Utah turning point: Failed fake punt dooms the Utes


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SALT LAKE CITY — With just under 13 minutes left to play in a 24-24 tie game, the Utes lined up to punt the ball away on fourth down with six yards to go.

Punter Sean Sellwood took the snap, and instead of putting his foot into it, he wound up to throw. The fake punt pass sailed behind Mike Honeycutt, who reached back for the ball, managing to secure it after bobbling it briefly.

But the poorly thrown pass and subsequent bobble gave the opposing special teams unit the time to sniff it out and make the stop. Arizona's Kylan Butler brought Honeycutt down four yards short of the sticks, and the Utes turned the ball over on downs.

Utah's Mike Honeycutt makes a catch short of a first down and ending Utah's hopes of a comeback as the fall 34-24 to Arizona (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
Utah's Mike Honeycutt makes a catch short of a first down and ending Utah's hopes of a comeback as the fall 34-24 to Arizona (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)

"The fake punt was designed great by (special teams coordinator) Jay Hill, the throw was just behind our guy," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "When (Honeycutt) had to adjust back to catch the ball, it allowed the defender to catch up to him. Otherwise he was running for a lot of yards. It was drawn up beautifully, we just didn't execute it."

"I thought that was the play of the game, without question," said Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez. "If (Butler) doesn't make (the tackle), (Honeycutt) might still be running. Even though we were yelling at him, 'watch the fake, watch the fake' and all that, that's a tricky little deal that (our special teams unit) hadn't seen before. I thought he made a tremendous play."

The possession change put the Wildcats' potent offense at the Utah 41-yard line, where they marched right down and scored the go-ahead touchdown four plays later, making it a 31-24 ballgame.

The Utes were unable to make up ground from there, ultimately suffering a 34-24 loss to shatter their delicate bowl hopes.

Despite losing the momentum change after failing on the fake punt, Whittingham didn't regret calling the play.

"You take chances," Whittingham said. "You don't second guess yourself, you don't look back. You're playing aggressive, playing to win. We haven't had an exceptional amount of risks this year — we probably haven't taken enough risks. We usually have more fakes dialed up than we had this year, and we thought that was a good opportunity."

It marks the first year since 2002 that Utah won't play in a bowl game, ending a nine-year streak.

"It's tough, no doubt about it," Whittingham said. "We've got to regroup and keep recruiting hard. That's the name of the game. We've got to keep recruiting and keep trying to make ourselves better."

Tyson Maddy has covered University of Utah athletics as a contributing writer for KSL.com sports since 2011.

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