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Running game leads Utah past Colorado State

Oct 19, 2008 - 1:20 AM SALT LAKE CITY (Ticker) -- A powerful Utah running game extinguished any hope Colorado State had of pulling off an upset.

Corbin Louks and Matt Asiata each ran for a pair of touchdowns as 13th-ranked Utah used a dominant ground attack en route to a 49-16 Mountain West Conference victory over Colorado State on Saturday.

Utah (8-0, 4-0 Mountain West) found the end zone for five rushing touchdowns and collected 329 rushing yards on 37 carries. The Utes finished with a season-high 552 yards of total offense.

Louks, the Utes' backup quarterback, scored on runs of 22 and 69 yards in the second half as Utah scored three consecutive touchdowns after the break to pull away from the Rams.

"We have a lot of playmakers," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. "There are only so many touches for the offense and we have a lot of team guys here.

After a hard-fought 13-7 defeat to a talented TCU squad last week, Colorado State entered this matchup with aspirations of shocking the Utes.

"We came in here and played a very, very good football team," CSU coach Steve Fairchild said. "We hung in there in the first half with our physicalness and our effort. But in the end, we didn't make enough plays and it got out of hand a little bit in the second half."

When Brian Johnson connected with David Reed on a 33-yard touchdown to give Utah a 28-10 lead with 1:18 left in the second quarter, the BCS hopefuls appeared to be well on their way to the victory.

Colorado State quarterback Billy Farris led the Rams (3-4, 1-2) on a pair of field-goal drives to cut the deficit to 28-16, but the senior signal-caller was intercepted by Chaz Walker in Utah territory on the next possession.

Louks found the end zone five plays later to extend the lead to 19, and the Utes scored on the next two trips to put the game out of reach.

"From this point on we are going to be the target and playing with the big target on our backs," Brian Johnson said. "We know that we are going to get everybody's best shot, and you wouldn't expect anything else. As a competitor, you wouldn't want anything else than your opponent's best shot."

Gartrell Johnson ran for 94 yards on 20 carries for the Rams.

Asiata added a pair of 3-yard scoring scampers for Utah, which matched its best start since 2004 when former No. 1 overall draft pick Alex Smith led the Utes to a 12-0 campaign.

"They certainly hit some big plays running the football," Fairchild said. "We'll just go back to work. We can't let this be more than it is, which is one loss."

With the win, Brian Johnson tied Smith for the school-record in wins with 21.

If Utah can take care of New Mexico following a bye next week, it could set up a Mountain West showdown when the Utes host TCU, also unbeaten in conference play, on November 6. The Horned Frogs, coming off a 32-7 rout of ninth-ranked BYU, take on Wyoming and UNLV before the matchup.

"We want it so bad, every game is a huge thing for us," defensive lineman Paul Kruger said. "We're going to be confident every game and through the rest of the season so we just need to do our thing every week and focus on our individual games and everything will fall into place."