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No. 7/8 Utah (11-0, 7-0 MWC) hosts No. 14/16 Brigham Young (10-1, 6-1 MWC) in the Deseret First Duel Rivalry game on Saturday, Nov. 22. Kickoff is 4:00 p.m. MT in Rice-Eccles Stadium. The game, which is sold out, will be televised on The Mtn.
For the second straight week, Utah is ranked No. 7 in both the USA Today Coaches' Poll and the BCS Standings. It is Utah's best BCS standing since the 2004 Utes climbed to No. 6. The Utes are No. 8 in the Associated Press and Harris polls.
Utah has clinched a share of the Mountain West Conference title--its fourth since the league's inaugural year in 1999 and its first since winning back-to-back titles in 2003-04. Utah shared the title in 1999. With the guaranteed share, Utah is currently tied with BYU for the most MWC Championships (4).
Utah is 11-0 for just the second time in school history and can tie the school record of 12-0 set in 2004 with a win Saturday.
Utah is tied for the longest win streak in the nation with Texas Tech and Alabama. Dating back to last year's Poinsettia Bowl victory, the Utes have won 12 straight games. Utah has won 19 of its last 20 games.
The Utes have the second-longest current bowl win streak in the nation at seven games. Losing to Utah during the streak were Fresno State (1999), USC (2001), Southern Miss (2003), Pittsburgh (2005/2004 season), Georgia Tech (2005), Tulsa (2006) and Navy (2007).
Utah is 5-0 all-time in games when both Utah and its opponent were nationally ranked--including a 1-0 mark against BYU (in 1994, No. 21 Utah beat No. 20 BYU 34-31).
Utah leads the all-time series with BYU 52-33-4 (includes a 3-3 record when BYU was called BY Academy). Utah leads 35-17-3 in Salt Lake City.
KING LOUIE
Louie Sakoda, a leading candidate for first-team All-America honors as a kicker this year, was a first-team All-America punter last year (FWAA, CBSSports.com). Sakoda was selected as the 2008 Midseason All-America placekicker by CBSSports.com, The Sporting News and Rivals.com. He is a top-20 semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award (nation's top placekicker) and top-10 semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award (nation's top punter). The most decorated weekly performer in Mountain West Conference history, Sakoda has won 11 career special teams player of the week awards, including four this season. He is also a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete, a Draddy Trophy finalist (which comes with an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship), a Wuerffel Trophy finalist and a finalist for the Lowe's Senior Class Award.
SENIOR SENDOFF
Nineteen Ute seniors will be recognized in a pre-game ceremony Saturday: Freddie Brown, Brent Casteel, Terrell Cole, Robert Conley, Bradon Godfrey, Dustin Hensel, Brian Johnson, Darrell Mack, Brice McCain, Clint Mower, Greg Newman, John Peel, RJ Rice, Deshawn Richard, Louie Sakoda, Colt Sampson, Corey Seiuli, Ray Stowers, Aaron Tonga.
TRADING PLACES
Utah's coaching staff has three BYU graduates, including head coach Kyle Whittingham, who played linebacker for the Cougars from 1978-81. He was a first-team all-Western Athletic Conference pick and the WAC Defensive Player of the Year in 1981. Aaron Roderick (receivers) and Kalani Sitake (linebackers) also played for BYU. Roderick played receiver from 1997-98 and Sitake was a fullback in 1994-95 and 1999-2000.
AT STAKE
Two rivalry contests are at stake this Saturday--the Deseret First Duel and the Beehive Boot. The Deseret Duel Rivalry Series is tied 6-6 this year--the second year of the competition--after volleyball (Utah 6) and soccer (BYU 6) competitions. Saturday's football game is worth 10 points to the winner. The gridiron victor will also take possession of the Beehive Boot, which is contested by the three NCAA Football Bowl Division teams in the state--Utah, BYU and Utah State. In its 37-year history, the Beehive Boot has gone to Utah 10 times, BYU 21 times and USU six times.
LAST WEEK
Brian Johnson threw five touchdown passes, Freddie Brown had a career-high 110 receiving yards and two TDs, and Deshawn Richard scored back-to-back touchdowns on interception returns to lead Utah to a 63-14 victory over San Diego State. Utah, which clinched a share of the conference title with the win, recorded 520 yards of total offense, converted on 13-of-14 third downs and never punted. Louie Sakoda tied the school record by making nine extra point kicks and was one of the only starters still playing in the fourth quarter. The rout began early when Stevenson Sylvester forced a fumble on SDSU's first drive and Koa Misi recovered. Johnson then marched the Utes 53 yards and found Colt Sampson in the end zone for his first of five first-half touchdowns.
KYLE STYLE
Fourth-year Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham is 35-14 overall and 3-0 in bowl games. He is a candidate for the George Munger, Bobby Dodd and Paul `Bear' Bryant national coach of the year awards. Since he joined the staff as a Ute assistant in 1994, Utah has won nearly 70-percent of its games (121-55). Utah has played in nine bowl games during Whittingham's tenure--winning eight. Prior to becoming Utah's head coach in 2005, he spent one season as the defensive line coach and 10 years as the defensive coordinator.
OUTSIDE THE LINES
The Mtn. will produce its football studio show live on location for the first time at Saturday's Utah-BYU game. Bill Doleman and Beau Morgan will host The Mtn. Live at the Stadium from the southwest corner of Rice-Eccles Stadium ... The annual Utah-BYU Rivalry Week Food Drive will run through Nov. 22 with all money and food items donated by Utah supporters going directly to the Utah Food Bank. The alumni associations from the two schools compete in two areas: food and funds. For more information, go to www.alumni.utah.edu ... The ROTC programs from Utah and BYU will hold their annual ball run on game day. Members of the BYU ROTC will run the game ball to the Point of the Mountain and hand it off to Utah cadets, who will run it to Rice-Eccles Stadium. Both programs will run on to the field and hand the game ball to the referee.
Quotes from Kyle Whittingham's Weekly Press Conference
Opening statement:
I felt that we played a good football game on Saturday, particularly on offense. Brian (Johnson) might have had his best game of the season - he distributed the ball very well. He did turn the ball over once, but it was a near perfect game. The receivers played very well. Freddie Brown had a big night and David Reed had some big catches and overall the receiving corps did a nice job. We ran the ball effectively, particularly Matt Asiata. We did a lot of good things on offense - turnovers were at a minimum, we put points on the board and had very few penalties. We only had one false start. It was a clean game. Defensively, we didn't play our best - we were a little soft at times - but we did have three takeaways. Deshawn (Richard) had two of those at the end to get the Mountain West Conference Player of the Week. That's a nice honor for him. The special teams were not much of a factor. Brent (Casteel) and David Reed had some nice returns - it was good to see some big plays generated. Louie (Sakoda) did not punt once, the way we controlled the football is a credit to our offense. He did not have a chance to kick a field goal but he was perfect on PAT's. It was a positive way to go into our final week of the season.
Obviously we are getting ready for the rivalry game, but it's business as usual as far as preparation. Our mentality is not going to change and we are not going to change anything we are doing. There is a little more intensity than a regular conference game but you can't deviate from the formula that you have. It will be a normal week of practice. A lot is at stake in this game, we all understand that - it's the main reason the game is gathering so much attention, the circumstances we are playing under. We have to keep things in perspective, play our best football, control what we can control and not worry about the postseason.
On the seniors:
There are 19 of them and it's been a very good class with great leadership. They've had a heck of a run here. A handful have been here for five years and they have been to five bowl games - to end with a Mountain West Conference championship is fitting for those guys. It's a very strong class, we are going to miss those guys. A big thanks for all they have done for our program and for their hard work and dedication.
On pressuring the quarterback:
That will be big factor with both quarterbacks. TCU was able to do that against Max Hall. Any quarterback that sits back and has 4-5 seconds is tough to defend. Pass defense starts at the line of scrimmage and getting to the quarterback. Each and every week that is job No. 1 in the throw game.
Brian (Johnson) is very mobile and has done a good job with his ability to escape. He took sacks early and started to do a much better job of that. I know we're above where we are in the first half as far as avoiding sacks.
On Utah's offense:
They've had a lot of people analyzing them all season long. They are leading the conference in scoring offense and are third in total offense. They haven't always been as potent at times, but you have to judge the season as a whole and they are doing a nice job. If you look back the offense has been pretty effective.
On injuries:
We have some bumps and bruises - the standard toll a season will take on you. Kenape Eliapo took 25-30 snaps last week and we sat Koa Misi in the second half for precautionary reasons but he will play next week.
On not practicing on Monday:
We haven't practiced the last four or five Mondays, except last Monday when we had a short turnaround. We have to make sure we don't wear guys out during the season.
On Freddie Brown:
He keeps getting better and better. We saw it in the spring - he was the most improved guy in the spring. We were expecting it to be a breakout year, we started off good and as we've gotten better it's culminated in our best game last week. The light switch went on and he is continuing to get better.
On Austin Collie and the BYU offense:
We have to cover him. Max Hall is a good quarterback and Collie runs good routes. We have to play good pass coverage. He leads the nation in receiving yards per game and is certainly one of their go-to guys. Between him, the tight end (Dennis Pitta) and the running back (Harvey Unga), those are three good weapons Max has at his disposal.
They do a great job of setting things up for [Collie]. A lot of his deep balls come off action passes - they will set up the run to set that up for him.
On BYU's defense:
Their front seven are physical and they have good size up front. They have given up a few things in the throw game but they played several quarters of shutout ball at one point. They are not as consistent as they'd like to be but they have been effective.
On the rivalry:
Our guys have got to treat it as if it was a normal week. We can't go crazy and lose our composure and poise. We have to prepare the same way we have for 11 straight weeks. There is a pep rally today and things going on around campus, but our guys are well grounded and they understand the big picture and will handle things just fine. The fans are rabid and passionate and they will get after each other a little - that's the name of the game.
We are putting up good numbers on offense, their defense is playing well, our offense is playing well and they've played a lot of solid football games on defense. You can analyze 19,000 different angles on paper but you have to go play the game. The last three seasons fans have gotten their money's worth.
