SALT LAKE CITY – Utah athletics director Mark Harlan criticized the Big 12’s followers BYU’s 22-21 win over the Utes on Saturday night for controversial calls about the Cougars’ game-winning drive.
Harlan took the stage shortly before players and coach Kyle Whittingham arrived to address the media.
“This game was absolutely stolen from us,” Harlan said. “We were excited about being in the Big 12, but tonight I’m not. We won this game. Someone else stole it from us. Very disappointed. I’ll talk to the commissioner. This was not fair to our team. I am disgusted by the professionalism of the officiating tonight.”
Utah appeared to have stopped BYU twice on fourth down on its final drive. Both times the play was waved away by the officials.
BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff threw an incomplete pass into the end zone, but the play was called dead a few seconds after the snap as officials said BYU had called a timeout before the snap.
Then Junior Tafuna and Karene Reid sacked Retzlaff on the repeat fourth down. Their dismissal was overturned when Ute’s cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn was called for enforcement.
BYU earned another set of downs and marched down the field. Retzlaff completed passes to Chase Roberts and Darius Lassiter and then Hinckley Ropati ran 14 yards to help set up Will Ferrin’s game-winning 44-yard field goal with four seconds left.
Ferrin’s third and final field goal completed BYU’s rally from an 11-point halftime deficit. The Cougars scored their only offensive touchdown with 12:35 remaining.
“I don’t know what else to say about it,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “That’s the game of football. You can’t hold people. So I haven’t seen it because I don’t keep an eye on the whole field, but I’ll take a look and I’m sure I’ll find some other companies there that haven’t been mentioned.”
Whittingham shared Harlan’s anger at the officiating officer.
“Things out there were ridiculous,” Whittingham said after the game. “I’ll leave it that way.”
Utah and BYU were called for 10 penalties each. The Utes totaled 90 penalties, while the Cougars finished with 67 penalties.
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