No. 10 Utah kept its unbeaten season alive in a tense, late-night finish at Rice-Eccles Stadium, edging No. 14 Houston 21-13 and preserving its place as the Big 12’s last undefeated team.
The game tilted on defense and one decisive turnover. With Utah clinging to a 14-13 lead, Jackson Bennee came on the blitz, jarred the ball loose from Houston quarterback Connor Weigman and set up the Utes for the clinching touchdown. Devon Damper finished the drive, and Utah stayed perfect at 7-0 overall and 4-0 in conference play.
“It was a great call,” Bennee said of his game-clinching strip sack. “I can’t really take too much credit for it. It opened up how it should, and that’s what you dream of.
“Honestly, I feel like every time you get a blitz, and you’re hitting the quarterback, you’re like, ‘Man, it’s too good to be true. He probably threw the ball,’ and that’s usually how it happens. But I guess I got lucky.”
The timing mattered even more given how the rest of the Big 12 had already gone sideways. BYU had lost in double overtime to UCF, and Texas Tech was blown out on the road by Cincinnati, leaving Utah with a chance to strengthen its grip on the league race. The Utes took it.
“A reminder: It’s hard to win in college football,” Utah head coach Morgan Scalley said. “I’m so grateful for our guys, their fight, and that’s what you need. I don’t really care about the stats - I’m just so proud of these guys.”
For much of the night, Utah’s offense belonged to one player. Dampier, who had 198 rushing yards entering the game, erupted for 150 yards and two touchdowns against Houston. In the first half alone, he accounted for 176 of Utah’s 194 total yards, even as he also threw a costly interception on a possession that could have at least produced three points.
“We always take what the defense gives us,” Dampier said. “Just watching film, there were a lot of run lanes during drop-back passes.
It was emphasized this week [by my coaches], ‘Devon, if you see it, go take it.’ That’s the mentality we had.”
His legs kept Utah moving after halftime, too. Dampier broke through on a 22-yard scramble with 4:25 left in the third quarter to get the Utes on the board and trim Houston’s lead to 10-7.
Early in the fourth, he helped spark another scoring drive by hitting tailback Wayshawn Parker on back-to-back 13-yard catches. Parker later powered in from five yards out to put Utah ahead 14-13 with 11:57 to go.
Dampier’s second interception came with 7:57 remaining, but Utah’s defense answered again, forcing another stop and handing him one more chance to put the game away.
“That’s how strong culture is,” Dampier said. “That’s how far brotherhood and love can take you. That’s our foundation.”
The defense had already spent most of the night denying Houston in the red zone. Colton Swan’s group forced a turnover on downs with 3:45 left in the first quarter and later held Houston to a field goal after Connor Weigman overthrew Trent Walker on third-and-goal in the second quarter. Houston, which had been in a shootout with Oklahoma State the week before, never found that kind of rhythm against Utah.
It was also a rough night for Utah’s offense in the red zone. The Utes failed to score on either of their first-half trips inside the 20, one ending with an interception and the other with a missed field goal just before halftime.
Scalley said after the game that the strip sack came from a call that Colton Swan labeled “the unblockable blitz.”
“It was a pressure that’s been here since the beginning of time,” Scalley said. “Kyle Whittingham calls it the unblockable blitz, but people have blocked it before. It came clean, and it was very timely.
“It’s something that we haven’t dialed up in a in a little bit.”
Wayshawn Parker also had to work for every inch. Houston made him a priority all night, limiting him to 16 rushing yards in the first half.
But Parker found his opening when it mattered most, and he finished with 47 rushing yards and 46 receiving yards. His five-yard touchdown run gave Utah the lead for good.
Next up, the Utes head to Cincinnati to face the Bearcats next Saturday.
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