Utah Utes football: Home is sweet to streaking Utes

SALT LAKE CITY — Apparently, there's no place like home for the Utes. Rice-Eccles Stadium has served them well. They haven't walked off the field there without a win since falling to Air Force, 20-12 on Sept. 8, 2007.

The streak of home victories has reached 18, the second-longest run in school history.

"This is a tough place to play," Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt said after his team's 27-24 overtime loss to Utah on Thursday. "It's tough coming out here."

As an Under Armour program, the Utes have adopted the company line to "Protect this house."

It's something they take quite serious.

Following the win over Pitt, linebacker Chaz Walker said the team takes pride in defending its home field.

"We weren't going to let (Pittsburgh) come in here and stop our 17-game win streak here without a fight," he said.

More of the same can be expected Saturday when Utah opens its final Mountain West Conference campaign at home against UNLV.

The Rebels are one of 14 teams the Utes have defeated in Salt Lake City since the streak began with a 44-6 thrashing of UCLA on Sept. 15, 2007.

Six other blowouts of 21 points or greater have followed as the string of victories has grown. The lopsided wins include Wyoming (2007) 50-0, UNLV (2008) 42-21, Colorado State (2008) 49-16, BYU (2008) 48-24, New Mexico (2009) 45-14 and San Diego State (2009) 38-7.

There have been some close calls along the way as well.

Besides narrow triumphs over Oregon State (31-28) and TCU (13-10) in 2008, the Utes have needed overtime to prevail twice. Last year, there was a 23-16 decision over Air Force. On Thursday, the nail-biter over Pitt.

The latest addition to the streak came in a turnover-plagued season opener. It wasn't pretty, but the primary objective was accomplished.Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said he was proud of how his squad hung in there during difficult circumstances.

"This team has a 'never-say-die' attitude. That's just the personality of this team," he added. "Even during training camp, they kept pushing back and kept fighting."

And streaking.

After the UNLV game, the quest to continue closing in on the school record of 26 consecutive wins at home (set from 1928-34) includes 2010 dates against San Jose State (Sept. 25), Colorado State (Oct. 23), TCU (Nov. 6) and BYU (Nov. 27).

Home, sweet home

Utah has won 18 straight games at Rice-Eccles Stadium

1. UCLA ('07) — 44-6

2. Utah State ('07) — 34-18

3. San Diego State ('07) — 23-7

4. Wyoming ('07) — 50-0

5. New Mexico ('07) — 28-10

6. UNLV ('08) — 42-21

7. Weber St. ('08) — 37-21

8. Oregon St. ('08) — 31-28

9. Colorado St. ('08) — 49-16

10. TCU ('08) — 13-10

11. BYU ('08) — 48-24

12. Utah St. ('09) — 35-17

13. Louisville ('09) — 30-14

14. Air Force ('09) — 23-16 (OT)

15. Wyoming ('09) — 22-10

16. New Mexico ('09) — 45-14

17. San Diego State ('09) — 38-7

18. Pittsburgh ('10) — 27-24 (OT)

e-mail: dirk@desnews.com