Ferrin's 44-yard field goal wills No. 9 BYU to 22-21 win over Utah in wild rivalry finish

SALT LAKE CITY — The game was supposed to be over.

After Utah had stopped No. 9 BYU in the shadows of its own goal posts on fourth-and-10 with less than two minutes remaining, a defensive holding penalty gave the Cougars another chance.

Jake Retzlaff, who completed just 15-of-33 passes for 219 yards, wasn't about to miss it. And neither was Will Ferrin.

The Davis High product and Boise State transfer kicker booted a 44-yard field goal with 3 seconds remaining as the ninth-ranked Cougars stayed unbeaten with a 22-21 win in front of a stadium-record crowd at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

"The snap, the kick, the hold; it was perfection," said BYU coach Kalani Sitake, who spent a decade on Kyle Whittingham's coaching staff at the U. "Will was as cool as can be."

LJ Martin ran for 68 yards on 11 carries, no bigger than the rush for no gain he used to set up Ferrin's game-winner with 3 seconds on the clock.

Chase Roberts caught six passes for 91 yards to lead the Cougars, and Darius Lassiter added 46 yards on four catches.

Keelan Marion added a 96-yard kick return touchdown for BYU (9-0, 6-0 Big 12), his second of the year for the Cougars who — in the words of Third Eye Blind — seems to be living a semi-charmed kind of life in 2024.

Brandon Rose completed 12-of-21 passes for 112 yards, two touchdowns and an interception for the Utes (4-5, 1-5 Big 12) in his first start at quarterback.

But the game, which included two touchdowns from Utah star Brant Kuithe and a short rushing touchdown from Retzlaff that capped a nine-play, 95-yard drive to open the fourth quarter, came down to one of Ferrin's three field goals on the night.

If the roar of the BYU corner of a sold-out crowd at Rice-Eccles Stadium — an announced crowd of 54,383 that set a facility record held since the 53,544 tickets sold against Florida in 2023 — wasn't enough to wake up the neighborhood, then the Cougars' fight song emanating from the visiting locker room might have.

Or maybe just the "pandemonium" on the sideline after Ferrin's kick split the uprights for BYU's first win at Rice-Eccles Stadium since 2006, when another quarterback wearing No. 12 — former NFL signal caller and current 3DQB trainer John Beck — was wearing Cougar blue.

"It's been 18 years since a BYU quarterback won in this stadium, and that was No. 12, John Beck," Retzlaff recalled with efficiency. "He texted me yesterday. … I bet he's texted me again. He's an awesome guy to lean on, and this is my first Holy War. He's an awesome guy to talk to about it."

The Utes outgained BYU 180 yards to 151 in the first half, and shut out the Cougars' offense en route to a 21-10 halftime advantage. But the team leadership took over in the visiting locker room. Doubt? Not one bit, players contend and Sitake backed up.

Like Marion said when he spit out his mouth guard just before reaching the end zone on his kick return from the 4-yard line in the second quarter, "We're BYU, and we're like that."

"They hit us in the face early," said linebacker Isaiah Glasker, the former Bingham High standout who grew up a Utah fan and finished with seven tackles and shared a tackle for loss in his first game against his childhood team. "We just knew when we went back out there, we had to jump back on it again."

BYU shut out Utah's offense in the second half, notching a 33-yard field goal from Ferrin to cut the deficit to 21-13 before Retzlaff's 1-yard rush with 12:35 remaining pulled the Cougars within 2.

That eventually set the stage for one final drive, another miracle from Provo, and heartbreak on the Hill after Junior Tafuna and Karene Reid's shared sack on fourth-and-10 was nullified by a defensive holding penalty.

But mostly, it set the stage for Ferrin, who took the long road to Provo after two years at Boise State.

The 6-foot-3 redshirt junior from Kaysville grew up a BYU fan from a family of Cougars in Davis County, including two brothers who played lacrosse in Provo.

One of his earliest memories around football involved his dad — who wasn't much of a football fan, so Ferrin isn't sure how they got on the subject — explaining to him the intricacies of the state's largest college rivalry game.

"Eight-year-old Will Ferrin would be hyped, for sure," he said with a laugh.

"That was such a big part of my childhood," Ferrin added. "Substitute teachers would come in and I'd ask if they were a BYU fan or a Utah fan. It's cool to be a part of it, and I feel like I'm just a part of Cougar Nation. It's cool to see BYU win this game, and for me to do my job and do my part is surreal, for sure."

As the calendar turned from late Saturday night to Sunday morning, he cemented himself in the rivalry's record books.

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