On Halloween night the Utah Utes dressed up in their black uniforms, but not to go trick-or-treating. Instead, the Utes hosted in conference rival Wyoming on All Hallows Eve and almost got the scare of the season after trailing going into the fourth quarter Saturday night.
For the second week in a row the Utes were held to single digit scoring in the first half after struggling to find the back of the endzone despite leading almost every offensive category.
“In the first half we couldn’t get anything going,” said Utah captain Zane Beadles. “We had to settle for field goals and shot ourselves in the foot all night in the redzone. We’re moving the ball well in between the 20s but once we get inside the 20 we need to stop making mistakes and put the ball in the endzone, that’s the bottom line.”
Despite getting into the redzone twice, the Utes failed to score a touchdown in the first half and went one for six on third down conversions. Starting quarterback Terrance Cain had been sacked twice and the Utes trailed the Cowboys by seven going into the half. But after forcing the Wyoming offense into a three and out to start the quarter, the Utah offense walked out on to the field. But Cain was nowhere to been seen, instead it was true freshman Jordan Wynn who marshaled the Utah offense out on to the field.
“We weren’t finishing drives,” Whittingham said. “We were 1-6 on third downs in the first half and had a couple sacks that knocked us out of field goal range. There were some things we thought warranted giving Jordan (Wynn) a shot.”
In his first career drive, Wynn went 4-5 and led the Utes down the field to set up a 26-yard field goal attempt by Joe Phillips, his second of the night.
“It was a lot of fun,” Wynn said. “I’ll tell you that. They told me I was going in and I prepared well all week in practice and in the film room so I was well prepared.”
Utah scored on three of it’s next five drives, one of which ended with Wynn’s first career touchdown pass to wide out Jereme Brooks. Wynn hit Brooks in the corner of the endzone with a 22 yard strike that only Brooks could bring in.
“He’s an incredibly smart football player,” Whittingham said. “I keep comparing him to Alex Smith as far as his ability to understand the game. He can do a lot of things that aren’t visible to the naked eye.”
The win was sealed up when after forcing the Cowboys to turn the ball over on downs on their own nine yard line, Eddie Wide pounded in a give yard touchdown run to put the Utes up 22-10.
Wide had a career day Saturday night when for the fifth straight game, Wide reached and exceeded the 100 yard mark, finishing with a career high 137 yards on 24 carries. Wide averaged 5.6 yards per carry and scored for the forth-straight game.
“There’s no quit in this team,” Beadles said. “We got a bunch of winners (here) and that’s the bottom line. We go out and expect to win every single day.”
After the game Whittingham acknowledged that putting in Wynn was a risky move but knew something had to be done.
“It was a risk,” Whittngham said. “It was a gamble to put him in the game but if you’re around the kid like we are and you could see how he handles himself in practice, we thought it was the right time.”
Wynn replacing Cain wasn’t the only change the Utes made to their offense on Saturday night. For the first time this season, offensive coordinator Dave Schramm was at field level working with the quarterbacks rather then being up in the box calling the plays. Wide receivers coach Arron Roderick called plays for the Utes Saturday, something he did during his time at Southern Utah University.
“I like Dave Schramm’s energy and swagger on the sideline,” Whittingham said. “(Aaron Roderick) has experience in calling plays from his time at Southern Utah and I think he did a nice job.”
Although Shramm was down on the field, the offensive coordinator still had final say on play calls and after the game Whittingham made it known that Shramm was still the team’s offensive authority.
“Dave (Schramm) is still our coordinator,” Whittingham said. “He still has final say on what we do offensively, we were just looking for a spark and looking for more continuity on the offensive side of the ball.”
Whittingham wouldn’t go as far as to name Wynn the starter for next week’s game against New Mexico and said that the decision will be made Monday after watching film. Wynn, who many thought may red shirt this season, said after the game that he was ready for the coaches to call his number.
“(Red shirting this season) was definitely a possibility,” Wynn said. “Obviously it’s late in the season but I told (coaches) if they wanted me to play I was ready to play.”
Richard Payson/The Daily Utah ChronicleTrue freshman quarterback Jordan Wynn made his debut in the third quarter of the Utes? game against Wyoming on Saturday. Wynn led the Utes to a come-from-behind win and finished the day 9-14 with 82 yards and a touchdown.
Mike Mangum/The Daily Utah ChronicleA group of fans in ?Crazy Lady? costumes dances along with her between the third and fourth quarters.