Utah Utes football: Special teams shape Utah's blowout win

SALT LAKE CITY — Although Shaky Smithson didn't have a punt return for a touchdown Saturday night as he did in Utah's two previous games, his mere presence on the field made an impact for the Utes and indirectly led to two early touchdowns in a 56-3 rout.

The Utes scored a touchdown on a blocked punt — by the Spartans' own player — and set up a touchdown with another blocked punt as the Spartans tried to avoid kicking the ball to Smithson. The two touchdowns in a three-minute span early in the second quarter gave the Utes a 28-3 lead and started the beatdown.

"The special teams were a positive tonight," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. "We blocked a punt and the punt return game was good."

Whittingham didn't mention the other blocked punt early in the second quarter on a play that probably no one in the stadium had ever seen before.

The Spartans decided to employ a rugby punt with quarterback Jordan La Secla, not the normal punter, running to his right and booting a low punt away from Smithson.

"We knew they weren't going to want to kick to Shaky after the last two weeks," said Utah special teams coach Jay Hill. "We had something set up in case they did the rugby."

On the first punt, Smithson picked up a few yards, but didn't get to touch the second. So far, so good for the Spartans.

However, on the third punt, La Secla ran to his right and punted the ball … right into the back of Cedric Lousi, a teammate who was blocking for him. The ball flew backwards, bounced off the turf and Utah's Reggie Topps picked it up in stride at the 10-yard line and ran in for a touchdown.

"It happened perfectly," said Topps. "We practiced me coming on the outside all week. It was kind of like fate. Luckily, it blocked off of them, it bounced beautifully into my hands and I took it for the TD."

Less than two minutes later, the Spartans tried a normal kick with regular punter Jens Alvernik, but this time Mike Honeycutt burst in from the left side and got a hand on the ball, which fluttered out of bounds at the 24-yard line. Three plays later, the Utes scored again and it was 28-3.

"We practiced it very well and came out and executed," said Honeycutt. "We had an inside blitz called, and I just went in untouched and got it."

Honeycutt, a freshman from Lone Peak High School, also helped prevent a touchdown in the first quarter on a kickoff return by Brandon Driver, dragging him down at the U. 20-yard line. However, the Ute defense held the Spartans to a field goal and San Jose State never scored the rest of the game.

"I just had to stick with it and run him down," Honeycutt said.

On the whole, it was an excellent night for the Utah special teams.

"We've been working really hard on special teams and today we just let our game show," Honeycutt said.

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