SALT LAKE CITY — Mark Harlan, the athletic director for Utah, expressed his outrage over the officiating during Saturday night’s game that saw BYU narrowly defeat the Utes 22-21. Harlan’s comments came just before players and head coach Kyle Whittingham made their way to the post-game press conference.
“This game was absolutely stolen from us,” Harlan declared emphatically. “We were looking forward to our place in the Big 12, but right now, I’m feeling quite the opposite. We deserved to win, but someone else took that from us. It’s really disheartening. I intend to have a conversation with the commissioner about how unfair this was for our team. I am appalled by the lack of professionalism displayed by the officiating crew tonight.”
The game became particularly contentious during BYU’s final drive when Utah seemingly halted the Cougars on two separate fourth downs, only to have these successes negated by referee decisions. At one point, BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff threw an incomplete pass in the end zone, but it was ruled that BYU had called a timeout just before the snap, leading to the play being wiped off the board.
On the ensuing fourth down, Junior Tafuna and Karene Reid managed to sack Retzlaff, but that moment was also short-lived as cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn of Utah was flagged for holding, granting BYU a new set of downs. The Cougars pressed forward, with Retzlaff connecting with Chase Roberts and Darius Lassiter, while Hinckley Ropati pushed for 14 yards to set up Will Ferrin’s decisive 44-yard field goal just four seconds from the end.
Ferrin’s third field goal capped a remarkable comeback for BYU, which had been trailing by 11 points at halftime. The Cougars did not score their first offensive touchdown until 12 minutes and 35 seconds were left in the game.
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake commented on the officiating, saying, “I’m not sure what else there is to add. That’s just how football goes. Holding penalties can happen frequently. I wasn’t focused on every part of the field in the moment, but I’ll definitely review the plays and I’m sure there were other holds on the other side that went unnoticed.”
Whittingham echoed Harlan’s frustrations regarding the officiating, stating, “The nature of the calls out there was ridiculous. That sums up my feelings on the matter.” Both teams were penalized heavily throughout the game, with Utah receiving 10 penalties amounting to 90 yards and BYU also incurring 10 penalties but for a total of 67 yards.