Utah athletic director Mark Harlan went scorched earth after the Utes’ heartbreaking loss to BYU on Saturday night, hammering the Big 12 and the officials for taking the game away from his team in his eyes.
“This game was absolutely stolen from us,” Harlan said after Utah’s 22-21 loss. “We were excited about being in the Big 12, but tonight I am not. We won this game. Someone else stole it from us. Very disappointed.
“I will talk to the commissioner. This was not fair to our team. I’m disgusted by the professionalism of the officiating crew tonight.”
Harlan then stormed off without taking questions.
It’s fair to assume his disdain revolved around a defensive holding call that kept BYU alive.
Utah had stopped them with a fourth-down sack, but cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn was called for holding, giving BYU a first down with 1:29 left.
The undefeated Cougars proceeded to go down the field, setting up Will Ferrin’s game-winning 44-yard field goal at the horn.
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham didn’t express himself like his athletic director afterwards, though he did appear furious with the officials and let them have it on the field.
“Couldn’t get that last stop when we needed it, unfortunately,” he said. “That’s kind of been the story for several games.
BYU is in prime position now to reach the Big 12 championship game.
It leads Colorado by one game atop the conference standings and four other teams – Iowa State, Kansas State, Arizona State and West Virginia – by two.
The league is likely to receive only the automatic bid to the expanded College Football Playoff, making the conference title game a play-in game.