LARAMIE, Wyo. — After an up-and-down first half in which he threw for 109 yards on 56% accuracy and rushed for 52 yards but couldn’t lead the Utes to the end zone, quarterback Devon Dampier took control in the second half.
Dampier engineered touchdowns on all four second-half drives and posted a second-half stat line of 118 yards and a score through the air, completing 13 of his 16 passes, and adding 37 yards on the ground in Utah’s 31-6 win at Wyoming.
It was a night-and-day difference from his play in the first half. Dampier was efficient and more decisive and due to his play, the Utes rarely faced third down. Utah was 4 of 10 on third down in the first half and a perfect 5 for 5 in the second half.
“Just finishing drives, capitalizing on third downs, obviously fixed that in the second half,” Dampier said.
While the Utes still don’t have a consistent downfield passing attack — Utah attempted just two passes of over 20 yards; both were incomplete — Dampier made the right plays in the second half to lead Utah to its third victory.
“I thought Devon played really well,” Whittingham said. “... He’s a playmaker and again, did not throw an interception, didn’t turn it over, did a nice job distributing the ball.”
The Ute quarterback had a 23-yard run on third-and-7 to set up Utah’s first touchdown of the game in the early third quarter and followed that up with a 23-yard completion to Dallen Bentley on third-and-21 on the next drive.
On that same drive, Dampier turned in one of the most unique plays of his career.
On second-and-8 from the Wyoming 8-yard line, Dampier pulled his arm back to pass and the ball slipped out. Instead of diving on it, Utah’s quarterback calmly picked it up, thanks to an offensive line that prevented the Wyoming front from breaking through to the backfield.
Dampier surveyed the field and threw into a tight window to Larry Simmons, who caught it for his first touchdown as a Ute.
“It was a heck of a play by Devon to keep the play alive, picking up that one ball and finding Larry Simmons in the end zone,” Whittingham said.
The highlight play capped a lengthy 19-play drive that took 7:23 off the game clock and put Utah up 17-0 at the end of the third quarter. The touchdown practically sealed the win with the way the Ute defense was playing on Saturday.
“That’s our second drive of that length, I guess, this year. So that’ll wear a defense out too,” Whittingham said.
Aside from Dampier’s play on the field, one moment off of it stood out.
During a first half where the offense struggled to score, Utah had its best opportunity yet with under three minutes in the second quarter.
Defensive end John Henry Daley — tied as the nation’s sack lead with five on the season — strip-sacked Wyoming quarterback Kaden Anderson to set Utah up at the 46-yard line.
After a couple passes from Dampier to Ryan Davis and an 11-yard Wayshawn Parker run, Utah was at the Wyoming 19-yard line with its best chance yet to get into the end zone.
Dampier handed the ball off to Nate Johnson, the quarterback-turned-running back, who ran to the Cowboy 7-yard line but had the ball stripped by Desman Hearns. Wyoming safety Andrew Johnson recovered it and the Cowboys got the ball right back after turning it over themselves.
After committing Utah’s first turnover of the season, Johnson was downtrodden on the bench with a towel draped over his face.
“I’ve said it many times, two weeks into the semester we have a leadership council vote. He was a landslide member by the votes he accumulated from the rest of the team after only two weeks being around him,” Whittingham said. “He is a guy that has that magnetism of leadership of, follow me, I’ll show you the way and here we go.”
That leadership quality was on display after Johnson’s fumble on Saturday. As Johnson stewed about his mistake on the bench, Dampier went over to him, took the towel off of his head, lifted his chin up and offered some words of encouragement.
“Nate used to play quarterback and I told him quarterback is a very leadership position and you’ve been in that situation before. Bad things happen all the time. I mean, it’s football, it’s not going to always go your way,” Dampier said.
“So just getting his head (up), telling him, get up, don’t show that to the crowd, don’t show that to our players. People are looking at you right now, you know what I mean? So carry yourself high, carry yourself with confidence and one play doesn’t define you.”
It’s easy to be a leader when things are going well; it’s what you do when things aren’t going your way that stand out. In that moment with Johnson, Dampier showed his leadership ability again.