Four years later, Utah QB Johnson repeats history

Nov 23, 2008 - 7:56 PM By Chris Bellamy PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

The situation was the same, the implications were the same and the opponent was the same.

But for Utah quarterback Brian Johnson, the view was entirely different.

Four years ago, Johnson was on the sideline as the 2004 Utes - led by head coach Urban Meyer and Heisman Trophy finalist Alex Smith - disposed of arch-rival BYU with a 52-21 victory at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

With the win, the Utes punched their ticket to the Fiesta Bowl, becoming the first team from a non-BCS conference to play in a BCS bowl game.

Johnson was a 17-year-old freshman back then - and as Smith's backup, his responsibilities were limited primarily to mop-up duty. He appeared in 10 games and threw 21 passes during that campaign while being groomed as the quarterback of the future for a program whose bar had been permanently raised.

But that was a once-in-a-career season - certainly not the norm for a team that until 2003 hadn't won an outright conference championship since 1957. And yet four years later, Johnson matched his predecessor, accomplishing the seemingly impossible once again.

"It's a fairy-tale ending," Johnson said. "We wanted to come out here and show people, when we put it together, we can be pretty good."

In doing so, the senior quarterback came up with a signature performance in the final home game of his career as he led seventh-ranked Utah to a 48-24 rout of BYU.

"It's the perfect way to go out," he said.

From the beginning, Johnson established the pace, orchestrating a 12-play drive on the game's first possession that ended in Louie Sakoda's 37-yard field goal.

Johnson and offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig kept it simple. They didn't rely on the option, the hook-and-ladder or even the deep crossing routes that the 2004 Utes so often utilized.

Instead, Johnson consistently hit receivers underneath, picking apart BYU's soft coverage schemes and marching methodically down the field with an almost robotic precision.

"I immersed myself in preparation," Johnson said. "There wasn't a look I hadn't seen on tape ... I knew what they were going to do before they did it."

While his highly touted counterpart - the Cougars' Max Hall - turned the ball over six times, Johnson played mistake-free ball. In fact, it was Johnson that made Hall pay for his mistakes.

Case in point - the last minute of the first half. After safety Joe Dale picked Hall off near midfield, it took Johnson just three plays to capitalize, finding David Reed for a 32-yard touchdown pass with 21 seconds to go.

The Utes likely were just hoping just to cap the second quarter with a field goal to take a six-point cushion into the half, but Johnson rolled right and found a tightly-covered Reed in the end zone just inside the right sideline.

After Hall's third-quarter fumble, Johnson took over the offense and completed four straight passes to give Utah a 10-point lead. He capped the short scoring drive with a screen pass to Brent Casteel, who scampered eight yards down the left sideline to the end zone to make it 34-24.

With the victory all but sealed up, Johnson put the finishing touches on Saturday's blowout with a 1-yard scoring strike to Colt Sampson - once again, coming on the heels of a Hall interception.

"Brian's a competitive kid," said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, now in his fourth season at the helm. "He had aspirations to play very well tonight and he did."

Johnson's final numbers essentially told the story: 30-for-36, 303 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions.

For Johnson, the four years in between the Utes' first 12-0 season and this year's encore have been eventful, to say the least. In 2005 - the first year of the post-Meyer era - Johnson was relentlessly compared to Smith en route to an 8-5 season. The next year, he missed the entire season recovering from surgery to repair a torn ACL.

Johnson battled injuries throughout 2007 for a Ute group that many considered a disappointment. And over the last two years, he's been witness to a pair of devastating, come-from-behind losses to BYU.

But with just one game remaining in his collegiate career - be it the Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl or Orange Bowl - Johnson finds himself in the same position he was in during his first semester in Salt Lake City: undefeated and on his way to crashing the BCS party.