Time to talk Utah football

The 1978 win at home for me – spoiler alert, I was a student at that time preparing to graduate and move back to Tejas so I knew that would be the last time I’d see the Utes in person for a while, plus quite frankly, the team stunk on ice for most of the time I was a student so that win was particulary sweet!

Oh, and the others are great wins as well, so Big Thanks for sharing!

Give me the 1994 win over BYU more than the 1993 win.

1993 BYU was mediocre and in a tailspin; beating them was great, but there had been fluke one-off victories before.

1994 proved that it wasn’t a fluke though and that it wasn’t just taking advantage of a down year for BYU – instead it was a real fundamental change in the strength of the Utah program 

Good list, but I’d add the Fiesta Bowl on 1/1/05 in there too.

Utah beats #5 Stanford at home in 2013. It was an amazing game.

Just a few of my favorites:

1978 Utah v. BYU

1993 Utah v. San Diego St. w/ Marshall Faulk

1993 Utah @ BYU 

1994 Utah @ #12 Colorado St. 

1994 Utah v. #15 Arizona (Freedom Bowl)

1996 Utah v. #20 Kansas

2001 Utah v. USC (Las Vegas Bowl)

2003 Utah @ BYU (3 – 0  broke their consecutive game scoring streak)

I wouldn’t say these are my top ten but just the first ones that come to mind

08 TCU
09 sugar bowl
08 byu
18 byu
22 usc
21 Oregon
21 Pac-12
22 Pac-12
15 Oregon
14 usc

2008 victory over TCU. Utah and TCU both highly ranked and that game looked all but over for Utah when Brian Johnson steps up and delivers a magnificent final drive with a game winning touchdown. That win essentially placed utah into the BCS (again) where Utah then went on to spank Alabama. I still contend that while a regular season game, that victory alone did more for the Utah program and its progress since, than has any other win.

1988: After 9 straight losses the Utes blew out the zoobs at Rice Stadium. It was my first holy war and a day I will never forget. 

2008: Seeing the shock on the Alabama fans faces after we beat them in the Sugar Bowl was priceless. 

At 13 years old I went to the 34-31 game in Provo and sat 10 rows up in the opposite endzone of Yergensen’s 55 yard winning field goal. My grandpa was given the tickets last minute. He was a Ute Alum but was a cowboy type not to wear school colors, if he even owned such, which I doubt. Our section went absolutely dead quiet when the ball went through the uprights. I remember him looking over at me with a grin on his face. He watched the made field goal through his ancient ranch style binoculars. The only two times he used them that day is during the field goal and when the cheerleaders performed, haha. If memory serves me correctly, someone took a full page ad out of the Deseret news back page of the sports section for that Saturday with the score in red 34 – and blue 31 as a jab at the previous years score, only to have the exact same score repeated. Hilarious. 

2003 @ Colorado State. That was one of my first road trips as a young Ute fan. The old stadium was off campus, so it was a very drunken hostile place at the time. Anyways Arnold Parker took a fumble back 80 yards in the final minutes, and the Utes got the W 28-21. Great trip.
Also 2007 @ Louisville was a fun one. Remember a fan asking me “what’s up with y’all chicken mascot?” lol.

In the early 80’s I was a young teenager and was lucky to attend every home game for free. After halftime I found the closest seat possible with my friends and became a Ute fan forever. If you ever bought a program walking down the hill to the game or on the east stadium side while in your seat we may have had an exchange. During the winter months I helped with some minor clean up in the basketball arena after the games just so I could get in and watch the Utes play!

TCU game & the seven turnovers at BYU – because of the company I was with made it very memorable.

Oddly enough… The Kaneshiro doink game is my first favorite Utah game, because that is the game where I knew I was a Utah fan, and my first game at RES (even though I was a TSPP fan at the time as a little kid, I felt myself wanting the Utes to win, and I haven’t looked back since).

– I also really enjoyed the Cal game in SLC when Goff was their QB and Game Day was in town. I brought a huge BYU fan with me (along with several other Ute fans) and he made a fool of himself cheering for the losing team.

– The Fiesta bowl was the first game my entire family watched together as fully fledged Ute fans (also the year my sister began playing sports at the U, great time to be a Ute athlete).

– Ty Jordan’s game vs Washington State also sticks out in my mind as a great day. Everyone that saw that game knew the kid was destined to be the GOAT Ute running back.

– The 2018 TSPP vs Utah game in SLC. That was the game where, by the end, every TSPP fan was as crushed as they could possibly be. Every one of them KNEW deep down that the Utes were the better program. They thought they were back in a big way, only to have their hopes crushed. That was pretty great.

Blocked punt in the snow at rice eccles 2010! However, 2012 was hilarious 😂? Three chances.

That 05 game against BYU was sooo good!  Brett Ratliff came out of no where to take a big dump on BYU!  Ratty ran for 100+ yards, was just dominating.

My favorite Utah football game is whichever game was last. I love them all for different reasons.