No. 20 Utah's offense shines in blowout home win over Arkansas

SALT LAKE CITY — Offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven was in his bag Saturday night.

The new Utah play-caller had a different design for seemingly every down in No. 20 Utah's 43-10 blowout win over Arkansas, as the offense had its way with the Razorbacks on nearly every possession.

Arkansas opened the game with a quick drive down the field before being forced to kick a 29-yard field goal for the first points of the night. And then McGiven and the Utah offense went to work, where the Utes reeled off 42 straight points and quickly put distance on the Razorbacks before a late Arkansas score.

Wayshawn Parker had his second consecutive multi-score game, totaling three touchdowns on the night — two rushing and one receiving — to highlight a Utah offense that put up 442 yards and averaged 7.4 yards per play. Parker finished with 64 rushing yards on 10 carries, while adding an additional 65 yards on five catches.

Tight end Noah Bennee broke out on the scene for the Utes to lead the team in receiving yards with 113 yards and one touchdown — including a 57-yard catch on a toss from quarterback Devon Dampier to start the third quarter.

Dampier threw for 261 yards and two touchdowns, including an interception, on 18-of-24 passing in an efficient night for the veteran signal caller. He added 50 yards and two rushing touchdowns to round out his night.

And as impressive as the offense was Saturday night, it was the Utah defense who held firm and forced Arkansas into four three-and-out drives and only allowed 225 total yards on offense before the team's first touchdown drive of the night.

Jireh Moe was consistently in the backfield, Karson Kaufusi swatted multiple passes and Elijah Reed had several pass breakups to frustrate Arkansas in all it tried to do on offense.

Starting quarterback KJ Jackson finished the night throwing for 139 yards and an interception on 14-of-34 and was under duress all night. He was later replaced by KJ Hill, who led Arkansas down the field for a 21-yard touchdown — the team's only touchdown of the night.

Hill threw for 78 yards on 7-of-11 passing in relief of Jackson.

This story will be updated.

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