Utes Get the Shaft from Officials in Provo

I can’t believe some people’s thinking after this game. The refs lost it for us but everyone seems to be focusing on Utah not coming through on 4th and 18. Yes, that was a huge opportunity to close the deal. However, that mistake does warrant giving the game away. Byu did not have to make another play following the 4th down conversion. It needed at least 2 more first downs after that conversion to get in decent field goal range for its kicker. It was given 30 yards on an early Christmas gift from the officials. The personal foul was a joke. It was a good football hit. How do you call that after letting Keihl’s hit on Brooks go in the first half?

As bad as that call was, the pass interference was worse. The ball was way under thrown, Byu’s receiver pulls Stanford into him, and Stanford turns to look for the ball. An incredibly horrible call!!!!

This got me thinking of the times in the past when Utah has been screwed by officials. I assume we aren’t the only ones but it sure seems as a Ute that we get the short end of the stick quite a bit. Here are a few on my all time “got screwed” list in no particular order:

1994? at Texas (basketball) – Officials allow Texas a catch and shoot with 1/10 of a second remaining for a game winner in Austin.

2002 at Arizona (football) – Utah’s apparent game winning touchdown catch to Josh Lyman is called out of bounds when replays indicate that Lyman’s foot was in bounds by a good foot and a half.

2000 Byu (Football) – Lavell Edwards’ final game. Luke Staley fumbles on Byu’s game winning drive but officials call him down; replays clearly showed that the ball was loose before Staley was down.

1998 at New Mexico (Basketball) – Utah goes into New Mexico undefeated and leads by 7 points with a little over a minute remaining. Andre Miller is then mugged and tackled twice without a whistle that allows New Mexico the opportunity to hit a game winner at the buzzer.

2007 at Byu (Football) – A personal foul is called on Robert Johnson on an apparent clean hit as the ball passes John Pitta. Without the penalty it would have been 3 and 10 for Byu with it needed at least 15 to 20 yards to get into field goal range. To pour salt on the wound, on the very next play R.J. Stanford is called for pass interference for playing “too good” of defense giving Byu an additional fifteen yards and setting it up for a touchdown. Utah is flagged for 10 times for 95 yards in the game compared to 4 for 43 for Byu.

Did I miss anything?