Travis Wilson — C
13-for-26 for 110 yards, 67 yards rushing
At this point, I feel bad for quarterback Travis Wilson. First, he loses the best and No. 1 option for this Utah offense in Devontae Booker for the rest of the season. Then, one of his favorite targets, freshman sensation Britain Covey, goes down with an injury early in the game. And for the remainder of the game, receivers struggled to get any separation from the Bruin defense, making it hard for Wilson to produce. In the end, the senior had a lackluster performance on one of the biggest stages of the career, and failed to lead the offense to the end zone even once. The odds are stacked against him, but Wilson isn’t doing much to help his case, either.
Joe Williams — C+
26 carries for 121 yards, 4 catches for 31 yards
Filling in for one of the best running backs in Utah history is one thing. Being asked to do it with the Pac-12 South title on the line is an even taller task, and that’s exactly what backup Joe Williams was asked to do when he replaced the injured Booker on Saturday afternoon. To his credit, Williams played admirably and even broke the 100-yard plateau. But the junior had a costly fumble and missed a couple of catches that normally would have normally been caught by Booker. Williams will be good, maybe even great for this Utah program moving forward, but it’s clear he has some things to work on if he wants to be great.
Defense — B
It seemed like it was going to be a long day for the defense when UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen and company came right out of the gate slinging, scoring on their first drive of the game. But luckily for Utah, the defense settled down and held the Bruins to just 17 points and 325 total offensive yards, both season lows for them. However, it’s apparent that this Utah secondary plays too aggressively at times which results in big plays and blown coverages. This has been a lasting issue all season long and it was again on Saturday night.
Special teams — B+
Another good, but not great, performance from this unit. The good grade mainly comes from the boot of kicker Andy Phillips, who scored all nine of Utah’s points himself via a perfect 3-for-3 night on field goals. Meanwhile, his partner-in-crime Tom Hackett pinned three of his five punts within the 20-yard line, including a rocket for 67 yards, to help out the Utah defense the best that he could. All that said, the kickoff coverage was still a little spotty and there were no big plays on any of the four punt returns throughout the game. Again, it was a solid night from the special teams group, but it lacked the big plays that can swing the momentum in Utah’s favor.
@GriffDoug