This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In his first rivalry game as BYU's coach, Kalani Sitake will be remembered for the bold choice of ordering a two-point conversion in the last 18 seconds.
Ty Detmer will be known for the play-call that failed miserably in his first appearance against Utah as the Cougars' offensive coordinator.
The former Heisman Trophy winner joked last spring about how fans' view of him as such a wonderful figure in BYU history would change as soon as they disagreed with any of his decisions. And here came a big one, in his second game as a college coach. After quarterback Taysom Hill executed Detmer's offense nicely during a 75-yard drive that could have forced overtime Saturday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium, Sitake put the game in Detmer's hands.
The would-be winning play completely crumbled on the Cougars. Obviously determined to run, Hill was stuffed on the conversion attempt and Utah escaped with a 20-19 victory.
I'll endorse Sitake's decision, because overtime is by definition a 50-50 proposition. Nobody can say for sure the Cougars would have won in OT. "I'd do it again," Sitake said.
Sitake recognized his defense had been on the field for Utah's 19-play drive in the fourth quarter, leading to a field goal. A similar argument could be made about Utah, having just defended a 13-play drive, but the difference was BYU was missing two defensive backs due to targeting ejections and would have been weakened in overtime.
"I would have done the exact same thing if I was in his shoes … I think he made definitely the right call," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, Sitake's friend and former boss.
The next question is whether Whittingham would have supported Bronco Mendenhall under similar circumstances. Regardless, the entire problem was in the design and execution of the last play. BYU messed it up from the start. Even after a timeout, the Cougars were missing a receiver, who had to hustle into the formation. And when running back Algernon Brown motioned out of the backfield, it became fairly obvious that a quarterback draw was the call, even if Hill had other pre-snap options.
Even before then, actually. "Yeah," Whittingham said, "I expected that."
Almost to the same extent as a fake field goal (which BYU executed in the first quarter) or fake punt, a QB draw needs an element of surprise. It also works better against a zone defense, with defenders dropping into coverage. Hill is a prolific runner, as the Utes know. If Tanner Mangum were BYU's quarterback, for example, the play may have had a better chance of success.
In any case, a bunch of tacklers led by Hunter Dimick swarmed Hill and the Utes could celebrate a sixth consecutive win in the series for the first time since the 1960s.
Imagine the story angles if the Cougars had succeeded in the end. Sitake would have been celebrated for being courageous enough to authorize the two-point play. Detmer would have become more immortalized, if that's possible, for drawing up the winning scheme. And Hill would have made his return for a fifth season completely worthwhile if he had completed a two-point pass.
Instead, this game ended much like his first significant appearance as a freshman in 2012. That's when he was denied on a two-point play in a 7-6 loss at Boise State.
Hill never will get another chance to beat the Utes, having lost 20-13 in his only start against Utah in 2013. Sitake and Detmer will have other opportunities, but they'll have to live with this outcome for a long, long time.
"I love the ball being in Taysom's hands," Sitake said, in Detmer's defense.
Here's the thing about rivalry games: Somebody loses them, as much as anybody is responsible for winning them.
The reasons the Cougars lost are the exact same explanations, in reverse, for why Utah won. And if the Utes could win, even while losing six turnovers, that speaks to their defense's toughness and BYU's inability to exploit the mistakes.
The Utes won this game because they allowed BYU to turn its six takeaways into only 13 points. They won because Troy Williams regrouped just before halftime, leading a touchdown drive that ended with his 21-yard pass to Tim Patrick. They won because they took more than 11 minutes off the clock in the fourth quarter while driving from their 10-yard line to the BYU 7, before settling for an Andy Phillips field goal that ultimately made the difference.
A few more observations:
• While the situation was less dramatic, Whittingham's decision to kick a field goal on a fourth-and-inches play with less than three minutes remaining actually was more complicated than Sitake's. If the Utes had gone for a first down and succeeded, they could have scored a clinching touchdown or at least taken more time off the clock and forced BYU to use its two timeouts before kicking a field goal.
If the Utes had failed to convert, BYU still would have needed a touchdown to win, and the Cougars would have started from their 7-yard line instead of the 25 (after the kickoff). Considering they didn't score until 18 seconds remained in the game, that 18-yard difference may have been significant. Whittingham's logic simply was to make it a seven-point margin, but a lot of variables were in play.
• BYU's unhappy ending came at the south end of Rice-Eccles Stadium, where the Cougars had a would-be winning field goal blocked in 2010 and a field goal that would have forced overtime hit the left upright in 2012, in their previous two visits.
• That area of the field is also where Utah stopped then No. 5-Stanford on two pass plays into the end zone from the 6-yard line, with 2 yards to go for a first down. The Utes preserved a 27-21 win as a blitzing Jared Norris — on a similar defensive call as Saturday's two-point play — hurried quarterback Kevin Hogan on fourth down.
Twitter: @tribkurt