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In high school, he was a Texas 200-meter champion.

You wouldn't know it from the way Justin Thomas was huffing and puffing at the end of 55-yard inteception return.

As he crossed into the end zone, "I was out of gas," the junior nickel back said. "My teammates were on me after that. I was running slow."

Outside of track star standards, it was fast enough. Thomas got the pick and looked back. Neither did the Utes in their 24-17 win.

One of three interceptions Utah got on the night, it put the Wolverines down for good.

"That was probably the play of the game," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. "If you have to pick one play of the game, it would probably be that one."

Sharrieff Shah has described Thomas, who has started at nickel since his freshman year, as arguably Utah's most irreplaceable defensive back. The 5-foot-8 pass-deflecting specialist is nimble and has a knack for covering guys who are bigger than him — which is almost everybody.

In Shah's words during camp: "We don't have a guy who can do 50 percent of what he does."

To that point, one of the few things Thomas hadn't done was pick off a pass. Until he did Thursday, in dramatic fashion.

The interception soothed a critical defensive error late in the game, when linebacker Gionni Paul drew a personal foul for a late hit on third down. The penalty kept the Michigan drive alive, and Jake Rudock threw a 19-yard strike to Jake Butt with 46 seconds left in the third quarter.

It went from a safe win to a one-score game with a whole quarter left. Thomas' play helped erase the mistake.

"When I saw he caught that interception, it brought relief to my heart," Paul said, contrite after the game.

The defense has preached a message of getting four turnovers and a score each game, and they came awfully close on Thursday. Cory Butler-Byrd caught his first interception as a Ute on the first drive after showing sticky hands in fall camp. Marcus Williams was in position for a pick on a Rudock overthrow, helping sway the tide for Utah's second straight win against Michigan.

It was a good tone-setter for a relatively new secondary. Thomas was certainly smiling about it.

"We came a long way man," he said. "Three picks? That's great."

Twitter: @kylegoon