No. 7 Utah Hosts Rivalry Game Against No. 14 BYU

11/17/2008 12:00 AM | Football

Nov. 17, 2008

Vote 'King Louie' for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award

> No. 7/8 Utah (11-0, 7-0 MWC) hosts No. 14/16 Brigham Young (10-1, 6-1 MWC) in the Deseret First Duel Rivalry game on Saturday, Nov. 22. Kickoff is 4:00 p.m. MT in Rice-Eccles Stadium. The game, which is sold out, will be televised on The Mtn.

> For the second straight week, Utah is ranked No. 7 in both the USA Today Coaches' Poll and the BCS Standings. It is Utah's best BCS standing since the 2004 Utes climbed to No. 6. The Utes are No. 8 in the Associated Press and Harris polls. See pages 17-18 for more.

> Utah has clinched a share of the Mountain West Conference title--its fourth since the league's inaugural year in 1999 and its first since winning back-to-back titles in 2003-04. Utah shared the title in 1999. With the guaranteed share, Utah is currently tied with BYU for the most MWC Championships (4).

> Utah is 11-0 for just the second time in school history and can tie the school record of 12-0 set in 2004 with a win Saturday.

> Utah is tied for the longest win streak in the nation with Texas Tech and Alabama. Dating back to last year's Poinsettia Bowl victory, the Utes have won 12 straight games. Utah has won 19 of its last 20 games.

> The Utes have the second-longest current bowl win streak in the nation at seven games. Losing to Utah during the streak were Fresno State (1999), USC (2001), Southern Miss (2003), Pittsburgh (2005/2004 season), Georgia Tech (2005), Tulsa (2006) and Navy (2007).

> Utah is 5-0 all-time in games when both Utah and its opponent were nationally ranked--including a 1-0 mark against BYU (in 1994, No. 21 Utah beat No. 20 BYU 34-31).

> Utah leads the all-time series with BYU 52-33-4 (includes a 3-3 record when BYU was called BY Academy). Utah leads 35-17-3 in Salt Lake City. See page 2 for more.

KING LOUIE
Louie Sakoda, a leading candidate for first-team All-America honors as a kicker this year, was a first-team All-America punter last year (FWAA, CBSSports.com). Sakoda was selected as the 2008 Midseason All-America placekicker by CBSSports.com, The Sporting News and Rivals.com. He is a top-20 semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award (nation's top placekicker) and top-10 semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award (nation's top punter). The most decorated weekly performer in Mountain West Conference history, Sakoda has won 11 career special teams player of the week awards, including four this season. He is also a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete, a Draddy Trophy finalist (which comes with an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship), a Wuerffel Trophy finalist and a finalist for the Lowe's Senior Class Award.

SENIOR SENDOFF
Nineteen Ute seniors will be recognized in a pre-game ceremony Saturday: Freddie Brown, Brent Casteel, Terrell Cole, Robert Conley, Bradon Godfrey, Dustin Hensel, Brian Johnson, Darrell Mack, Brice McCain, Clint Mower, Greg Newman, John Peel, RJ Rice, Deshawn Richard, Louie Sakoda, Colt Sampson, Corey Seiuli, Ray Stowers, Aaron Tonga.

TRADING PLACES
Utah's coaching staff has three BYU graduates, including head coach Kyle Whittingham, who played linebacker for the Cougars from 1978-81. He was a first-team all-Western Athletic Conference pick and the WAC Defensive Player of the Year in 1981. Aaron Roderick (receivers) and Kalani Sitake (linebackers) also played for BYU. Roderick played receiver from 1997-98 and Sitake was a fullback in 1994-95 and 1999-2000.

AT STAKE
Two rivalry contests are at stake this Saturday--the Deseret First Duel and the Beehive Boot. The Deseret Duel Rivalry Series is tied 6-6 this year--the second year of the competition--after volleyball (Utah 6) and soccer (BYU 6) competitions. Saturday's football game is worth 10 points to the winner. The gridiron victor will also take possession of the Beehive Boot, which is contested by the three NCAA Football Bowl Division teams in the state--Utah, BYU and Utah State. In its 37-year history, the Beehive Boot has gone to Utah 10 times, BYU 21 times and USU six times.

LAST WEEK
Brian Johnson threw five touchdown passes, Freddie Brown had a career-high 110 receiving yards and two TDs, and Deshawn Richard scored back-to-back touchdowns on interception returns to lead Utah to a 63-14 victory over San Diego State. Utah, which clinched a share of the conference title with the win, recorded 520 yards of total offense, converted on 13-of-14 third downs and never punted. Louie Sakoda tied the school record by making nine extra point kicks and was one of the only starters still playing in the fourth quarter. The rout began early when Stevenson Sylvester forced a fumble on SDSU's first drive and Koa Misi recovered. Johnson then marched the Utes 53 yards and found Colt Sampson in the end zone for his first of five first-half touchdowns.

KYLE STYLE
Fourth-year Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham is 35-14 overall and 3-0 in bowl games. He is a candidate for the George Munger, Bobby Dodd and Paul `Bear' Bryant national coach of the year awards. Since he joined the staff as a Ute assistant in 1994, Utah has won nearly 70-percent of its games (121-55). Utah has played in nine bowl games during Whittingham's tenure--winning eight. Prior to becoming Utah's head coach in 2005, he spent one season as the defensive line coach and 10 years as the defensive coordinator.

OUTSIDE THE LINES
The Mtn. will produce its football studio show live on location for the first time at Saturday's Utah-BYU game. Bill Doleman and Beau Morgan will host The Mtn. Live at the Stadium from the southwest corner of Rice-Eccles Stadium ... The annual Utah-BYU Rivalry Week Food Drive will run through Nov. 22 with all money and food items donated by Utah supporters going directly to the Utah Food Bank. The alumni associations from the two schools compete in two areas: food and funds. For more information, go to www.alumni.utah.edu ... The ROTC programs from Utah and BYU will hold their annual ball run on game day. Members of the BYU ROTC will run the game ball to the Point of the Mountain and hand it off to Utah cadets, who will run it to Rice-Eccles Stadium. Both programs will run on to the field and hand the game ball to the referee.