Utah beat SUU 24-0 in the season opener at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Thursday night, but it wasn’t the start to the season the Utes envisioned going into the game.
Head coach Kyle Whittingham is glad his team got the win — in spite of the shutout — but his team failed to meet his expectations.
“We got a win, but It wasn’t exactly what I expected,” Whittingham said. “We never had complete control of the game, it was tougher to score than I anticipated it would be, but we got to be more explosive on offense.”
Troy Williams ended the game with two touchdowns and 272 passing yards on 20-of-35 passing. Tim Patrick was the leading receiver with 105 yards on five catches. Troy McCormick had a solid outing with 55 rushing and 55 receiving yards.
But even with numbers like that, Troy Williams was also disappointed in Utah’s overall play. However, he does think the Utes eventually pulled it together towards the end of the game.
“First game jitters is all I think it was,” Troy Williams said. “The offensive line was great and I still have great confidence in them no matter what, those are my brothers. We’re going to clean it up and be ready for next week.”
Marcus Williams shined for the defense after he caused one fumble and one interception.
Utah opened up the game on offense, and despite not completing his first attempt, Troy Williams found a rhythm and on a 3rd and 8, he rushed for 10 yards, and he got the first down. Soon after that, he threw a 52 yard pass to Raelon Singleton to bring the Utes to the seven yard line. The SUU defense held strong and halted the Utah offense from going any further, and an Andy Phillips’ field goal gave the Utes a 3-0 lead.
SUU’s offense immediately used the run game to its advantage. After a nine yard rush, the Thunderbirds made it past midfield on an ensuing run, but Marcus Williams put a stop to any potential momentum SUU was gaining.
Marcus Williams caused SUU to fumble, and Utah recovered the ball on the 33-yard line. Utah steadily made its way down the field, but on a third down Troy Williams attempted to pass to Joe Williams, but a referee got in the way, and Phillips missed a field goal.
After some lackluster play from both sides, Marcus Williams stepped up again, and he got an interception at Utah’s 47-yard line. The Utes then made it all the way down the field, and after Troy Williams hit Evan Moeai for an 18-yard gain to bring up a first and goal, McCormick found his way into the end zone with a four yard rushing touchdown, giving the Utes a 10-0 lead.
The Utes forced the Thunderbirds to a three-and-out following the score, and when they punted back to the Utes, Bobbie Hobbs ran it back 35 yards to SUU’s 37-yard line. Troy Williams then hit Troy McCormick for a 33-yard gain. Troy Williams soon found Patrick in the end zone for a touchdown, bringing the score to 17-0.
Both teams failed to get anything going in the third quarter.
The Utes started to move the chains and looked poised to score once they crossed onto SUU’s side of the field, but momentum soon shifted. Joe Williams fumbled the ball and SUU recovered it, but neither team scored in the third.
The fourth quarter appeared to be more of the same from the third, but Troy Williams went deep and connected with Patrick for a 57-yard touchdown, the final score of the game.
All in all, Whittingham would call this victory bittersweet, because while Utah got the win, there’s still a lot more that he needs his guys to do if they stand a chance against BYU.
“The degree of difficulty is going to get higher in the ensuring weeks and that’s why we’re bittersweet, because we know that performance won’t be good enough down the road,” Whittingham said.
Up next the Utes will face BYU on Saturday Sept. 10 at 5:30 p.m.
@kbrenneisen