9 straight - Utah tops BYU 30-12 in the 100th Holy War

There’s a talent gap people. That’s been debated for a while, but there is a definitive talent gap between these two programs. Utah ran away from BYU on Thursday night into Friday morning. The Utes jumped out to a good start, after forcing a BYU punt, the Utes drove down the field for a field goal to take a 3-0 lead in the game.

After a BYU field goal, like rivalry game fashion, the Utes picked off Zach Wilson for a 56 yard INT return for a TD, from Francis Bernard of all people, the former Cougar. Utah would miss the PAT, one of two missed kicks on the night, giving the Utes some pause with the kicking game. Going into half the Utes were up 9-6, and it felt like it going going to be a nail biter.

The Utes came out in the second half and killed BYU’s soul. To open the third quarter, the Utes had a 9:47 drive for a touchdown. BYU countered with a punt, and then Utah took over again and drove the ball again before missing an easy field goal. Fortunately, the Utes picked up a fumble and Zack Moss took it in from 22 yards out on a 3 play drive. 30 seconds later, Julian Blackmon picked off Wilson for another pick six. Up 30-6, the game was over. BYU did get a TD pass the following possession on a Ty’Son Williams touchdown run, and with 9:19 remaining in the game the sky opened and lightning came out and we had a one hour delay, because of course. After that hour, the Utes ran out the remaining 9:19 of the clock to get the win.

Utah possessed the ball for 36 minutes on the game, and most of that came in the second half when Zack Moss and the offensive line dominated. Moss ended up with 188 yards on 29 carries, and was ripping dudes apart. Huntley was an efficient 13-16 for 106 yards, showing the game plan was to run the ball down BYU’s throat and let Moss do his thing.

That’s nine straight wins over BYU, and now Utah has a couple of tune up games, especially in the kicking game, and to continue to refine the passing game as we get into USC in three weeks.

We’ll dive into this more over the coming days, but the Utes are now 1-0, hoping for bigger on the horizon.