Utah Utes football: Utes a few plays from domination

2009 — Utah again came back from a game-long deficit to tie the score at 20 with 40 seconds left on Joe Phillips' fourth field goal of the game. In overtime, he made another kick and the Utes just had to keep the Cougars from scoring to grab the win. But on second down from the 25, quarterback Max Hall found Andrew George between two Utah defenders and he ran the final 15 yards to the end zone for a 26-23 overtime victory.

So of all the aforementioned losses, which one sticks in the craw of Whittingham the most?

He wouldn't say.

"I can name every loss since I've been the head coach here, and they're all painful," said Whittingham. "You can drive yourself nuts if you dwell on things like that."

Of course, Cougar fans can point to plays in the Utah victories that might have made a difference for them, too, but the only game that came closest to a do-or-die play was in the 2005 game when Utah scored in overtime and BYU failed to score. If the Cougars had not allowed Utah to score first, they could have perhaps won on a field goal.

"If you've been in this business long enough, everything probably evens out," said Whittingham.

If that's the case, the Utes have a lot of last-minute wins over the Cougars coming over the next few years.

e-mail: sor@desnews.com