Utah Utes basketball: Football team has big fans in Florida

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Minutes after Utah's convincing 66-37 victory over Morgan State on Saturday, Utah basketball coach Jim Boylen preferred not to spend a lot of time answering questions from the two media guys from Utah.

When there was a pause in the questioning, he said, "Let's go watch some football, boys," and with that he was off to watch the Utah-BYU football game, which had already started.

Because it was being televised by The mtn. Network, the game wasn't readily available in this beach town in central Florida. However, Ute director of basketball operations Jon Dykema had made arrangements to have the game shown by DirecTV satellite at the Arena Sports Cafe on Beach Street.

After capturing the trophy at the Glenn Wilkes Classic, the Ute basketball players quickly showered and headed over to the restaurant to cheer on their fellow Ute athletes.

Utah was ahead 17-10 by the time the Ute contingent arrived and after seeing BYU tie the score at 17-17, the Utes celebrated when the football team tacked on 10 points in the last two minutes to take a 27-17 halftime lead.

Some of the Ute foreign players, such as Luke Nevill, Kim Tillie and Luka Drca, weren't brought up on football and perhaps weren't as into the game as their American teammates. But as Nevill said, "I like the big games like this."

A few players played pool during halftime before heading back to the private room to watch the second half. The Utes had reserved two side-by-side rooms with the players and managers in one room and the coaches and their friends and family in the other.

When BYU crept within 27-24, there were some worried looks, but after Paul Kruger intercepted Max Hall to set up Matt Asiata's touchdown pass making it 41-24, Boylen leapt to his feet and high-fived assistant coach Barret Peery and Utah radio color man Jimmy Soto as the room erupted in cheers.

Even though the football team is overshadowing the basketball team right now, Boylen said he loves it.

"Absolutely, it helps us," he said. "It helps us with exposure and with recruiting and getting our name out there. We bring recruits into football games and they love the whole atmosphere."

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