LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kansas had all the momentum.
With a 4-point lead going into the fourth quarter, the Jayhawks were well on their way to adding another score. Setting up at the Utah 12-yard line, Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels rolled out of the pocket to avoid a sack and looked to the end zone for someone open.
Unfortunately for the sixth-year quarterback, the one he found was wearing white.
Utah safety Jackson Bennee kept his eyes on the quarterback and pulled down Daniels’ pass in the back corner of the end zone, ending what appeared to be a promising drive for the Jayhawks.
“The quarterback was just trying to throw it away, get rid of it. We had everything covered up, and we flushed him out of the pocket,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. “He was on the move and just didn’t get it — the quarterback was not able to get it out of harm’s way, and Jackson tracked it down and made a great play.”
Bennee said it was simply a “scramble drill” that worked to perfection.
“We’re basically taught that when the quarterback is scrambling, looking for something, you’ve just got to blast to the closest guy, and that’s what I was trying to do and he threw it my way,” Bennee said. “I was kind of surprised, but just went and got it.”
A few plays later, Wayshawn Parker collected a pass and went 32 yards, and then Utah quarterback Devon Dampier hit Larry Simmons in the front of the end zone for a 28-yard go-ahead score with 12:26 left to play.
Utah used that game-changing defensive play to pull away from Kansas for a 31-21 win on the road on Black Friday. The win kept Kansas away from bowl eligibility, while securing Utah’s first 10-win regular season since the 2019 season.
“Proud of our guys get the 10th win on the season,” Whittingham said. “It’s not easy to do, and just so proud of them for hanging in there. Kept finding ways to make plays.”
The Bennee interception helped turn the tide to an otherwise lackluster Utah (10-2, 7-2 Big 12) performance to that point in the game, but it was far from the deciding factor in the final 12 minutes of game time.
Following Simmons’ score, Kansas (5-7, 3-6 Big 12) quickly made its way down field, getting this time to Utah’s 5-yard line. But Daniels made an even costlier mistake in another attempt to get a score. The veteran quarterback targeted his receiver but was picked off by Scooby Davis, who took it back for a 97-yard touchdown.
Kansas added a 21-yard receiving touchdown on the ensuing drive, but Utah was able to drain the clock on their next possession. Facing third-and-5 on the Kansas 48-yard line, offensive coordinator Jason Beck drew up another back breaker.
After largely using Dampier on the drive with his legs to wear out the clock, Beck faked another QB keeper with Dampier, who then let the ball fly to a streaking Simmons downfield with three defenders trailing him for a 48-yard touchdown pass.
“He dials up a lot of things week in, week out,” Dampier said of the play. “We’ve been holding on to that play for a long time; the situation just presented itself. I was able to get a couple first downs, they got a little heavy to stop that run game. And, man, put Larry on the deep route, you’re going to come down with it. So it’s kind of how that play just came up in that situation.”
“We were debating on whether to just run the ball, keep the clock running or not — just take our best shot to get the first down,” Whittingham added. “And so after talking to Jason, we decided, ‘Hey, whatever play you think has got the best success to get a first down, don’t necessarily worry about the clock running just to convert.”
Simmons, or as Whittingham has started calling him recently “Touchdown Larry,” finished with 97 receiving yards and two touchdowns on just three catches in the game. Simmons’ first catch of the day may have been the most impressive, though, with a toe-tapping grab along the sideline to keep a Utah drive alive.
Dampier finished the day throwing for 253 yards and three touchdowns on 15-of-25 passing, and added 50 rushing yards on 11 carries, but struggled through the first three quarters to put together a consistent offensive product on the field.
It’s what Dampier described as “we held ourselves back multiple times.”
“Whether it was a loss of yardage on the down, or penalties, that put us in very bad third-down situations,” he said. “We hope to be more efficient than we were, but that’s what happens in football. Not everything’s gonna be perfect; it’s how you respond. Offense did a great job of getting on top of that and helping the defense.”
Utah’s defense, which still gave up 290 rushing yards a week after giving up an eye-popping 472 yards, held Daniels to just 187 passing yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. Logan Fano and Bennee each added 10 tackles — seven solo apiece — to lead the Utes.
Wayshawn Parker, who rushed for 100 or more yards in the last four games, was held to 95 yards Friday despite quickly amassing 56 yards on the opening drive as Utah looked to lean on him for the bulk of its offense to start the game.
Utah now waits to see if its 7-2 conference record is good enough for a chance at a Big 12 title game appearance, which would need West Virginia to upset No. 5 Texas Tech and Arizona State to beat Arizona.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.