Utah had another penalty-heavy game on Saturday, Oct. 22 against UCLA, but it managed to keep the majority of the penalties in the first quarter of the game. Utah racked up 71 yards in penalties just within the first half, with one of the calls negating a touchdown. Though the team had a messy start, it managed to clean it up, and the Utes won their seventh game of the season, 52-45.
“We talked about it all week that even though [UCLA] is 3-4, they are still a good team,” said senior Brian Allen. “Our defense came out and executed to perfection, and we piggybacked off of our offense. Even those guys go out to make a play, we want to do the same. It was a collective team effort, and I am glad we got the win.”
While Allen felt the defense played near perfect, head coach Kyle Whittingham saw a different game from his defense.
“It wasn’t our typical way of winning a football game,” Whittingham said. “Our defense was struggling today.”
On UCLA’s third drive of the first quarter, the string of penalties began with a pass interference call on senior Reggie Porter. That same drive saw another pass interference, this time called on junior Jordan Fogal. Again, Utah took another penalty by sophomore Cody Barton for roughing the passer.
After the Bruins scored their first touchdown, Utah started its drive with a face-mask penalty by senior Evan Moeai. The Utes seemed like they couldn’t complete one drive without fouling as Dominique Hatfield racked up another penalty, this one for holding.
Fortunately, Utah cleaned up its game, and didn’t see its next foul until the last drive in the first quarter when senior Isaac Asiata was flagged for illegal blocking. After that, the Utes managed to play the rest of the game with only three penalties.
Junior Garett Bolles was called for holding in the first play of the second quarter. The following quarter featured only one penalty as well for a personal foul from freshman Donavan Thompson, and in the last quarter, Porter was again called for pass interference
Allen said that even though this game featured a lot of penalties against his team, just like the Arizona game, it was never really a concern for him.
“Our brand of defensive is always physical — it’s nasty,” Allen said. “We just came out and we dealt with [UCLA]. Unfortunately, a lot of calls didn’t go our way in the first first half, but after halftime adjustments, we got everything fixed and we got the win.”
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