Last week the Utes were penalized 15 times for 137 yards and fumbled four times, losing two and had a pass interception.

This week, the Utes committed eight penalties for 67 yards and had just one turnover, a first-half interception by Brian Johnson.

"We cleaned up our penalties but we still had too many," said Whittingham. "But it was far less than last week."

UNLV had 12 penalties for 73 yards, with half coming on false start penalties, but didn't have any turnovers.

UTE NOTES: John Peel had four punt returns for 49 yards for the Utes. David Reed had two kick returns for 69 yards ... Stevenson Sylvester led the Utes with nine tackles, while Greg Newman had eight and safety Terrell Cole, filling in for injured Robert Johnson, had seven tackles ... Koa Misi had the only sack of the game, while Newman had two tackles for losses ... Colt Sampson caught his third touchdown pass of his career and first since the 2006 season with his third-quarter TD grab ... After making four field goals a week earlier, Louie Sakoda didn't have any FGs Saturday, but made all six of his PATs, the third time in his career he's done that. He currently has 88 PATs in his career and ranks sixth on the all-time Utah scoring list ... Sakoda also averaged 46.8 yards on four punts ... Freddie Brown's third-quarter touchdown pass from Brian Johnson was his first TD ... Scouts from both the Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks were on hand for the game.

---

E-mail: sor@desnews.com