The Hive Sports

By: Joe Oliver 

Saturday, November 9th, 2024. Emotions were high on both sides as this instant classic game went down to the final two plays. BYU trailed 19 – 21 with under 2 minutes remaining in the game. They were on their own 9-yard line. Fans dressed in BYU blue began exiting the stadium as Utah fans prepared to rush the field! That’s when everything changed. 

Final drive:

1:56 left. First down from their own 9-yard line. BYU quarterback, Jake Retzlaff, (aka the BYJew), targeted Chase Roberts in a 20 yard pass attempt which was incomplete. 1:48 left. Second down, the Utah defense pressured Retzlaff to throw the ball out of bounds. In what appeared to many as his 3rd intentional grounding penalty, yet he was never called on it. 1:41 left. Third down and 10 yards to go, Retzlaff again was pressured and overthrow his intended receiver. 1:35 left. Fourth and ten. The Utes defense came up huge with a sack in the end zone! The stadium erupted! However, a flag thrown in the secondary was huge against Utah! One of the officials made what has since become a controversial call claiming holding on Utah cornerback, Zemaiah Vaughn. That 10 yard penalty gave the Cougars an automatic first down with 1:29 remaining in the game. 

On the very next play, Retzlaff connected with Roberts for a 30-yard completion. The clocked stopped for first down. Next play was a pass completion to Darius Lassiter who ran out of bounds to stop the clock at 1:07. Utah called a timeout. Then BYU’s Hinkley Ropati rushed for 14-yards to move the chains to within striking distance. False start against BYU took them back 5 yards. A quick rush brought them back to the 27 yard line where they called a time out. A few more rush attempts to get the ball closer to the center of the field led to a BYU field goal attempt. The clock was still running as kicker Will Ferrin stepped up and drilled a 26-yard field goal, putting the Cougars up by 1 point with 3 seconds left on the clock!

The complete turnaround in emotions brought euphoric Utah fans to despair and disbelief. The BYU faithful who remained had felt down most of the game erupted in pandemonium!

On the ensuing kick off return, Utah needed to return the ball 91 yards in order to score and retake the lead. With no time remaining on the game clock, multiple laterals and touches by several players eventually led to ball stoppage near mid-field and BYU pulled off the comeback of the week! 

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The University of Utah football team was selected unanimously by the press as a preseason favorite and front runner to win their newly joined Big XII Conference. Cam Rising was set to be the shining star to lead the Utes to a Big XII championship and another Rose Bowl appearance. Rising was injured early on in the season against Baylor. True freshmen Isaac Wilson was forced to step up and fill shoes that might have been too big too soon, as the Utes dropped 3 straight after that. Cam made a comeback to play against Arizona State. However, his performance during that game was sub par and he sustained an injury which has since sidelined him for the remainder of the year. After disappointing both fans and critics by losing four straight, Coach Kyle Wittingham started sophomore Brandon Rose Saturday night against their in-state rival Cougars. 

Rose, brought a spark of hope to the Utah faithful in his first start. He threw for 112 yards on 12/21 passes, including 2 touchdowns. He also ran for 55 yards and only had 1 interception. However, late in the 4th quarter, Rose suffered a season ending injury which will require surgery. Brant Kuithe and Money Parks also suffered season ending injuries in the game. 

BYU’s quarterback, Jake Retzlaff completed 15/33 passes for 219 yards. He was sacked 3 times for a total loss of 12 yards. BYU had 339 yards total offense compared to 259 for Utah. Both teams had 10 penalties each and both held the ball offensively for nearly the same amount of time. 

An attendance record was set at Rice-Eccles with an all-time high of 54,393. With most of them staying until the bitter end, hoping to rush the field in victory! Yet, the 8-0 Cougars clawed their way back in that 2-minute drill to move the chains 70 yards to get close enough to continue their undefeated season. 

Utah is now 4-5 overall (1-5 in Big XII Conference play). BYU is 9-0 (6 – 0 in the Big XII) and this win propelled them to 6th place in the nation. There are only 3 other unbeaten teams in division 1 college football, besides BYU. However, it remains to be seen in the Cougars strength of schedule will propel them to potentially play for a national title or not. Even if they win out the rest of their games. 

Utah on the other hand has a lot of work to do in the remaining three games. Including this week’s matchup on the road against a team on fire in #18 ranked Colorado. Looking towards next season, Coach Kyle Wittingham has discussed retirement and with their injuries and lack of success so far this year, they’ll have a lot to fix in the off season. With 3 quarterbacks out for the rest of the season, Utah will likely return to put their current and future hopes in Isaac Wilson.