Big games come around every so often in the regular season, usually in the latter part of the fall, but perhaps the biggest game for Utah fell upon the Utes in a hurry on Saturday afternoon, the 21st of September, against an opponent they hadn’t played since the year World War II ended, in a stadium in which they’d never played, for the early advantage in a league in which they’d never played.
They say the first time anyone or any team does anything, it’s the hardest.
Well. Try it with a backup freshman quarterback. How hard could it be? Not as difficult as you might have thought. In fact, let’s say it all plain here: On Saturday, despite Utah’s circumstances being unique, their foe being novel, their setting being odd, their consequence being new, the Utes kicked … how should we say this? … fanny. That’s a nice enough word for the one-sided violence that occurred.
The only familiar thing for them was the outcome, a 22-19 win, this particular one over Oklahoma State, which happened to be their first official Big 12 game and their first official victory in that conference. Oh, and also there was that one other bit of familiarity: the way they achieved it.
The Utes not only beat the 14th-ranked Cowboys, they beat them up, stood over them with their arms clenched and folded, like Cassius Clay over Sonny Liston, their heads bobbing, laughing at their opponent’s pain. Ignore those last two touchdowns and 2-point conversions by OSU. OK, in a game in which the Utes were conservative throughout, they got too conservative in the last fistful of minutes, when they led, 22-3, but we’ll get to that in a minute. The game was all but done by then, the triumph tucked away.
In that overall manner, then, the new guys, who a whole lot of people figured would be the best team in the Big 12, took a huge step forward in turning those guesses into reality at Boone Pickens Stadium, transforming the abnormal to the normal … their normal.
For them to do all of that, to win the way they did, without Cam Rising, the single player so important to them, the quarterback who warmed up beforehand but could not go when the lights turned green, suffering still from a shrouded injury to his throwing hand, was most — or mostly — impressive.
They depended on the fundamentals and foundations upon which Utah football has been built under Kyle Whittingham — punch-you-in-the-mouth offense and club-you-in-the-chin defense.
Utah linebacker Johnathan Hall (3) and safety Tao Johnson (15) tackle Oklahoma State running back Ollie Gordon II (0) in the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Stillwater, Okla. (AP Photo/Mitch Alcala)
If Big 12 teams remained skeptical about Utah’s ability, fresh out of the namby-pamby Pac-12, to take victory against them by roughing them up, they got a puffy eyeful here.
How so? That Ute resistance held Oklahoma State, a team that had been averaging better than 300 yards passing and triple digits rushing, to a mere 48 yards on the ground and 237 through the air, much of those gains coming on the back of desperation in the back half of that aforementioned fourth quarter, when only a miracle would give the Cowboys life.
At game’s end, Whittingham stared into a camera and correctly said: “We didn’t need to make it as dramatic as we did at the end.”
But drama mattered a whole lot less than a full press of physical football.
Utah’s attack was nowhere near as explosive as it could have been had Rising played. Since he didn’t, offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig pulled back on the reins, opting for conservative play-calling, what with Isaac Wilson under center, from start to finish. Frequently, the Utes ran on first down, ran on second down, and put Wilson in something of a vice, counting on him to pick up first downs on precisely executed third-and-5-type situations. At times, Ludwig opted instead for a run on third down, too, and if that failed, the Utes situationally went for it on fourth down.
It wasn’t the most scintillating brand of ball, but before anybody and everybody complains too loudly about that, which should be complained about some, especially with what happened late, remember those three Ute turnovers in the initial half, and the fact that Oklahoma State went through early periods when it appeared as though the Cowboys had little chance to move the ball consistently against the real stars of this game — those Utah defenders.
We’ll give Ludwig a pass, but not an A-grade, on his slow-plow approach.
Before we get to that defense, folks can appreciate what Micah Bernard did for Utah’s cause here. He rushed for 182 rugged yards, repeatedly battering through the OSU defense, and all Ute backs combined for 249 yards, which should shine a light on the big’uns up front who graded proper road, enabling Utah to possess the ball for a majority of minutes.
The Utes’ defensive players, though, were the ones who best represented to its new conference not just what Utah football is, but what it’s mostly about, what it’s been about, what it is about — lightning jabs to the noggin, body shots to the belly, bruises all around.
Utah running back Micah Bernard (2) runs past Oklahoma State defensive end Obi Ezeigbo (33) in the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Stillwater, Okla. (AP Photo/Mitch Alcala)
Hello, Big 12, welcome to football with taped knuckles, heavy gloves and nasty-bad intentions.
Beyond questions on this initial occasion about whether the back end of Utah’s D could interrupt Oklahoma State’s pass game or the front end could slow running back Ollie Gordon or whether the Utah attack could move the ball, with or without Rising on the field, was a much more significant, comprehensive question: Relative to top-end teams in the Big 12, how would these pompous newcomers from out yonder somewhere, from the other side of the Wasatch, measure up on the road in their first confrontation with an established league opponent?
Turns out, the strangers in a strange land responded to that question by measuring up just fine, even without their team leader, without their most important player, the fellow with the Captain Jack Sparrow getup, the wherewithal and charisma to fire up his crew on offense and defense, the one who is bound to heal soon. The daunting question remains for the rest of the Big 12: How formidable will these strangers be when Cam Rising returns, when the offensive engine revs, when Whittingham and Ludwig turn Rising and the rest of their guys loose, when Utah football is whole again? He will return, that is, right?
Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.
