DJ & PK’s Best Utah/BYU Rivalry Moments: The Utah Utes Stonewall Taysom Hill To Get The Win

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah- The wait is nearly over as kickoff between the Utah Utes and BYU Cougars is only four days away. As part of rivalry week across the Wasatch Front, DJ & PK have been taking a look back at some of the best moments between the Utes and Cougars.

Today we take a look at an early season matchup in 2016. A low-scoring affair riddled with turnovers that was ultimately won on a final defensive stand from the Utah Utes, dragging Taysom Hill down on his way to rivalry immortality.

This matchup took place during the non-conference era of the rivalry, so while other meetings between the Utes and Cougars were played on frigid November nights, the weather was a calm 80 degrees on September 10, 2016 at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The game seemed a bit doomed from the start when BYU received the opening kickoff and on the first play from scrimmage, a pass from Taysom Hill bounced off the hands of Tanner Balderree and into the chest of Utah’s Sunia Tauteoli, who returned the interception to the end zone, giving Utah a shocking 7-0 lead.

The next two drives continued the sloppy start as BYU went three-and-out after getting the ball back only for Utah to commit a false start penalty and then lose a fumble, their first of six turnovers on the day.

BYU would add their first points of the day following their fumble recovery thanks to a 43-yard field goal from Jake Oldroyd.

Utah’s woes only got worse when on the fourth play of their issuing drive, Running Back Joe Williams would have the ball forced out by BYU’s Harvey Langi, losing possession via fumble on their second straight drive.

Jake Oldroyd would knock in another field goal to make the score 7-6 at the end of the first quarter.

Before another team would score, the Utes and Cougars would combine for three punts, and Utah Quarterback Troy Williams would throw two interceptions, increasing the Utes’ turnover tally to four in the first half.

The Cougars finally punched in a touchdown with 4:08 remaining in the first half following Troy Williams’ second interception. Taysom Hill took the snap on the Utah 39-yard line, keeping the option for himself and beating the linebacker to the outside corner on his way to the end zone for a long TD run.

BYU’s lead didn’t last long however as Utah took the rest of the clock in the second quarter, running ten plays, the final being a laser 21-yard pass from Troy Williams to Tim Patrick on the far side of the end zone, giving the Utes a 14-13 lead at the end of the half.

Both teams traded punts coming out of the break before Utah added to their lead off the foot of “Automatic Andy” Phillips, who was good on a 47-yard field goal.

The turnover frenzy continued throughout the third quarter as four of the next five drives resulted in either an interception or a fumble. Taysom Hill was picked off by Sunia Tauteoli and Reginald Porter, and Troy Williams stacked his thrid interception of the day, getting picked off by Francis Bernard. Utah then muffed a punt, giving BYU the ball back right at midfield, but the Cougars were once again unable to do anything with it, punting again just three plays later.

With the end of the game approaching and Utah holding on to a four-point lead, the Utes meticulously crawled down the field with a 19-play drive, consisting of 14 running plays, ending in a 29-yard field goal from Andy Phillips to put Utah up by a touchdown with only 2:49 remaining.

The Cougars, with their backs against the wall, ran the two-minute drill to perfection, and with 19 seconds remaining, Taysom Hill scrambled on a broken play, finding no Utah defenders between him and the end zone, marching in untouched from seven yards out.

BYU was an extra point away from tying the game and sending it to overtime, but Kalani Sitake, who was coaching in his first rivalry game as the head man at BYU, made the aggressive decision to try to win the game on the road with a 2-point conversion.

Taysom Hill took the shotgun snap on a designed quarterback run, however, BYU was outmanned on the left side of the line, leaving their left tackle on an island to try to block two Utes. The two defensive linemen in red broke contain and tripped Hill up before he was tackled by a convoy before even getting to the line of scrimmage, ending the game right then and there, giving Utah the 20-19 win, a perfect ending to this hectic meeting.

The victory continued Utah’s streak, making it six straight wins over BYU. In Taysom Hill’s career at BYU from 2012-2016, he was never able to beat the Utes.

2016 – Utah vs BYU

Down by 1 with 18 seconds left, BYU went for 2 to win the game…

Taysom Hill scrambles up the middle but gets stuffed by the Utah defense & the Utes hold on to win 20-19 pic.twitter.com/31GdYoNoh8

— WestCoastCFB (@WestCoastCFB) May 22, 2020

Tanner Tripp is a sports writer for KSL Sports covering all teams across the state of Utah. Follow him on X @tanner_tripp and Instagram @tanner.tripp here.

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