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SALT LAKE CITY — It was all Utah in the opening stretch of its road contest against the undefeated No. 21 Colorado Buffaloes Saturday.
A Brant Kuithe 24-yard reception, a 17-yard Ty Jordan run and a 7-yard receiving touchdown by Solomon Enis to highlight an opening Utah series to take an early 7-0 lead. It was the best drive of the year in only the team's fourth game of an unusual season.
Utah's defense came to play, too, and held Colorado to a three-and-out opening series behind a key sack by freshman safety Nate Ritchie.
All that came to a halt in the first half as Utah was forced to punt the ball five times and Colorado went on to score two touchdowns behind an 81-yard punt return for a touchdown from Brenden Rice, the son of NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice.
But Utah answered back in the second half to pull away for an 38-21 win and to ruin the perfect mark for the Buffaloes in the team's first season under head coach Karl Dorrell.
After all the good Utah (2-2) did on its opening drive, the rest of the half was the antithesis of that as the Utes stalled on offense, struggled to contain the passing attack of Colorado (4-1) and found themselves with an early 14-7 deficit and all the momentum in Colorado's favor.
The one saving grace for the Utes was a fumble by Colorado's Jarek Broussard with under 30 seconds left in the half. The turnover, which would be one of three committed by the Buffaloes in the game, turned the tide as Utah recovered the ball and managed to hit a 42-yard field goal from Jadon Redding to make it a 14-10 game at the break.
Utah quarterback Jake Bentley struggled in the half to hit open receivers and turned in a 10-of-19 passing performance that got the attention of his quarterback coach and offensive coordinate Andy Ludwig.
"Andy had a pretty stern talk with him at halftime and let him know he needed to play with more confidence, just be better overall, and Jake responded," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "That was great to see. Jake's a competitor, he's a tough kid, he's a veteran."
Bentley said he shook off the first half with a "so what, now what mentality."
"There's some things that happened that were negative, but so what, and then now what — now what do we have to do?" Bentley said. "And I think starting up front we just came out with just a mindset to dominate the second half, and it was just so exciting to see the guys' faces just light up with excitement as we were just moving the ball and actually having fun playing."
The momentum changed slightly back into Colorado's favor at the start of the second half when Rice escaped on a 61-yard reception to make it a 11-point game. But Utah answered back with a touchdown drive of its own that was capped off by a Jordan 18-yard rushing touchdown to make it a one-score game.
Colorado's offense was stifled on the ensuing drive as Utah's defense forced a three-and-out series. And from there it was all Utah as the team reeled off 21 more unanswered points to defeat the Buffaloes.
"Proud of this team. They hung in there and fought their way out of tough spot, go into the halftime down 14-10 and promptly gave up a touchdown right out of the gate in the second half — no way to start the second half, or surely not the ideal way — but they never flinched, hung in there, offense got clicking and scored 28 points in the second half."
Bentley hit junior wide receiver Britain Covey on a wide-open 20-yard toss in the end zone for the go-ahead score. It was followed up by a 66-yard rushing touchdown by Jordan, who went untouched up the seam to pay dirt, and two field goals (43 yards and 38 yards) by Redding.
Covey finished the day game with 210 all-purpose yards, including multiple returns on punts and kickoffs to give Utah good field position. Jordan added 166 all-purpose yards, including 147 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
Bentley, who had one interception in the win, finished throwing for 240 yards and two touchdowns on 20-of-32 passing.
And though the offense started to come alive in the second half, it was the stout and young Utah defense that forced Colorado into limited play-making abilities and several hurried-up plays with Utah's defense swarming Noyes in the backfield. Utah's defense held the Pac-12's leading rusher Broussard to 80 yards on 14 carries.
Colorado finished with three turnovers, including two fumbles and a costly second-half interception by Noyer. The former safety-turned-QB finished the day throwing for 258 yards and two touchdowns on 16-of-34 passing before leaving the game to the locker room in the fourth quarter for a time after a tackle from Utah's Nephi Sewell.
"Those young guys are responding," Whittingham said. "We're excited about the future, I can tell you that. They've got a big upside looking ahead."
Utah awaits its final opponent of the regular season, with a decision on who they will play expected sometime Sunday. The game is expected to be a home game for the Utes, though it's not guaranteed.
