To listen to the University of Utah football team, you'd have thought Saturday afternoon's 41-16 road rout of Kansas was business as usual. You'd have thought Mike McCoy always looks like Joe Montana Deux, that Jamal ``Jam'' Anderson routinely has 100-yard days, that Ernest Boyd returns interceptions for touchdowns in his sleep, and that coach Ron McBride just expects lopsided wins over Big Eight teams.
Ho-hum, another day, another lopsided victory, see ya at work on Monday.``I'm not surprised at all,'' said McCoy.
``The happiness lasts until we get back to Salt Lake, and then it's back to work,'' said wideout Henry Lusk.
Uh, huh.
The truth is Utah produced one of its best performances ever under McBride. For an afternoon, at least, the Utes were a thing to behold. By the end of the first quarter they were leading 21-0 and knocking on the door for another score. By halftime it was 31-3. The Jayhawks, who didn't have a single first down in the first quarter, didn't score a touchdown until late in the third quarter. They didn't score again until the final 32 seconds of the game.
``We looked at the films, and we weren't worried,'' said cornerback Mark Swanson. ``We were very relaxed.''
Never mind that Utah had lost its last road game 38-zip to Arizona State. Or that Kansas, now 1-3 and reeling, beat BYU in last December's Aloha Bowl. Or that Utah has been virtually skunked by Big Eight teams over the years.
Utah handled Kansas about the same way top-ranked Florida State did (42-0). And it could have been worse. Four different Utah drives stalled at the Kansas 1-, 16-, 17- and 16-yard lines, leaving the Utes with just two field goals, thanks to a fumbled snap on a 34-yard field goal attempt and a fumble at the goal line. But we nitpick. Did we mention Utah's 476 total yards? ``I have all the confidence in the world that our offense can move the ball,'' said McCoy.
McCoy apparently was forgetting the Arizona State shutout. In that game, he couldn't have completed a pass at his date, but he has improved rapidly since then. If McCoy has been happy-footed, tentative and nervous in the pocket, he was poised and razor sharp on Saturday. He stood tall under pressure, and when he did scramble it was only after or while giving receivers a good long look. In all, he completed 22 of 30 passes for a career-high 322 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, and he was sacked just twice. In the last two games, he has thrown for 581 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions.
``I always thought he was capable of that,'' said quarterback coach Dan Henson. ``Honestly, I was never concerned.''
Twice in the first half McCoy eluded the rush to find receivers downfield to sustain scoring drives. Near the end of the first quarter, on third down at the 19, he completed a pass he wouldn't have even thrown two weeks ago. He dropped back to pass, spun out of one tackle, rolled right and spied Rowley just as he broke free of the secondary. Bingo, 45 yards.
``He's showed all of this in practice,'' said McBride. ``Any time you have a new guy he's got to go in there and get confidence.''
McCoy carried out the team's game plan just the way it was drawn on the chalk board. The Utes decided to take advantage of the attention that star receiver Bryan Rowley is attracting from defenses these days. They took an old play - 98 Drag, which calls for Rowley to run a post route - and added a new wrinkle, with slotback Henry Lusk running the same route from the same side but shallower, underneath the coverage. 98 Drag Lock, they call it. On Saturday, the play produced two touchdowns to Lusk, covering nine and 16 yards, to help bust the game open in the first quarter. Lusk finished with six catches for 109 yards, including a 52-yard reception that set up Utah's final score - a 3-yard run by Keith Williams late in the fourth quarter.
When McCoy wasn't passing, the Utes were giving the ball to either Anderson, Pierre Jones or Keith Williams. They started the defense one way, then gave the ball to the likes of Anderson, a 240-pound fullback, going the other way, cutting back against the grain. Anderson bulled through countless tackles for 99 yards on 13 carries.
Then there was Chris Yergensen, who kicked two field goals, of 40 and 44 yards.
On defense, the Utes' plan was simple: ``We wanted to stop the run,'' explained McBride, ``because we didn't think they could beat us with the pass.''
The Jayhawks managed just 152 yards on 38 rushing attempts, and when they turned to the passing game they were as ineffective as the Utes had expected. Fred Thomas completed just 5 of 17 passes for 79 yards and one interception. He was replaced in the second half by Asheiki Preston, who completed 7 of 15 passes for 46 yards and one interceptions.
The stars of the Ute defense were also its two newest additions: defensive end Bronzell Miller and cornerback Ernest Boyd, who were making the second starts of their careers. Miller collected 7 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 sack (giving him four in two games), 1 pass breakup and one blocked punt.
But the day's biggest play belonged to Boyd. Late in the second quarter, Boyd saw his defensive assignment, tight end Dwayne Chandler, back off the line of scrimmage, and he was sure he smelled a screen pass coming. ``When the tight end backs off like that, I'm supposed to just stand there and then break on the ball,'' says Boyd. ``That's what I did.''
Boyd picked off the pass and ran 42 yards for a touchdown and a 31-3 lead.
The Jayhawks had one chance to make a rally. Leading 21-0, the Utes had a first down at the KU one-yard line late in the first quarter, but instead of utilizing their speed as they otherwise did all day, they stubbornly tried three plays up the gut of the defense, two of them by the gangly McCoy. He fumbled on third down and Clint Bowen recovered in the end zone. The Ute defense held, but Harold Lusk fumbled the punt and KU recovered again, at the Utah 20. But once again, the Ute defense held, and all the Jayhawks got was a Dan Eichloff field goal.
``I feel the same way today as I did in a loss to New Mexico State my first year,'' said Kansas coach Glen Mason. ``. . . Utah is a good team. It was very frustrating.''
© 1993 Deseret News Publishing Co.