Utes win in football and basketball

The Utah Utes (9-2, 6-1 MWC) defeated the San Diego State Aztecs (7-4, 4-3 MWC) in football Saturday night by a score of 38-34. The Utes badly needed this win after getting embarrassed the past two weeks with the eyes of the nation on them. Jordan Wynn played quite a bit better tonight and I'm glad for him. I'll cheer for him when he's in there even though I did think Terrance Cain should have been given more of a look the past two weeks. But anyway, Wynn and the Utes came back to get this win after trailing 20-3 early in the second quarter. Wynn threw a 47-yard touchdown pass on a hail mary to Kendrick Moeai on a tipped ball on the last play of the half to put the Utes in the locker room trailing just 27-24.

San Diego State got a lucky touchdown on a pass that was deflected, caught and run in for a score on a ridiculous play that Utah should never have allowed to happen, but Utah responded with a score. The key play was a blocked punt that Utah recovered inside the five yard line early in the fourth quarter with the Aztecs leading 34-31. Utah was able to score a touchdown on an Eddie Wide run on fourth down that gave them their first lead of the night and also ended up being the final score at 38-34. I would have just kicked the field goal there and taken the tie, but Coach Kyle Whittingham always seems to go for it in those close type of situations and it often works out as it did tonight. And I'm not going to complain about the win.

SDSU quarterback Ryan Lindley threw for over 500 yards, but also threw 3 interceptions on the night, all three in Utah territory (two in the fourth quarter) that ended scoring chances. I credit the Utes with making some adjustments for the second half after looking completely helpless against the pass in the first half. It's never good when the opposing quarterback throws for over 500 yards, but the Utes were able to get some timely interceptions and stiffen up enough on defense in the second half.

This win showed to me that Utah has not given up on their season as they showed a lot of fight when they could have just folded the tent after falling behind by 17 early. I'm glad the offense showed up tonight. This gives me encouragement heading into the big rivalry game against BYU (6-5, 5-2 MWC) next Saturday in Salt Lake City.

As for basketball, the Runnin' Utes (3-0) defeated in-state foe Weber State (1-2) in Salt Lake City by a score of 90-75. Will Clyburn once again led Utah in scoring, pouring in 27 points. There were a lot of guys who got into the scoring act today and I was really encouraged by that. The Utes were playing from ahead the entire game and started both halves on 7-0 runs that just made things that much more comfortable. It just seemed like a good overall team effort today. One thing that I didn't like was that there were so many foul calls on both sides. It just felt like someone was shooting free throws the entire game from one team or the other, just let them play basketball, a little contact is a part of the game. I don't think that Utah would have lost or anything, it's just more fun to watch basketball when the game isn't being officiated too strictly. I usually don't like to say anything about the referees, but I thought they were just very whistle happy today, which is in stark contrast to last year's Utah-Weber State game in Ogden where there wasn't a stoppage of play for at least the first 8 or 9 minutes of the game (which I don't remember having a problem with). Fortunately, most referees don't seem to have this extreme of a problem of being too strict.

A really cool thing happened to me today. Utah forward Jay Watkins made eye contact with me during warm-ups, well before the game tipped off when there weren't very many fans there and then came over and stuck his fist up to the guard rail where I gave him a fist bump. It was really cool. Jay Wat is really cool and he had a pretty good game himself, as did a lot of guys today for the Runnin' Utes who next play at in-state rival Utah State (2-1) on Wednesday night.