HOUSTON, Texas, Oct. 27, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — If Ute football fans thought changing offensive coaches mid-season would be the cure for what ails them, they might want to guess again. Another sluggish offensive performance led to a nasty 17-14 last-second loss Saturday night in Houston, despite a quarterback change halfway through the game.
The Utes are now 4-4 overall on the season and a disappointing 1-4 in Big 12 Conference play, a conference they were predicted the win by preseason prognosticators.
It was just one week ago Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig resigned after a three-game losing streak. He was replaced by senior offensive analyst and quarterbacks coach Mike Bajakian. Despite the change, the song remains the same.
Ute fans were hopeful the team was on the road to curing their offensive woes courtesy Utah’s quick scoring strike on their second play of the game, a 71-yard bomb from starting quarterback Isaac Wilson to tight end Brant Kuithe. But while the Utes continued to move ball early on, they failed to score for the rest of the first half, including two missed field goal attempts which would end up costing them dearly.
A foreshadowing of things to come began with 11:54 to go in the second quarter, when Houston quarterback Zeon Chriss evened the score with a 21-yard touchdown toss.
Tied 7-7 as time expired in the first half, the still hopeful Utes headed into the locker room with 218 yards of total offense, compared to just 99 for Houston, but as has been the case for the last four games, they had little to show for it on the scoreboard.
In the third quarter the Utes tried to juice their offense by bringing in QB Brandon Rose, but Utah didn’t score again until after linebacker Johnathan Hall, snared his first interception with 5:01 remaining in the third quarter. Hall, who recently moved from a safety position, scampered 24 yards to the Cougars’ 22-yard line and three plays later Utah regained the lead 14-7 on a 14-yard rush from running back Micah Bernard.
Down the stretch in the fourth quarter, it looked like the Utes had finally taken charge. The defense put the clamps on Houston’s own lackluster offense, forcing them to go three-and-out; but then, as has been the case throughout the season, the Utes failed to cash the checks the defense had written. After converting a third down 11-yard pass, the offense shot itself in the foot. A false start penalty, followed by a three yard loss gave Houston the break it was waiting for. Chriss stepped in, stepped up, and ran for a first down on fourth-and-six. He then tied the game 14-14 with a 28-yard touchdown dart to wide receiver Joseph Manjack IV.
The Utes had another chance to take lead, but a midfield interception at the hands of UH defensive back A.J. Haulcy stopped Utah in its tracks. With 1:55 left in the game, Houston took over on its own 46-yard line and ran eight consecutive running plays, driving to the Utes’ 25-yard line. As the clock ticked down to final seconds, senior Jack Martin split the uprights with a 43-yard soul-killing kick sealing Utah’s fate.
The final score: Houston 17, Utah 14.
In the post-game post-mortem, Head Coach Kyle Whittingham lamented the loss, but said he still believed in the team.
“We seem to keep finding the same blueprint to lose,” Whittingham said. “First of all, we’re not scoring enough points. 14 points won’t get you many victories. We’re having a hard time rushing for 100 yards. We’re having a tough time making first downs, only 12 first downs.
“Defensively, we’re having a hard time stopping the run. They had well over 200 rushing the football. We did some really good things on defense, great red zone defense, had a couple key stops in the red zone, turnovers on downs. We’re still not making the impact plays, one takeaway, zero sacks. We typically try to make five or six impact plays.
“For the last several weeks, that’s been a struggle. We missed a couple field goals that would’ve been key in the outcome, but you’re not going to make every field goal. It just seems to be a pattern of how we’re not getting it done each week. Obviously, we as coaches need to be better, starting with me. Every issue we have in this program is on my shoulders and that’s fine with me. I still have a lot of belief in this football team. We’re just in a funk of sorts that we can’t seem to break out of.”
Regarding the third quarter quarterback swap, Whittingham said it was a calculated move designed to breathe life into the sagging offensive effort. He also hinted at a possible change in the starting quarterback position.
“We were trying to get a spark, trying to create something,” Whittingham explained. “We’d only scored one touchdown and we didn’t seem to be gaining momentum, so we figured it was time to give Brandon an opportunity. He came in and he scored one touchdown as well, so we got one touchdown with each of those guys at QB. We’ll grade the film and there’s a good body of work from each guy.
“Of course, Isaac has a much bigger body of work from this season. We’ll see how Rose did with his reads and what he did with the opportunities that he had and then make a decision on which one of them we’re going to go with. I’m not saying Isaac has lost his job, but everybody has to play to a certain standard and the quarterback position is no different. We’ll take a long look at that.”
The Utes’ quarterback was thrown into chaos early in the season, when longtime starter Cam Rising was sidelined with two injuries, the last of which, a severe leg injury, was deemed to be season ending.
As for last week’s offensive coaching change, Whittingham said Bajakian made some progress, but there was more work to be done.
“He did some good things. He was put in a tough spot. We didn’t think he was going to create a miracle in five days on the job. I thought we added some things to the offense that were helpful. The touchdown to Kuithe on the second play of the game was an addition. I think there was some good, bad and elements to the offense. We still came away with about 300 yards and only 12 first downs, so the end result is still not what we need it to be.”
The Utes now head into their second BYE week before taking on the BYU Cougars in Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 9.
The game time and TV network schedule will be announced at a later date.
