Most gameplans tend to focus around the best ways to move the football both running and passing. But in the season finale on Friday, Utah let its defense do the talking. A pair of pick-6s proved to be the difference in the Utes’ 28-14 victory over UCF at FBC Mortgage Stadium in Orlando.
While the Knights doubled up Utah in first downs (22-11) and nearly did the same for total yardage (379-196), two key plays swung the game in the Utes’ favor. Senior cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn, starting in his 31st consecutive game, scored the first touchdown of the game in the second quarter, returning his third career interception 60 yards for the score and a 10-0 lead.
“A pick-six is always an igniter for a lot of emotion, particularly on your defensive side of the ball,” said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham. “That was a great pick and an exceptional run by him. You saw how fast he is. Great job by the defense executing the interception return process that we drill every single week. It definitely gave us a spark and really a shot of adrenaline for us.”
Vaughn said it was a moment he won’t soon forget.
“That was amazing,” Vaughn said. “I’ve been waiting for that my whole career. I’m glad I got to finally do it before the season came to an end.”
Sophomore cornerback Smith Snowden put the game on ice late in the fourth quarter with a 13-yard interception return for Utah’s final touchdown of the game. His second interception of the season and first career touchdown put the Utes in front 28-7 with just over three minutes left in the fourth quarter.
The Utah defense forced three turnovers in all, including one on UCF’s initial drive of the game. Junior linebacker Lander Barton recorded a strip sack and sophomore defensive end Logan Fano recovered, setting up a 37-yard field goal by Cole Becker for the game’s initial score. It was one of five sacks the Utes recorded on the night; two by Barton. In all, Utah defense totaled 10 tackles for loss.
The Utes’ offense managed a 24-yard field goal when Trey Coleman nailed his first career make just before halftime to take a 13-7 lead they held into the fourth quarter.
Senior quarterback Luke Bottari, making only his second career start and first this season, fired his first career touchdown pass, a 15-yard strike to junior tight end Landen King in the opening minute of the final period to give the Utes a little breathing room. Bottari then threw to Micah Bernard for the successful two-point conversion and a 21-7 lead.
Bottari completed 13 of 20 pass attempts for 111 yards and Bernard led the ground game with 87 yards rushing. Freshman wide receiver Zacharyus Williams turned in a team-high six receptions for 72 yards.
Utah closes the 2024 season 5-7 overall and 2-7 in Big 12 play.
“You certainly want to go out with a win,” Whittingham said. “It’s better than the alternative, but it does give you some momentum going into the offseason. It’s a positive, but still far away from where we wanted to be and a lot of circumstances this year have contributed to that, but very positive and proud of our guys and mainly for hanging in there because you start having week-after-week of no success and a lot teams would just cash it in and not give any effort. These guys have continued to give great effort every single week.”
UCF got a pair of touchdowns from RJ Harvey; one rushing and one receiving, to set the program’s all-time touchdown record with 48. Harvey scored on a 5-yard run late in the second quarter and then pulled in a 6-yard touchdown pass from EJ Colson in the final seconds of the game.
Harvey surpassed Kevin Smith’s 46 career TDs and finished with a game-high 119 yards rushing, the senior’s 17th career 100-yard game.
“We were really hoping we could have a smile in the locker room sending him out the right way,” said UCF head coach Gus Malzahn. “RJ, he’s a great player. He’s got a great future and he’s a great representative for our university, our football team. Great player, great person.”
The Knights bring the curtain down on the 2024 season with a 4-8 record (2-7 in Big 12).
