Upcoming Event: Track & Field versus NCAA First Round on May 28, 2026
Track & Field
vs NCAA First Round
The University of Utah Athletics
Utah Football: In-Game Notes at UCF
General
Offense
Defense
Special Teams
- Utah won the coin toss and deferred to the second half. The Utes defended the North goal to begin the game.
Offense
- Running back Micah Bernard ended the night with 1,009 rushing yards in 2024, making him the 16th different Ute to eclipse 1,000 yards in the season. Bernard's total also goes down as the 21st 1,000 yard rushing season in school history.
- Quarterback Luke Bottari made his first start of the season and second of his Utah career (Bottari led the Utes to a victory in the 2023 season finale vs. Colorado).
- Wide receiver Zacharyus Williams had a career-long 17-yard reception from Bottari during the first quarter.
- Williams reset that career-long later in the half with a 33-yard reception which was also a career-long pass for Bottari.
- Williams eclipsed 50 receiving yards prior to halftime; he entered the ballgame with 29 yards in his Utah career.
- In addition to a new career-long pass completion, Bottari also reset personal-bests for pass yards (previously 61) and completions (previously 6).
Defense
- Cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn has started 31 consecutive games, dating back to the game against Arizona on Nov. 5, 2022.
- Safety Tao Johnson has recorded a pass breakup in back-to-back games.
- Linebacker Lander Barton had a strip-sack on UCF's game-opening drive, which was recovered by defensive end Logan Fano. It marks the third straight game that Utah has recovered a fumble.
- With that strip-sack, Barton has now both forced and recovered a fumble this season. He has also forced a turnover in three straight games.
- Utah held their opponent scoreless in 11 of the 12 regular season games--forcing a turnover on four opponents' game-opening drives.
- With his TFL in the first quarter, Fano now has a TFL in four straight games and eclipsed 10 in his career.
- Vaughn had a 60-yard pick-six during the second quarter; it is his third career interception (first since the Baylor game in 2023). It is his first career pick-six.
- It is the first time the Utes had pick-sixes in back-to-back games since 2023 (Weber State and UCLA).
- Prior to Vaughn tonight, the last Ute to have a pick-six and force a fumble in the same game was Stevenson Sylvester at Utah State on Sept. 16, 2006.
- Smith Snowden's 13-yard pick-six in the fourth quarter was his first career touchdown and second interception of the season.
- Snowden's score gave the Utes two pick-sixes in a game for the first time since Aug. 29, 2019, when Francis Bernard and Julian Blackmon both scored on interception returns against BYU.
- Karene Reid logged a season-high 10Â tackles.
- Lander Barton set a new career-high with two sacks.
- Rabbit Evans' was credited with the first two TFLs of his Utah career.
- The Utah defense set a new season-best with 10 TFLs.
- The Utes set a season-high with three fourth-down stops.
- Utah's five sacks matches the team's season-high in that statistic; they also collected five in the season-opener vs. Southern Utah.
Special Teams
- Cole Becker's 37-yard field goal in the first quarter marked the Utes' sixth score on a game-opening drive this season.
- It was Becker's 18th made field goal this season, putting him in a tie for 10th on the Utah single-season leaderboard. It is the most by a Ute since Matt Gay made 26 field goals in 2018.
- Trey Coleman connected on a 24-yard field goal just before halftime for his first collegiate make.
- Punter Jack Bouwmeester launched a season-long 62-yard punt in the third quarter. It was just two yards short of tying his career-long of 64 yards, which he set during the Florida game in 2023.
- Bouwmeester placed three punts inside the 20, putting his total on the season in that stat at 23, a new career-best for a full season.