Utah Utes football: Utah's Brandon Burton makes the play to lift the Utes

BYU vs. Utah boxscore

SALT LAKE CITY — Before the Ute defense lined up before BYU's potential winning 42-yard field goal try, U. special teams coach Jay Hill decided to make a change. He didn't know why, but he switched Brandon Burton and Lamar Chapman from their usual positions and put Burton on the left side and Chapman on the right.

A few seconds later, Burton raced in and got his fingers on Mitch Payne's field goal try, giving Utah a 17-16 victory thanks to his block, and sending the Ute players and Rice-Eccles crowd into a frenzy.

Although he made the call, Hill made sure Burton got all the credit for making the game-winning play.

"I switched Brandon to the other side and he did a great job coming tight and put his hands on the ball," Hill said. "I don't know, I just felt he was going to get it. Sometimes in coaching you have a feeling, but he made the play — don't put that down as me."

Burton said it was his first blocked kick since high school, but he works on it every day in practice.

"I just knew I had to make a play for my team," Burton said. "I knew I had a shot when I came around the edge. I just came in full speed and laid out and made the play."

Coach Kyle Whittingham praised both Hill and Burton, saying, "Jay Hill does a great job with the special teams and he had a great max block dialed up. We just brought everybody and that was a great job by Brandon Burton to get a hand on it."

Now Burton will go down in Utah football lore for his blocked kick that gave the Utes a win over their rivals.

"It's the greatest game I've ever been a part of," he said.

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