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TEMPE, Ariz. — No. 13 Utah's first drive of the night ended in a punt.
It was about the only thing that stopped the Utes from putting distance on an Arizona State team still reeling from its head coach being fired six days before the first conference game of the season. Utah's defense set the tone on Arizona State's first drive and recorded a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage and then back-to-back sacks to force the Sun Devils to punt.
And then Utah's offense went to work. In a drive that lasted only two plays and went 53 yards in 22 seconds, the Utes scored the first touchdown of the night en route to a 34-13 win on the road. Arizona State scored a late 11-yard passing touchdown with two minutes left in game, but by then the damage was already done.
And though Utah started out Pac-12 play with a dominant win on the road, it came with a cost.
At the end of the first quarter, tight end Brant Kuithe caught a pass for a first down as time expired. As he got up, he clutched his right knee and couldn't put any weight on his leg. For the next 20 minutes, Kuithe was looked at by several training personnel in the team's medical tent before he peaked out with no pads on, a towel over his head and ice wrapped around his knee.
Kuithe's night was officially done.
It was even more convincing that the injury was serious when Kuithe then transitioned to crutches on the sidelines.
"Brant Kuithe is probably the big negative of the game," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "We'll find out more tomorrow, but it doesn't look good. We'll have a report on Monday at the press conference whether or not that's season-ending.
"I just feel horrible for the kid. Such a great teammate, he's a leader, he's a captain, came back for another year to be with his team and help us win. So we'll hope for the best; it's not definitive, but, like I said, it doesn't look good."
Fellow tight end Dalton Kincaid, who had the team's first two touchdown plays, including an NFL-style catch over two defenders to reel in a grab, said Kuithe is "huge part of the offense" and a leader on the team that is going to be missed on the field. "We're still going to need to lean on him for his leadership, but that was definitely a brutal loss and it hurts a lot."
Once Kuithe went down with an injury, it took Utah a bit to settle back into a rhythm before adding a 23-yard field goal and a Ja'Quinden Jackson 2-yard rushing touchdown to scoreboard to closeout the half with a 24-6 lead.
Jackson, who has been Utah's third-string quarterback since he transferred to the program, was inserted into the lineup this week as a backup running back to freshman Jaylon Glover. Jackson finished the night with 27 yards and one touchdown on eight carries.
Whittingham said Jackson was approached about playing the position earlier in the week he wanted to give it a try after playing the position before high school.
"We decided that Ja'Quinden is worth a shot to try — and the real key is he was all in; he embraced it," Whittingham said. "He said, 'Absolutely, whatever I can do to help the team.' And with that mentality and with his skill set, what you saw tonight is just a taste of what I think he can bring to the table.
"Until further notice, he is now a running back. We'll reevaluate that after the season."
Glover got his first start at running back for the Utes and finished with 48 yards on 13 carries before Tavion Thomas was inserted into the lineup in the second half after being held out the entire first half. On Thomas' first carry of the game, the team's regular first-team running back escaped for a 28-yard run before a Sun Devils defender kept it from going to the end zone.
Thomas rushed for 11 carries and had a team-high 60 yards out of Utah's 205 rushing yards on the night. In all, Utah finished with 465 total yards on the night behind a 260-yard passing effort from quarterback Cam Rising. The California native threw two touchdowns on 18-of-28 passing, and had one interception after a pass to Solomon Enis went out of his hands and into the hands of Arizona State's Timarcus Davis.
Utah found no trouble building on its lead in the second half, but some season-long red zone troubles re-emerged as Utah turned over the ball on downs on a fourth-and-goal situation on the 2-yard line. It was the third time Saturday that Utah got stopped short of a first down at the goal line — two times resulted in a field goal.
Whittingham said the team "sputtered" at times in the red zone, but was happy with the overall effort from his offense, though he added that the red zone offense is still "a work in progress."
"Our percentage is still pretty good, our touchdown percentage, but it's always a work in progress," Whittingham said. "That's such a critical element of the game and a key facet, and winning is being efficient and effective in the red zone, both ways — offensively and defensively. That's something that we've spent a lot of time on."
Utah's defense held Arizona State to only 59 total yards in the first half, and gave up just 267 yards for the game in the win (the Sun Devils had -7 yards rushing through three quarters before finishing with 6 rushing yards).
Karene Reid led the team in tackles with 10, and his older brother, Gabe, added two of the team's five sacks on the night.
Clark Phillips III added to the defensive night with an interception in the second quarter that set up Utah's first field goal, Malone Mataele recovered a fumble forced by R.J. Hubert at the end of the third quarter, and Cole Bishop picked off Arizona State quarterback Emory Jones late in the game on the 1-yard line to end a promising Sun Devils drive.
"Coach Scalley and all the staff really helped us get a good game plan during the week," Bishop said. "We knew a lot of their tendencies, we just came out and executed it. We played physical and fast and got the job done."
Utah returns home next week for a meeting with Oregon State in an afternoon kickoff on the Pac-12 Networks (Oct. 1, 12 p.m. MDT).
