DJ & PK’s Best Utah/BYU Rivalry Moments: Brandon Burton’s Game Winning FG Block
Oct 30, 2024, 7:48 PM
Utah's Brandon Burton (lower right) blocks BYU's Mitch Payne's field goal attempt in the final second as the University of Utah defeats Brigham Young University 17-16 in MWC football Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Tom Smart, Deseret News)
(Tom Smart, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah- With the long-awaited return to the conference stage for this storied rivalry only 10 days away, we continue down the list of DJ & PK’s best moments between BYU and Utah throughout the years.
2010 was the last time BYU and Utah were members of the Mountain West Conference, and today we take a look back to the last time that the Utes and Cougars met as conference foes before Utah made the jump to the Pac-12 and BYU became independent.
The matchup took place on November 27, 2010, the last Saturday of the regular season. For BYU, it was a season of swings. The Cougars started the year 2-5 but rattled off four wins in a row coming into the matchup with Utah to become bowl-eligible.
For Utah, it was what could have been. The Utes started the season 8-0, being ranked as high as #6. With their third undefeated season in the last seven years in their sights, they welcomed TCU to Rice-Eccles Stadium with the hopes of continuing their winning streak. Unfortunately, a loaded Horned Frogs team featuring Andy Dalton put a beating on the Utes, scoring 40 unanswered points to open the game, eventually handing Utah their first loss by a score of 47-7. In the following week, Utah would again get beat by Notre Dame 28-3.
BYU, riding the high of becoming bowl eligible, and Utah, riding the low of falling out of National Championship contention, met at Rice-Eccles Stadium on a cold afternoon in November, the high was 25 degrees.
The entire affair was low-scoring but heavily slanted in the Cougars’ favor for the majority of the contest.
The only points in the first half came off of the right foot of BYU kicker Mitch Payne. A 43-yard field goal in the first quarter and a 37-yard field goal in the second quarter sent the Cougars to the locker room with a 6-0 lead.
BYU would then score the first touchdown of the game at the 4:51 mark of the fourth quarter, taking a 13-0 lead over the Utes with less than 17 minutes to play.
Although the Cougars had orchestrated three scoring drives, two of them were field goals, meaning it was still only a two-score game entering the fourth quarter. The door was not shut, and it wouldn’t be long before the Utes busted it open.
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Utah’s first points of the game would come on the first play of the final frame, a 40-yard field goal from Joe Phillips, cutting the deficit to 10.
Utah would force a Jake Heaps fumble of the following drive, and the recovery from Junior Tui’one set the Utes up on the BYU 37-yard line. On the very next play, Jordan Wynn threw a touchdown pass to DeVonte Christopher, making the score 13-10. In just over one minute of game time, Utah had gone from down two scores to within a field goal.
When BYU got the ball back, they went on a 15-play drive that lasted just over six minutes, but once again, they were unable to put it in the end zone and had to settle for a 42-yard field goal, putting BYU up 16-10.
The Cougars would force a punt from Utah on the next drive, giving themselves to put the game away with a score, but Brandon Bradley came up huge for the Utah defense, picking off Jake Heaps, and setting up what would become the game-winning drive for the Utes.
There were only 29 yards between the Utah offense and the end zone. It only took the home team three plays before Matt Asiata punched in a touchdown, and after the extra point, the Utes had their first lead of the day at 17-16.
BYU got the ball back with 4:21 remaining requiring only a field goal for the win. They ran 11 plays, six of them runs, content with running the clock down to only a few seconds left, trusting kicker Mitch Payne to be the hero, and having already made all three of his field goals that day, they had no reason not to.
The BYU special teams unit set up in the middle of the field for a 42-yard field goal with four seconds remaining. The entire game came down to these four seconds.
Whether the ball would have gone through the uprights we will never know, because before it got the chance to get over the line of scrimmage, Utah cornerback Brandon Burton dove in front of the attempt, smothering the kick and winning the game for Utah.
A sea of red stormed the field from the home sideline as the Utah Utes had successfully completed the improbable comeback to defeat the BYU Cougars for the final time as members of the Mountain West Conference.
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It was quite the regular season finale, but each team still had a post-season game to play in 2010. BYU would go on to beat UTEP 52-24 in the New Mexico Bowl and Utah would fall to Boise State in the MAACO Bowl 26-3.
November 9, 2024, will be the first conference meeting between BYU and Utah since Burton’s heroics 14 years ago.
