quarterback showed off his running ability on a 10-play, 91-yard drive that gave the Utes a 28-24 lead with 5:51 remaining.

Running back Micah Bernard had his best run of the night, a 12-yard gain, to start it off on a positive note, and later in the drive, Bottari executed the read option to perfection, keeping the ball and taking off down the sideline for a 40-yard gain to get Utah into the red zone.

Suddenly, the Utes’ dormant offense had life.

A couple plays later, it was Bottari on the ground again, rushing 16 yards to the goal line. Bernard hit paydirt on the next play, bringing Rice-Eccles Stadium to its feet and giving Utah a 28-24 lead.

With less than six minutes left, Utah’s defense had an opportunity to seal the win, with the Cyclones needing to drive 75 yards. The unit had answered the bell three times during the second half, forcing a field goal attempt that missed and two punts, with Iowa State’s lone touchdown to that point coming on a short field after a botched handoff between Wilson and running back Mike Mitchell set Iowa State up on the Utah 23-yard line.

However, it was all too easy for Iowa State’s offense, which converted two third-and-1s and drove down the field for a touchdown.

Quarterback Rocco Becht made throws of 14, 12 and 10 yards on the final Iowa State drive.

“The quarterback was executing throwing the ball. He’s a really good quarterback. His efficiency rate, he’s like third in the league, so he’s a veteran that does a great job for them. Got a lot of respect for him and he just executed that drive almost flawlessly,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said.

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Cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn nearly picked off Becht on the final drive after he broke on the route, but couldn’t corral the interception. Becht and the Cyclones made the most of their new life, completing a 12-yard pass to move the chains.

Faced with another third-and-1 later in the drive, Becht pitched the ball to running back Carson Hansen, who passed it to a wide-open Gabe Burkle to move the Cyclones to the Utah three-yard line.

It was a high-risk, high-reward play, and it completely fooled Utah’s defense, which had no one around Burkle as he caught the softly-tossed pass.

Hansen took it in from three yards out to lift Iowa State to a 31-28 lead with 1:31 remaining.

“Defensively, again, we had a chance to make the stop at the end to clinch and we just can’t seem to make that final stop that we need,” Whittingham said.

But Utah wasn’t done yet.

Bottari completed three passes, including a 13-yard strike to Zacharyus Williams on third-and-five, to get Utah to the Iowa State 33-yard line.

Just as things were rolling for the Utes, however, Bottari was called for intentional grounding, causing Utah to take one of its last two timeouts to avoid a 10-second runoff and backing them up nine yards to the 42-yard line.

“On the intentional grounding, that was a route structure issue,” Whittingham said.

Utah got six yards back on the next play, taking its final timeout, then Bottari was nowhere close on a downfield pass on third-and-13, setting up a 54-yard kick for Cole Becker.

Becker’s kick was wide right, and Iowa State escaped with the win.

“To our credit, we come back and march right back down the field the other way. Really good field goal range til the intentional grounding penalty, but that made it a 54-yarder. Cole hit it pretty decently, just a little bit wide and right, I guess is what it was,” Whittingham said.

On a night when Utah’s offense struggled to move the ball — the story of the season — the Utes got key plays from the defense and special teams to keep them in it despite being outgained handily.

Wilson couldn’t get the offense going, and though he didn’t make a big mistake — he was 8 for 8 for 74 yards — he held onto the ball too long, even as the offensive line gave him ample time in one of their most solid performances of the season.

Wilson also didn’t see open receivers at times, which compounded the offense’s issues.

“I think there’s probably a combination of things. Not wanting to make a mistake is probably the top of the list,” Whittingham said of Wilson holding onto the ball too long.

“We’ve turned the ball over excessively this year, and in order to have a chance, you can’t do that. We didn’t turn over excessively tonight, so that was one of the reasons we were in the ball game.”

Utah tried to rush the ball, but it was like running into a brick wall over and over again, as Iowa State was content to load the box and dare Utah to throw.

The Cyclones came into the game with statistically one of the worst run defenses in the nation, but were able to stonewall Utah all night.

The lack of a consistent running game has been a big issue for Utah as the season has worn on, and it reared its head again. The Utes finished with 95 rushing yards, with 47 of those coming via Bottari.

Bernard rushed for just 42 yards on 17 carries (2.5 yards per attempt).

An 87-yard interception return by Lander Barton in the second quarter, which extended Utah’s pick-six streak to an NCAA-record 21 consecutive years, gave the Utes their first touchdown of the game.

Later in the second quarter, Iowa State muffed a punt, which was recovered by long-snapper JT Greep, setting Utah up in the red zone. But all Wilson and the Utes’ offense could muster was a field goal as they went backwards on all three plays of the series, with the crowd’s frustration growing.

Utah’s special teams, which were a negative in the previous two games, had one more game-changing play up their sleeves early in the fourth quarter.

Jackson Bennee blocked the Tyler Perkins punt and David Washington fell on the ball in the end zone. Utah went for two, with Bottari finding Caleb Lohner to cut the Cyclone lead to three points.

“Defense had a pick six, blocked a punt for a touchdown. Did some good things there,” Whittingham said. “That was a very positive thing to see, is making a big play on special teams.”