It took a while, but Utah’s passing game has finally come to town.
In the Oct. 10 game against Cal, quarterback Travis Wilson threw for only 170 yards, going 16-for-26 with one touchdown. Those numbers increased dramatically this time around – Wilson went 26-for-36 for a total of 297 passing yards and two touchdowns against ASU on Saturday night.
“Travis threw the ball pretty good,” said head coach Kyle Whittingham. “Had some good numbers – nearly 300 yards.”
A key to Utah’s passing game was wide receiver Kenneth Scott, who finally managed to make himself heard midway through the season. Scott had a career-high 116 receiving yards against the Sun Devils, leading the receivers in yardage by a wide margin. He was followed by Tyrone Smith, who trailed behind with only 50 receiving yards.
So how does Scott feel about his second touchdown of the season, his career-high and his breakout performance?
“It was cool,” he said. “The stats is cool. I’m just happy we got the W.”
Scott dodged attention by giving all the credit for his success to Wilson and the rest of the offensive line.
“Credit to Travis and the O-line,” he said. “Travis had trust in his receivers to go out there and make plays, and we just … caught the ball.”
Of course, “catching the ball” is no easy feat against an Arizona State defense that held running back and Heisman candidate Devontae Booker to only 62 yards until the last few minutes of the game, when Booker ran for a touchdown and doubled his total yards. Wilson also felt the heat of the Sun Devil defense, being sacked five times throughout, for a total loss of 44 yards.
“I mean, they blitzed pretty much every play,” Wilson joked in regards to the Sun Devils’ defense.
Scott doesn’t just credit the numbers to Wilson, though – he also cites the senior quarterback as his motivation, explaining that he wanted Wilson to end the season – and his college career – knowing that he’d left “a legacy.”
“I texted Travis [Wilson] the other day, saying I wanted him to leave a legacy,” he said. “I just texted him to tell him how great of a quarterback he was, and I wanted him to leave a legacy that everyone would remember him by, because he gets a lot of scrutiny.”
Wilson’s four-year career has ricocheted from major successes to stints of failure and injury, causing the “scrutiny” Scott referenced. But nowadays, and partly thanks to Scott, Wilson stands as Utah’s No. 1 quarterback and doesn’t seem to be in any danger of losing that position.
“[Wilson] just did a good job of going through his reprogressions,” Whittingham said. “Picking up where it needed to go with the football.”
Wilson did well, Scott did well, and though special teams may not have had the showing Ute fans have to come to expect, the Utes can claim victory against the Sun Devils for the first time since joining the Pac-12 and the first since 1967.
“We knew it was going to be a fight,” said Gionni Paul. “ASU always plays big. We just had to come in and fight. That was the recipe.”
Utah can now move forward still undefeated – the only team in the Pac-12 that can claim a zero in the loss column.
“We couldn’t ask for a better spot going into Week 7,” Whittingham said.
In the words of Kenneth Scott – pretty cool.
@EmilyJuchau