SALT LAKE CITY — No one had been calling Utah explosive the last couple seasons.
But Travis Wilson is now making things happen with his arm and his legs and the Utes have scored 100 points in its first two games for the first time in 40 years.
Wilson had two long touchdown runs and threw for three scores, all in the first half, and Utah exploded for a 70-7 win over Weber State Saturday afternoon.
“We definitely moved the ball really well. I was really grateful I got a chance to use my legs and run a little bit. It feels good because, last year, we really lacked in making big plays,” said Wilson, who completed 14 of 19 passes for 264 yards and added 93 yards on just three carries. The sophomore QB did not play in the second half.
The game marked the most points by the Utes (2-0) since an 82-6 victory over UTEP in 1973.
“That’s a big, physical, explosive football team. Just the size, the speed and the strength reared its head and exposed us on several occasions,” Weber State coach Jody Sears said.
Lucky Radley, a junior who has been buried on the depth chart, made the most of his opportunity to rush 13 times for a career-high 111 yards and two touchdowns. The Utes rushed for 338 yards on the outmatched Wildcats (1-1).
Dres Anderson had four catches for 103 yards and Sean Fitzgerald had two TD receptions as Utah rolled up 628 yards of total offense, the eighth best mark in school history — a promising sign for a team that often struggled to score last season.
“Travis was amazing. I felt like he going for the Heisman Trophy. He was running, passing, all of that. He looked great,” Anderson said.
Wilson ran for a 51-yard touchdown and threw for two more scores in a historic 35-point second quarter. The previous record, first tracked in 1968, was 31 points in a 68-27 win at Iowa State in 2010.
“That was lacking — explosive plays. For two weeks now, we’ve had a chance to get ‘chunk yardage’ as we call it. We didn’t run a whole bunch of plays today because we were scoring quickly,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said.
With Utah already leading 14-0, Kelvin York’s 24-yard TD run started a frenetic 10-minute stretch where the Utes scored five touchdowns. Wilson had his career-long run and hit Anderson and Fitzgerald for touchdowns. Mike Honeycutt added a touchdown when he ripped the ball from Bo Bolen’s hands on a kickoff return and ran 21 yards the other way.
The 6-foot-6, 240-pound Wilson said he worked hard in the offseason to gain strength. The added muscle certainly isn’t slowing down the big quarterback.
“He threw the ball efficiently again for the second week in a row,” Whittingham said. “But today you saw his speed capability. He is much faster than he might appear. But on those two long runs, you get an idea of the speed he has.”
The Wildcats played catch-up from the beginning and couldn’t catch a break. Even when it looked like they had recovered a fumble in Utah territory during the first quarter, the replay booth overturned the call.
Once most of the starters gave way to reserves, the Wildcats finally moved the ball. Josh Booker powered into the end zone from three yards out to get the Wildcats on the scoreboard in the third quarter.
“I like the fact that our kids kept playing. They got exposed, but I’m not throwing anyone under the bus. They played hard,” Sears said.
Jordan Adamczyk, who was sacked four times, completed 8 of 17 passes for 88 yards. The longest WSU pass was a 32-yard wide receiver pass from Erik Walker to Cody Raymond. The Wildcats rushed 43 times for just 69 yards on the stingy Ute defense.
“The offense did a great job of keeping us off the field,” said Utah defensive lineman Tenny Polepoi, who spent much of the first half in the Wildcat backfield amassing 1.5 sacks and 2.5 tackles for loss. “We just wanted to be disruptive when we were in there.”
Utah remained perfect (36-0) against current members of the Big Sky Conference. The Utes are now 4-0 against Weber State, a FCS school with a campus 35 miles to the north. The last time the Wildcats played Utah was during the Utes’ undefeated (13-0) season in 2008.
Weber State started the season with a 50-40 win over Stephen F. Austin while gaining 484 yards of offense with 315 yards on the ground. Utah’s defense proved to be much more formidable than that of the Lumberjacks.
The Ute defense recorded seven sacks, the best mark since the eight they had against Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl. The Wildcats punted 12 times and moved past midfield just twice.
The hero of Utah’s season-opening win over Utah State with three field goals and an onside kick, Andy Phillips had no field goal opportunities this week but set a school record with 10 point after touchdown kicks.
“There were a lot of positives today, but we are fully aware that the degree of difficulty gets much higher this week with Pac-12 play,” Whittingham said of his team preparing for Oregon State next week.
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