Isaac Wilson earns 2nd win as starter as No. 12 Utes get past No. 14 Cowboys

STILLWATER, Okla. — In the team's first road trip of Big 12 play, No. 12 Utah controlled the game.

But that's not to say the Utes had a sizable lead over No. 14 Oklahoma State ... or that things went consistently well.

In a low-scoring affair, Utah came out on top with a closer than expected 22-19 win over Oklahoma State at Boone Pickens Stadium on Saturday afternoon in a gritty game between the two Big 12 title contenders.

"Made that a lot more dramatic than we needed to, but we hung on and got the win," Utah (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "Proud of our guys. Didn't always play as smart as we needed to. Had a chance to really put the game away completely, let them back in it — credit them for continuing to fight and battle."

After controlling the game for much of the day, freshman quarterback Isaac Wilson hit Brant Kuithe with a 45-yard touchdown pass, where Kuithe easily beat his defender and walked into the end zone to give the Utes a 22-3 lead after a missed 2-point try.

It was the score that sent a majority of Oklahoma State (3-1, 0-1 Big 12) fans to the exits as the game looked to be over.

"Not so fast, my friend," in the words of ESPN personality Lee Corso.

Cowboys quarterback Alan Bowman, who was initially replaced at halftime with his poor play, came back into the game and looked like a new player. The veteran signal-caller was on a mission to get Oklahoma State back in the game.

Bowman orchestrated a three-play, 58-yard drive that was capped off on a 28-yard touchdown toss to receiver Brennan Presley, and then followed it up on the ensuing drive with a seven-play, 69-yard drive that ended on a 9-yard touchdown catch by Rashod Owens to make it a 3-point game after the Cowboys converted by 2-point attempts.

Suddenly, it was a ball game in Stillwater.

"They made some plays and we didn't play as well as we needed to," Whittingham said, simply.

But Utah easily recovered the ensuing onside kick, and Micah Bernard then sealed the victory with time running out as he picked up 4 yards on a third-and-3 attempt to wear out the clock.

"I had full trust in our offensive line and Micah," Wilson said. "I'm sure everyone knew we were going to run the ball, because all we needed was 10 yards. And those guys on that field were like, this is the best 10 yards of our life, and Micah plowed it right through that hole, got the first down."

It was dramatic down to the last second, but there was a little bit of drama before the game, too.

Another chaotic week related to Cam Rising's availability ended similarly as last week when Wilson trotted out onto the field to lead the Utah offense for the second consecutive week. Rising warmed up with a glove on his throwing hand but was a last-minute scratch.

"When he's ready, he'll be ready; that's all I can say," Whittingham said of Rising. "We were hoping he'd be ready this week. It was literally a game-time decision. It wasn't game day it was game time. When we came into the locker room after all the warmups, had a little conference, and decided that to give us the best chance to win was Isaac; Cam agreed, and that's the direction we went."

Wilson said he found out a "couple minutes before the game."

The freshman quarterback had his mistakes — two first-half interceptions and almost a third in the second half — but he outplayed his veteran counterpart Bowman on the other sideline.

The redshirt senior was pulled at halftime after throwing for 89 yards and one interception on 8-of-22 passing, before checking back into the game late in the fourth quarter. Bowman finished the day throwing for 197 yards on 15-of-32 passing with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

As his replacement, redshirt sophomore Garret Rangel entered the game, but struggled similarly against a Utah defense that gave up few plays and only allowed the Cowboys to 285 total yards on the day.

Rangel finished the day throwing for just 31 yards on 3-of-11 passing on a day the Oklahoma State fans rang down boos several times as a result of the frustrations on offense.

In the end, it was the freshman QB to come away with his second win of the season. Wilson also became the first true freshman quarterback at Utah to beat an Associated Press Top 25 team.

Wilson finished the day throwing for 207 yards on 17-of-29 passing for the Utes, while adding two interceptions in the win.

The Utes found success mostly through a strong ground game, led by Bernard, who finished with a career-high 182 yards to lead the room. The running back who is now playing like a true RB1 averaged 7.3 yards per carry and broke off a 61-yard run where he broke several tackles.

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