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PASADENA, Calif. — Utah running back Joe Williams has had himself quite the last two weeks.
After retiring from football after Utah's 20-19 win over rival BYU, Williams returned last week against Oregon State to rush for 179 yards and a touchdown.
He nearly doubled that against UCLA.
Williams ran 29 times for 332 yards, surpassing the old school record set by Mike Anderson against in 1999. He had four rushing touchdowns as Utah outlasted UCLA in a high scoring shootout, 52-45.
Here are my instant observations following Utah's win.
Joe Williams sets new school record
Mike Anderson. Eddie Johnson. Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala. Del Rodgers. Devontae Booker.
Enter Joe Williams among some of the greatest running backs in Utah football history.
Against a Bruin defense that only allowed 23 yards on 25 carries to BYU, Williams ran 29 times for 332 yards and four scores, smashing the old school record of 254 yards by Mike Anderson against Fresno State in 1999. No. 2 on the list was Eddie Johnson against UTEP in 1984 with 248 yards, and third was Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala, also vs. UTEP, with 236 yards in 1996.
Williams' performance also ranks No. 4 all-time in Pac-12 single game history, just behind Ka'Deem Carey with 366 in 2012, Rueben Mayes with 357 in 1984, and Ricky Bell with 347 in 1976.
Give credit to Utah's offensive line. But there were many, many times where Williams turned a little to no gain into a 5-6 yard gain, and others where a nice 10 yarder turned into 40, 50 and even 60 yard touchdown runs.
The real question should be, what in the world did he do during his brief retirement? He looks like a completely different back, rushing with a fierce resolve that we simply didn't see from him in the first two games of the season.
Fast start for Utes, but lead quickly disappeared with costly penalties
In all but one conference games this season, the Utes have gotten out to some pretty slow starts. Against Arizona, Utah trailed 14-3. Against Cal, 14-0. Against USC, 24-10.
But against UCLA, Utah jumped out to a 14-0 lead on a 99-yard opening kickoff return by Cory Butler-Byrd (first kick return for TD this season) and a three yard Joe Williams touchdown run after holding the Bruins to a three and out on their opening possession.
Utah appeared to have momentum under control, but things quickly spiraled out of control. Three defensive penalties against Utah on UCLA's next possession, all which gave Bruins first downs, aided a TD drive to cut Utah's lead in half.
Utah followed that up with a three and out and a fumble on their next two drives, as UCLA took control of the game, scoring 21 straight to take a 21-14 lead.
And that was all in the first quarter.
Turnovers change tide of the game
Ah, turnovers, the great equalizer in the game of football.
Despite allowing UCLA quarterback Mike Fafaul to throw for 464 yards and five touchdowns, though he did throw it 70 times, Utah's secondary came up big when it needed to, intercepting him four times on the day.
UCLA had a chance to cut Utah's lead to single digits with just over five minutes remaining, but Fafaul's pass attempt was intercepted by Jordan Fogal in the end zone.
Fogal had two interceptions on the day filling in for injured All-Pac-12 safety Marcus Williams, and from the get go there wasn't any drop off. He had himself a great day.
Utah added to the turnover margin when Chase Hansen forced a fumble on a Fafaul QB run.
The Utes defense also forced a key turnover on downs. UCLA elected to go for it on 4th and 1, up 21-17 at the Utah 47. Fogal stuffed the running back for a loss of one. Utah went on to score a touchdown on the ensuing drive to take the lead, 24-21.
Utah had only two turnovers, a Troy Williams fumble and a Williams' interception.
Stat of the game
Even though the Utes were just 3-15 on third down attempts, Utah won the time of possession battle, 36:11 to 23:49.
