BYU beats Utes on last-second FG to win “Holy War,” remains undefeated

SALT LAKE CITY — Jake Retzlaff scored twice in the fourth quarter and Will Ferrin hit a 44-yard field with four seconds left to preserve No. 9 BYU’s undefeated season with a 22-21 win over Utah on Saturday night.

The Cougars’ final drive was extended by a defensive holding penalty on fourth down when the largest crowd in Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium history (54,383) thought the game was over.

Retzlaff, who was 15 of 33 for 219 yards, passed 30 yards to Chase Roberts and 12 yards to Darius Lassiter before Hinckley Ropati ran 14 yards to put BYU (9-0, 6-0 Big 12) in position for Ferrin’s kick bring .

The Cougars remain the last undefeated team in the Big 12 and have the best chance of reaching the conference championship game.

Retzlaff scored on a 1-yard sneak with 12:35 left, capping a nine-play, 95-yard drive, the first in which they looked like the team that averages more than 35 points per game. But the 2-point conversion was intercepted by Cam Calhoun to keep Utah (4-5 Utah, 1-5 Big 12) ahead 21-19.

Utah’s Brandon Rose, who was the third-string quarterback entering the season, made his first career start after Cam Rising was lost for the season and Isaac Wilson struggled.

Rose ran twice for first downs and then completed his first positive pass of the game for a 20-yard touchdown to Brant Kuithe, completing a six-play, 64-yard drive early in the second quarter. Kuithe added a 1-yard touchdown run from the Wildcat formation with 5:31 before halftime, but later left the game with a leg injury.

Will Ferrin took advantage of Rose’s interception in the third quarter and made his second of three field goals.

Rose was 12 of 21 for 112 yards but just 4 of 11 for 25 yards in the second half.

Utah’s Zemaiah Vaughn intercepted Roberts for a 2-yard loss on a 4-1 swing pass, which led to Rose’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Micah Bernard to make the score 21-10 at halftime.

Ferrin converted Jakob Robinson’s interception in the first quarter into a 23-yard field goal.

In the second quarter, BYU’s Keelan Marion returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown, his second of the season.

Utah had won nine straight in the series before losing the 2021 game 26-17 and now this one.

Takeaways

BYU: BYU’s offense managed just two field goals before being called into action in the fourth quarter. The Cougars mismanaged time by taking their final timeout too early, and then a false start required a 10-second runoff that ended the first half as they found themselves on the edge of field goal range.

Utah: Bernard, who was Utah’s lone offensive bright spot before the second-quarter breakthrough, had 17 carries for 78 yards and eclipsed 2,000 career rushing yards. Rose was hot in the second quarter, but the offense stalled after that. The Utes have lost five straight, but none by more than 13 points.

Known enemies

Five of BYU’s head coaches played or coached at Utah and longtime Ute coach Kyle Whittingham played at BYU in the 1980s.

Next

BYU hosts Kansas next Saturday night.

Utah plays No. 21 Colorado next Saturday.

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AP College Football: and