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CORVALLIS, Ore. — The only thing in question Saturday night was whether No. 15 Utah’s running back Zack Moss would break the school’s career rushing record in a 52-7 win over the Oregon State Beavers.
Moss, who was sidelined in Utah’s (5-1, 2-1 Pac-12) last game after a shoulder injury, put up a solid night for the Utes to cut into the program’s rushing record. The senior running back finished with 121 rushing yards and two touchdowns, including a 91-yard rushing touchdown in the first quarter, to come within 55 yards of breaking the career rushing record at Utah.
But Moss will have to wait for another week to break the record after the Utes claimed a 35-0 halftime lead and he was pulled from the game for the second half. Moss, though, tied the school record of career games rushing over 100 yards at 14, and is two touchdowns short of tying the all-time career rushing touchdowns record.
Moss said he had people on the sideline tell him how close he was to breaking the record this week, but he said it will be a good experience next week to potentially break the all-time record when Utah welcomes Arizona State to Rice-Eccles Stadium. He said he’ll have his family in attendance at the game.
“It'd be a good experience next week,” Moss said. “I'll have my mom, my dad come to the game and things like that. So I'm kind of happy I was able to get out here early, and the guys were able to put the game away early so I can probably have the opportunity next week.”
His coach, though, said he wasn’t worried about the rushing record, but wanted to give his starting running back some touches before a big game next week. He added that Moss was still not 100% healed from his injury Saturday, so it was advantageous to pull him early to limit his contact in the game.
“It didn't matter. I couldn't tell you how close he is or was — I'm not sure,” Whittingham said. “Hopefully we get it at some point in this year, but no that wasn't a consideration. After halftime we made the decision to shut him down and didn't want to risk it. And hopefully he'll be that much healthier this coming week.”
Utah got on the board first on a 21-yard touchdown pass up the seam from senior quarterback Tyler Huntley to tight end Brant Kuithe. The Utes would add four more touchdowns in the half, including a 64-yard pick six touchdown by linebacker Devin Lloyd. Defensive end Bradlee Anae tipped the pass to make it possible for the touchdown.
The Utes added to the score in the second half with a 1-yard rushing touchdown by running back Devin Brumfield, the first of his career at Utah. And then freshman running back Jordan Wilmore added a 7-yard rushing touchdown of his own, a first for him as a Ute, to close out Utah’s third-quarter play.
The Utes managed 503 total yards of offense in the game, but had 257 of that in the first quarter alone.
Huntley finished the night throwing for 247 yards and two touchdowns on 14-of-17 passing. He finished the night with a 243.2 quarterback rating and is one of only two quarterbacks in the country to not throw an interception in more than 100 passing attempts this season.
The Beavers (2-4, 1-2 Pac-12) had two scoring opportunities in the first half but failed to convert on two field goal attempts — a 44-yard attempt to start the second quarter and a 42-yard attempt to end the first half. The Beavers finished the night with 217 total yards of offense and a solitary touchdown late in the game after Utah had pulled its starters.
Coming into the game, Oregon State averaged over 200 yards in both the run and passing games, but Utah limited the run to only 48 yards and 169 passing yards. Most importantly for Utah, they limited the impact of standout receiver Isaiah Hodgins to only 77 yards on eight catches.
“Defense played well, played the run tough, which for us that's the starting point on defense,” Whittingham said.
Utah returns home to welcome No. 18 Arizona State (5-1, 2-1 Pac-12) to town in a potential South Division deciding game. The game kicks off Saturday at 4 p.m. on the Pac-12 Networks.
