'Unwavering belief': No. 20 Utes rally to stun No. 7 Trojans in front of sold-out crowd

SALT LAKE CITY — It was the game both teams had circled before the season. It was supposed to be the defining game of the Pac-12 and set the hierarchy of a conference that Utah was picked to win.

And while the hierarchy of the conference didn't get any more clear after Saturday, it was Utah that bounced back from a loss to UCLA last week to remain in the Pac-12 title race.

USC quarterback Caleb Williams weaved, dodged and dominated Utah's defense in leading for all but one minute of the game. The sophomore quarterback threw for 381 yards and five touchdowns in the tough road environment, including a late 20-yard touchdown toss to Michael Jackson.

But when the Trojans needed momentum the most, the former Pac-12 leaders committed 12 penalties for 93 yards and stalled in the fourth quarter.

Utah starting quarterback Cameron Rising threw for 415 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for 60 yards and three scores — including the game-winning touchdown and ensuing 2-point conversion in the final minute — to help the 20th-ranked Utes rally from as much as 14-down to stun No. 7 USC 43-42 Saturday night in front of a sold-out Rice-Eccles Stadium.

"Well that certainly has to go down as one of the most exciting games in Rice-Eccles history," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "What a performance by our football team. That's a good football team we beat; that's a really good team, very talented, well coached, quarterback's tremendous, and receiving corps is as good as there is in the country, and so we got our hands full.

"The toughness and the guts and the grit; the sheer grit and determination of our football team and continue to hang in there was — it was just a joy to coach those guys; I love coaching this team and proud to be associated with them."

Williams helped the Trojans to a quick 14-0 lead after their first two drives of the game, with the first drive taking just over a minute for USC (6-1, 4-1 Pac-12) to score on an 8-yard rushing play from running back Travis Dye.

Utah's defense struggled to contain the high-powered USC offense and gave up several big plays en route to 556 total yards for the Trojans, but the defense found a way to get a stop at the end when it mattered most.

"You guys can see it there, their team is full of explosive players, so we knew that it was going to be a challenge for us," said linebacker Karene Reid, who had a timely sack late in the game to force a USC stop. "But they've got to play us for four quarters, and so that just shows the resiliency of our defense of our team and our culture, so we just played till the clocks at zero, and it fell on our favor.

"I think it just shows our character. Like If you look at the numbers, I'm sure it's not pretty, but it shows that we played to the end. I'm proud of our guys."

And while the defense struggled to contain the Trojans, Utah's offense wasn't about to be denied at home — not on the night when the program honored Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe with special hand-painted helmets and their mothers present to accept the game ball.

"It was great to be able to get that win with Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe's mothers here in the game," Whittingham said. "And internally we dedicated this game. We didn't announce it to anybody, but we had dedicated this game to our fallen teammates — and how rewarding to be able to give those mothers the game ball in the locker room after the game."

"We just wanted to come out here and battle," Rising added. "I mean, we were gonna give it our all, and we were just looking forward to playing. We wanted to make sure that we represented 22 well having that on our helmet."

Rising led his team back into the game and tied it up to start the third quarter, 28-28, on a drive that had a heavy influence from the quarterback and tight end Dalton Kincaid, who finished with 16 catches for 234 yards. Rising connected with Kincaid to cap off the drive with a 4-yard touchdown pass for the Utes (5-2, 3-1 Pac-12).

The two teams traded scores in the fourth quarter to tie the game up again, but Utah had a previous drive that ended on the 3-yard line when running back Micah Bernard fumbled the ball and USC recovered it.

Utah's defense held strong and sacked Williams twice, including an 8-yard sack from Reid on third down, to force the Trojans to punt in a timely stop.

But with USC star receiver Jordan Addison standing on the sideline on crutches, Utah drove 74 yards on 14 plays before Rising scored his third rushing touchdown of the game with 48 seconds left. The Utes rolled the dice on a 2-point conversion to win, and the veteran quarterback barreled into the end zone to take a 43-42 edge — the Utes' first lead of the game.

It was a play that Utah never questioned, given the significance of the game.

"I talked to Andy (Ludwig) as the drive started, and said: 'If we score here and the clock is close to expiring, we're going for two; if there's a couple minutes left, then we're gonna kick the PAT.' And so it played out exactly in our benefit — as good as we could have hoped. And when there was what 35 seconds left, it was already predetermined, we already knew the play-call, because we talked about at the onset of the possession."

It was up to USC to answer back with 39 seconds left to play. But Utah's defense held strong and prevent the Trojans from crossing the 50-yard line as time expired and the fans rushed the field to celebrate USC's final game at Rice-Eccles Stadium before their departure to the Big Ten.

"Unwavering belief," Rising said. "Guys just didn't stop believing and we all had just a common goal, and we wanted to go out here and execute and just be clean, do everything we can. Having Ty and Aaron on your helmet, it just makes it that much easier to go and just dig deep and do everything you can to try and get the dub."

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