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Utes open season with shutout

Posted at 6:50 AM, Sep 02, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-02 08:50:15-04

SALT LAKE CITY — It was a good ol’ classic Ute victory Thursday at Rice-Eccles Stadium. A traditional slow start, stellar defense, and enough offense to beat an FCS team like Southern Utah 24-0.

After putting only 3 points on the board through a quarter and a half, Troy McCormick finally found the end zone for Utah with a 4-yard score in the 2nd quarter. New Ute quarterback, Troy Williams then found Tim Patrick in the corner of the end zone with a short pass on the Ute’s next drive to carry a 17-0 lead into the locker room.

Utah’s offense started the second half stale as well before Williams found Patrick again, this time with 9:27 left. The 57-yard connection ended up being the play of the game. Utah’s defense, meanwhile, absolutely shut down the Thunderbird aerial attack. Between McCoy Hill and Tannon Pedersen, they were a combined 6 of 18 through the air for 42 yards.

As for Williams, his results were mixed. The JC transfer did finish with 272 passing yards, but missed several targets as well. Utah (1-0) now turns their attention toward BYU on September 10th.