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Provo • Invisible in the first half.
Unstoppable in the second half.
Like the rest of the University of Utah's offense, running back John White went from ineffective to overdrive during Saturday night's 54-10 victory over BYU at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Limited to nine yards on nine carries in the first half, White ran through the Cougar defense for 165 yards on 13 carries in the second.
White had touchdown runs of 62 and 35 yards in the fourth quarter, when the Utes buried the Cougars.
In all, Utah gained 284 of its 481 yards of total offense in the second half.
"We were able to run the ball," quarterback Jordan Wynn said. "We struggled a little bit in the first half — running the ball and controlling the line of scrimmage.
"But in the second half, I don't know what it was. We just dug deep and the O-line got it done and John was finding some creases."
Leading only 14-10, Utah scored on the opening possession of the third quarter, when Wynn used outstanding pass protection to finally find freshman Dres Anderson for a 59-yard touchdown.
Not only did the play give the Utes a 21-10 lead, it boosted the confidence of an offense that sputtered during Utah's first 2½ games this season.
"… We came out and went down and scored and that got us really pumped," White said. "We came out fired up after that and just put it to them."
With 9:25 left in the fourth quarter and Utah's lead up to 33-10, White added to the second-half explosion with a 62-yard run for a touchdown.
Just over one minute later, White raced 35 yards for another score against the deflated BYU defense. Asked what happened on those two scores, White laughed.
"Instinct," he said. "It was pretty much all instinct to me. I just got the ball, ran right behind my linemen, cut up when I needed to and scored."
A junior college transfer, White is already looking for another rivalry battle with BYU.
"I want to play another one of these games," he said. "I mean, I'm down. This is not what I expected it to be. I've been in other rivalry games — here and there — in high school. But it's never been like this."
Did he expect such a lopsided score against a BYU defense that allowed Ole Miss and Texas a total of 30 points in its first two games?
Not really.
"We just went out [as] family," White said. "We're just a bunch of warriors. We're going to defeat the opponent and that's what we did."
White by half
John White's first- and second-half rushing totals:
No. Yrd TD Long Avg
First half 9 9 0 6 1.0
Second half 13 165 3 62 10.3
Totals 22 174 3 62 7.9