Utah’s defense had to be perfect when BYU came charging late, and the Utes got exactly that from two players who have spent years waiting for moments like this.
First it was Trey Reynolds, the senior linebacker, who erased what looked like a tying score. Then, after Utah still couldn’t fully put the game away, safety Nate Ritchie finished it off with the final interception as the No.
3 Utes held off No. 9 BYU, 28-20.
BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier had dragged the Cougars within striking distance with a 13-play, 65-yard march that ate 7:19 and included a 13-yard Sione Moa run and a 19-yard Bachmeier scramble. On third-and-2 at the goal line, the Cougars appeared to have the answer. Kyler Kasper slipped free in the end zone, Bachmeier fired, and Reynolds went up and took it away.
“It was a zone coverage, so I was just dropping into coverage and he threw it right to me. I went up and got it and made a play and yeah, just grateful that I was there,” Reynolds said.
Utah’s offense then failed to drain the rest of the clock, and BYU got one more crack after a 19-yard punt that nearly got blocked and set the Cougars up near midfield. With 13 seconds left, Bachmeier launched another shot toward the end zone, hoping for one last miracle in a rivalry game that has produced plenty of them. Ritchie was waiting.
The sophomore quarterback was intercepted for the fourth time on the day, and Utah’s defense walked away with the game.
“I just try to model what I do after Trey Reynolds. So Trey Reynolds went up and got it.
I was just back there. We were just dropping coverage and I was just kind of reading the quarterback’s eyes, saw him turn the other way and throw it and I just went for it,” Ritchie said.
What made those two plays stand out even more is who made them. Reynolds and Ritchie have both stayed in Utah’s program for four years, even though other places may have offered quicker paths to playing time. In a sport where players move constantly, that kind of patience is uncommon.
Reynolds spent one season in Salt Lake City in 2021 before leaving for a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission, then returned and waited behind Devin Lloyd, Karene Reid and Lander Barton. He stayed with Utah even when other options came along.
“Trey always told me he’s a Ute and he’s sticking it out,” Reynolds’ father, Paul, told the Deseret News in October. “He’s a very loyal kid, Trey, and he had a lot of opportunities to go different places.
I’m pretty proud of him. He just kept working and things panned out.”
His payoff arrived in 2025, when he started four games and played 240 snaps. This season, he has started every game and has 54 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and two interceptions.
Saturday’s interception was the biggest of his career so far, and it came in the highest-stakes rivalry game of all time.
Ritchie’s path has been just as long. He began his career in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, then left for a mission before returning in 2023. Since then, he has dealt with a season-ending injury in 2025 and plenty of uneven stretches along the way.
Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley pointed back to Ritchie’s freshman year to show how far he has come.
“Nate Ritchie was a true freshman during COVID when no fans were in the stands in 2020. I’ll never forget, I call a max pressure and he doesn’t go when he’s supposed to go,” Scalley said.
“He comes off the sideline and I’m getting after him a little bit. I mean, this guy graduated early, he’s a freshman, he’s a true freshman, and he has these tears in his eyes. I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I got to remember that this kid is young.’”
Now in his senior season, Ritchie is having the best year of his career. Scalley said the interception was especially meaningful because of the way Ritchie stayed committed to Utah instead of chasing another opportunity.
“With the interception, how great is it that it comes from a guy that probably had some reasons maybe to transfer if he didn’t feel like he was going to see time, but he loved the culture here,” Scalley said.
“He loved how he was being developed. He loved what is great about Utah. So for him to stick around, not hit the portal, just continue to work on where he felt he was deficient at, have that game-sealing interception.”
Scalley made clear that the final two picks belonged to players who had invested in the program for the long haul.
“I love that the last two interceptions came from guys that stuck with a program, that were about development and about loving a culture. Grateful for those two, Nate Ritchie and Trey Reynolds,” Scalley said.
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