AMES, Iowa — Thanks to one of the best performances of Wayshawn Parker’s career, No. 15 Utah escaped Jack Trice Stadium with a 31-17 victory over Iowa State Saturday to open Big 12 play and improve to 4-0 on the season.
Parker ran for 174 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries and added 65 receiving yards and a touchdown to contribute a total of 239 all-purpose yards in the Utes’ win.
It was clear from the opening snap that it was going to be Parker’s day. With the white-clad fans at the mostly-full stadium in a frenzy as Utah took the field for the first possession of the game, it was Parker, not quarterback Devon Dampier, who took the snap.
Parker turned toward Dampier, then darted toward the middle of the field, squeezing between a couple of Iowa State defensive linemen before beating safety Duhron Goodman in a footrace for a 54-yard touchdown that put Utah up 7-0 fewer than 20 seconds into the game and quieted the raucous crowd.
“That was huge. They wanted to give us the ball first,” Dampier said. “We take that personal anytime a team wants to give us the ball first. For way to break that, for the (offensive) line to make that hole for him, huge excitement.
“Definitely silenced the crowd a little bit. Just kind of felt like we had momentum during that time and we just kept using it, kept building off of it.”
Parker’s 54-yard opening salvo was just a taste of his performance Saturday. After a quiet game last week against Utah State with just 30 rushing yards, Parker proved why he’s one of the best running backs in the Big 12 with a game that saved a dreadful third-quarter performance by the Utes on a dreary day in Ames.
“Really proud of Wayshawn Parker,” Utah coach Morgan Scalley said. “I mean, this is a guy that all he does is everything that you ask. You watch this kid when he doesn’t have the ball and he goes and he runs and blocks and he picks up his teammates and he celebrates with his teammates.
“He deserves everything good that comes his way. Really proud of him.”
Whether Parker was running the ball or catching it, it was tough for Iowa State’s defense to bring down the 205-pound running back, especially in the first half. Of his 65 receiving yards, 62 came after the catch, and an astounding 137 of his 174 rushing yards came after contact.
On one play in the first half, Parker made five Iowa State defenders miss.
Parker’s biggest offseason improvement was in the receiving game, where he’s become a reliable option for Dampier. After four games with a total of 154 receiving yards, Parker is already close to surpassing his 2025 13-game total of 185.
But Parker didn’t just shine on his touchdown runs and catches Saturday. He was counted on in a number of short-yardage situations, including a fourth-and-1, and came through time and again, sucking the energy out of the stadium throughout the first half.
Then, when the Utes absolutely needed a touchdown to put the game to bed late in the fourth quarter, the Utes went back to Parker, who only got two carries in a third quarter wherein Utah didn’t possess the ball much.
“He deserves everything good that comes his way. Really proud of him.”
— Utah coach Morgan Scalley on Wayshawn Parker
With the Utes up just seven points with 7:26 left after forcing a three-and-out on their best defensive stand of the game, offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven made sure to give Parker the rock on the game-deciding drive.
Parker carried the ball three consecutive times to start the drive and got the Utes deep into Iowa State territory, then finished off the possession with a 13-yard touchdown reception from Dampier on third-and-1.
“Just knowing coach McGiven, he already told me that he was going to put the ball in my hands. Going out there and knowing that I got the team on my back, it just made it much easier,” Parker said.
“The O line, you got to get props to the O line first. They made some gaps for me to go through. Got to give props to Dev because he’s a dual threat. They got to worry about him, too. Going on that field, I already knew it was going to work and what was going to happen.”
That touchdown essentially polished off a game that got dicey in the second half for the Utes.
It was certainly a tale of two halves for Utah. The Utes dominated the first two quarters, shutting down the Iowa State rushing attack.
Without being able to rely on the rushing game that got them out to a surprising start this season, the Cyclones managed just 41 rushing yards in the first half. Lead running back Aiden Flora was stymied by Utah’s defensive front, rushing for only 14 yards during the first two quarters.
The Utes hit the locker room up 24-3 after outgaining the Cyclones 272-139 behind Parker’s monster half and an efficient 12-for-15 passing performance by Dampier.
While McGiven’s offense showed a lot of trickery in its first three games, it was encouraging that Utah didn’t need to rely on that to move the ball and score touchdowns.
In fact, the first half was as “vanilla” of an offense as we’ve seen all season from the Utes, though Scalley considers what many people call “trick plays” just part of the normal offense.
“It’s just game plan by game plan, what are their strengths? How are we going to expose that or take advantage of that? And our offensive staff did a really nice job of making sure based on the looks they were giving us, that determined what we were going to try and do to them,” Scalley said.
But the second half looked like a completely different Utah team.
Iowa State dominated the third-quarter time of possession 10:01 to 4:53 as it found much more success offensively, moving the ball with ease to start the second half.
The Cyclones only faced two third downs on the opening 12-play, 82-yard drive that ended with a Jalyen Raynor keeper that fooled everyone on Utah’s defense.
Iowa State then closed the gap to seven points to open the fourth quarter with another lengthy drive. Raynor converted a third-and-7 on a scramble, and even when the Utes forced the Cyclones into a fourth-and-12, the home team still converted with a pass from Raynor to Utahn Dominic Overby that moved the chains after a lengthy review.
On the next play, Raynor found a wide-open Overby again to pull the Cyclones within 24-17.
“What did they do differently offensively? Well, a little bit more in the throw game to take advantage of man coverage that we were in, some pick schemes, some stuff like that,” Scalley said.
“Obviously they were trying to create mismatches, putting a wide receiver in the backfield, shifting them out on air, but probably a little bit more in terms of trying to take advantage of man coverage.”
After the Utes did nothing with their next possession, it was on the defense to come up with a big stop in the fourth quarter after struggling in the third.
“I got to be better decision making,” Dampier said of the offense’s third-quarter performance. “A lot of that falls on me, where I’m getting the ball out, where I’m looking on the field. A lot of those were in passing downs, so I just got to be more efficient on my part.
“But we learn from those. We got things to learn from from this game and promise we’ll come back stronger.”
Facing adversity for the first time this season, Utah showed impressive resolve in digging deep and forcing a three-and-out that was capped off by an Elijah Elliss sack.
“You look at near the end when we started to bring six, put more heat on the quarterback, that’s when I thought we had some success, so tried to just counter that with bringing the heat,” Scalley said.
After the Iowa State punt, Parker found pay dirt on the ensuing series to make sure the Utes remained undefeated.
It was not a pretty win, especially after the offense stalled out in the third quarter and the defense began to show cracks, but Utah improved to 4-0 after its first real test of the season.
“Man, did we need to face some adversity,” Scalley said. “I thought we handled the adversity really well from the crowd, the crowd noise, the ability to get the stops there at the end when we needed it for the offense to convert, so really proud of how those guys finished.”
