Backup QB Bryson Barnes leads No. 14 Utah to 24-11 season-opening win over Florida

SALT LAKE CITY — Bryson Barnes heard the critics, and quickly silenced them.

The walk-on quarterback who got the start in No. 14 Utah's season opener against Florida called his shot and aired it out on the first pass of the game for the Utes. Barnes' pass seemed to stay in the air for several seconds before it landed perfectly into Money Parks' hands, and the receiver did the rest for a 70-yard touchdown.

And Utah was off and running with Barnes under center.

"That's pretty great," Barnes said. "That stuff you talk about when you're a little kid, like, man, what if we threw a touchdown on the first play of the game. That's the type of stuff you think about as kids, so it was great to go out there and actually put it on tape."

It was a designed play to open up the game, and it worked flawlessly to set an early tone against Florida in front of the largest crowd at Rice-Eccles Stadium at 53,644 people.

"We knew what we were going to run with our opener, first play the game, and we had an idea of what kind of tendencies they do when they come out, and so just let it rip," Barnes said.

Barnes got the lion's share of the reps at quarterback but split time with redshirt freshman Nate Johnson as the two led Utah to a 24-11 season-opening victory against the Gators. The junior quarterback from Milford, Utah, finished the night throwing for 159 yards and one touchdowns on 12-of-18 passing.

The one-time pig farmer even managed a 5-yard rushing touchdown early in the second half to sour Florida's chances of a comeback.

Johnson's inclusion in the offense was to maximize his strengths as an elite runner who also posed a threat in the passing game. It was meant to keep Florida's defense on its toes at it tried to game plan for two different styles at quarterback.

"This dude's got an extra dimension to him," Barnes said of Johnson. "It'd be foolish not to use him, and so going back and forth, it's like a little dynamic duo. I'm in, you're out; you're in, I'm out. We just feed off each other and we got to keep the offense rolling, got to keep that same rhythm, regardless of what quarterback's in."

The game plan worked, and Johnson even scored on a 27-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter to give Utah an early 14-3 lead in a game that never felt in question.

And though Barnes and company did what it needed to do in reserve as Cam Rising and Brant Kuithe (among several other players) watched from the sideline in street clothes, it was Utah's defense that gave the offense the runway it needed to deliver. Kyle Whittingham described the defense as "the story of the game."

Florida quarterback Graham Mertz was uncomfortable in the pocket for much of the night as Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley dialed up the pressure and collapsed the pocked time and again. Utah collected five sacks and held Florida to 3 points until Mertz found Douglas with a 19-yard touchdown reception with 9:22 remaining in the game.

Mertz finished the night throwing for 333 yards on 31-of-44 passing, but had little to show for it in the game. Utah, on the other hand, delivered a noticeably different performance from the season opener last year against Florida when it had 29 missed tackles.

For the defense, Thursday night's game was personal.

"It feels really good," said Cole Bishop, who accounted for a team-high 11 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble. "I've been talking about how we're embarrassed by what we did last year. We were playing with a chip on our shoulder — D-line, linebackers, safeties, corners, everybody — played our heart out and it paid off."

More importantly, though, Utah limited Florida to no third- or fourth-down conversions through three quarters. Florida finished the night 1-of-13 on third-down opportunities and 2-of-5 on fourth-down opportunities, and was held to only 13 total rushing yards on the night.

"I felt like last year we missed a lot of tackles, and this year we were really clean on our tackles, and everyone went," defensive end Jonah Ellis said. "And when the opportunity was presented, we really took took care of it, so that's probably what it was. It's just tackling, fundamentals and technique, which is what the coaches preach to us every week, every day."

Utah moves to 1-0 on the season and has nine days before its next game, a road matchup against future conference opponent Baylor in Waco, Texas.

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