Utah was favored by more than a touchdown coming into Wednesday’s game against Indiana, but the Hoosiers gave the Utes all they could handle in a wild and wacky back-and-forth game.

Utah prevailed 26-24 thanks to a game-winning field goal by Andy Phillips with 1:24 left in the game. It was his fourth made field goal of the contest which set a bowl record.

Joe Williams, who came out of retirement earlier this year, had another monster night as the senior rushed for 222 yards and a touchdown to help lead the Utes to victory.

The win also helped head coach Kyle Whittingham set an NCAA record for best winning percentage among coaches who have made it to at least 10 bowls. Even more remarkable is that Whittingham is now 10-1 in bowl games with the football program playing in just nine bowls prior to him taking over.

There were plenty of standout performances for the Utes on both offense, defense and special teams:

  • Andy Phillips finished his career by making 97 consecutive PATs to set a school record. He also finished with a program-record 427 points during his time up on the Hill.
  • Joe Williams finished the season averaging just over 156 yards per game to set one of many school records on the season. Williams also set a Foster Farms Bowl record with his 222-yard performance on 26 carries. He finished the year with 1,407 rushing yards which are the fourth most in program history.
  • Kavika Luafatasaga, a junior linebacker from Arizona Western had a team-high as well as a career-high 12 tackles in the win for the Utes. Laufatasaga had two tackles for loss and had arguably the biggest play of the game as he broke up a Hail Mary attempt by Indiana quarterback Richard Lagow on the final play of the game.
  • The Utes racked up 470 yards of total offense which is the third most under Whittingham. The top two performance was against Georgia Tech in 2005 and against Colorado State in 2014.

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