Utah still looking for first third-down conversion

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By DOUG ALDEN AP Sports Writer

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- It's the second game of the season and Utah is still looking for some firsts.

The Utes have yet to convert on third down and also haven't caused a turnover, two things that didn't help them last week in a 31-10 loss at UCLA in the season opener.

"Those are the two most alarming stats," coach Kyle Whittingham said.

Utah hosts Northern Arizona on Saturday, and the Utes hope there is a quick turnaround against the Division I-AA Lumberjacks.

The Utes were 0-for-11 on third downs against the Bruins and couldn't get UCLA to cough up the ball once in 75 plays. UCLA fumbled five times, but recovered each one and shut out the Utes in the second half.

"We didn't play up to our potential," linebacker Kyle Brady said. "I don't think it's so much they caught us by surprise as we didn't execute the way that we should have. We didn't play with much passion. We were kind of lackadaisical it looked like."

The Utes were better on fourth downs (1-for-3) than on thirds. And they couldn't stop UCLA on third downs, either, allowing the Bruins to convert six of 14.

Brett Ratliff, who will be making his first start at home Saturday, completed 13 of 31 passes with one touchdown and one interception. In his two previous starts, Ratliff threw for eight touchdowns and one interception.

"Last week was just a fluke. That's not going to happen again," Ratliff said. "I just want to go out there and prove that I can play on a consistent basis."

Ratliff was hardly the only Ute to have a bad day. Backup Tommy Grady spelled Ratliff for a series in the second quarter and threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown.

Whittingham said this week that the play has received far too much attention and had little to do with the overall performance, which he said was bad.

"We need to get back on track. We didn't play well last week. That's the bottom line," Whittingham said. "We didn't coach well. We didn't play well."

Whittingham was more upset with his receivers than with Ratliff and Grady. The coach said the Utes were passive while running their routes and in blocking and had plenty of video from last week's game to make his point clear.

"It's a situation where the eye in the sky does not lie and we'll find out Saturday if we got the message through," Whittingham said.

Bringing in a I-AA team such as Northern Arizona means some extra revenue from another home game, but it isn't a guaranteed victory. New Mexico and Colorado both lost last week to I-AA opponents and Northern Arizona played then-No. 24 Arizona State close for three quarters before the Sun Devils won 35-14.

The Lumberjacks have had a week and a half to recover and prepare to give the Utes another scare, or better.

"Utah presents a lot of difficult matchups all over the field," Northern Arizona coach Jerome Souers said. "They're a very good football team and the game against UCLA shows what an outstanding team they (the Bruins) are, so we know Utah is going to come out extremely motivated."