"Keep Coach Mac! Keep Coach Mac!" the crowd on the field chanted. Another group picked up the cadence: "Ronnie! Ronnie! Ronnie!"
The triumphant Utes hoist exuberant coach Ron McBride on their shoulders as the football players celebrate their victory over BYU Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
"Ronnie Mac" was back on top — if only for the moment.
They carried him on their shoulders and pulled down the goal posts.
His players dedicated Saturday's rivalry game to him, hoping against hope that they could save his job by pulling out a 13-point second half. Brandon Warfield's career-high 194 yards rushing and Kyle Whittingham's tight-fisted defense led to a come-from-behind win, McBride's sixth career victory over BYU, 13-6.
It was a somewhat familiar ending for the rivalry game, the Utes missing a field goal that would have cemented their win and giving BYU 2:06 to try to drive from its 20-yard line for the win. The Ute defense sacked Bret Engemann, the Y.'s third QB of the day, three times and forced a fumble on the final drive.
Until Josh Savage caught Engemann for a 12-yard loss on fourth down with :04 left, the drive was eerily similar to what happened two years ago on the same field, when Brandon Doman pulled out a Cougar win after an unbelievable fourth-and-13 pass along the Ute sideline.
If, indeed, McBride is out as coach, at least he could leave a winner on this field, the way LaVell Edwards retired in 2000. "Seeing the smile on his face made my whole day," said U. defensive end Jason Kaufusi.
Savage's sack kept BYU from winning for a fourth straight time at Rice-Eccles and third straight year overall. It was Utah's first home win in the rivalry since the second 34-31 game in 1994.
"When I finally saw that guy go down, it was like, 'The Curse is over,'" said Ute defensive-line coach Gary Andersen.
Players and fans carried McBride around the field on their shoulders, and then — quite embarrassingly, given the poor records of both teams — the crowd tore down both goalposts and ran toward McBride with a piece, trying to make a handoff.
"I thought they were going to drop it on my head," said McBride, who refused possession. "It was awesome. I liked it." Even if it was a little cuckoo to rip off the $8,000 posts because the Utes finished at 5-6 for the season, 3-4 in the Mountain West, temporarily tying them with San Diego State for fourth. BYU finished its season at 5-7, 2-5 and temporarily sixth in the league with Colorado State yet to play UNLV and New Mexico yet to play Wyoming.
"No better way than to go out with a win against the Cougars," said Ute offensive tackle Jordan Gross, likely a high-round NFL draft choice in April.
"No better feeling, especially playing BYU," echoed senior linebacker Sheldon Deckart.
The win left exuberant U. quarterback Brett Elliott craving more.
"I can handle a couple more of these," said the sophomore. It even had him thinking the Utes have had a good year. "Oh, our season is successful, man — are you kidding me?" Elliott said. "You saw everybody, how happy they were today. It was great to see them into it and to send our seniors out on a win. Hell, yeah, it's a success."
Warfield was stoked to the highest by not only McBride's job situation but BYU taunts that he wasn't good enough to play for them. He was recruited first by BYU.
"One of the main things was motivation for Mac, because he's fighting against all odds, but the rest of it was trash talk," said Warfield. "They said I wasn't good enough, wasn't the kind of back they wanted, and I just wanted to show them what they were missing. I used all that against them and ran harder."
"I'm happy at Utah," Warfield said. "Nothing against BYU, but it's more fun over here. You don't have to watch your back. Not that I do anything bad; it's just that they (BYU) look for every little thing to get you on. I was even nervous on a recruiting trip."
Warfield had 62 yards at halftime and said he was a bit tired, but running-backs coach Vincent White told him, "'You can't get tired,' so I just stepped it up," Warfield said.
"No one could take him down," said Elliott.
Warfield carried 40 times. The other 13 rushers in the game, combined from both teams, gained minus-20 yards. Warfield's touchdown with 3:03 left in the third quarter, a 4-yard run, gave Utah its first lead, 10-3, combined with a Bryan Borreson PAT kick and the field goal Borreson had made at 7:50 of the third. Borreson made a fourth-quarter field goal with 7:09 left, following a Deckart interception, but he missed his first and fourth field-goal tries — in true rivalry fashion.
"I know I'm a good kicker, and I know that I need to just be able to focus. There's a lot of negative-kicker press on a BYU-Utah matchup, and I was just kind of glad I put 50 percent through," said the freshman.
Utah's offense moved the ball well in the first half but couldn't force any scores. Offensive coordinator Craig Ver Steeg lamented a few red-zone calls. "We took a chance. We thought if we did some early 'specials' we could hit them with a couple things, and those got us some negative yards," he said.
BYU had a 30-yard Matt Payne field goal with 9:34 left in the first and added a 48-yarder at 10:20 of the second for the Cougars' only scoring against a Ute defense that got tougher as the game advanced, coming away with three turnovers, two in the second half.
"That was the difference," said Whittingham. "A couple costly (BYU) turnovers in the red zone, and credit our kids for getting on the ball. That was the difference."
The other difference was pressure, especially on the last drive. "Last time in that situation, I kind of backed off and got a little conservative. We brought the pressure this time. Everyone had a huge game. I could not be prouder of this group of kids," Whittingham said. "No quit in this team. A great way to go out."
"What's great," said McBride, "is to see everyone so happy. It's just a natural high that they have, and you only can get these in football." He didn't want to discuss his own job worries. He just wanted to enjoy the win and then get back to watching game films and having a good Sunday.
Athletic director Chris Hill also planned to have a nice day Sunday, having dinner with the family and not worrying about what he might do — likely early this week — with regard to McBride's job. Certainly the Utes made it tougher for Hill to pull the plug on McBride, finishing the season with three straight wins and enough offense to make up for a few mistakes.
© 2002 Deseret News Publishing Co