Rece Davis, Pete Thamel react to Utah AD's comments calling out officials for loss to BYU

BYU kept its undefeated regular season alive during Week 11’s Holy War against Utah, defeating the Utes 22-21 in controversial fashion.

The controversy came late in the fourth quarter in what proved to be the game-winning drive for the Cougars. It appeared as though the Utes forced a turnover on downs to win the game after they sacked quarterback Jake Retzlaff. Instead, a defensive holding call gave BYU a first down and allowed it to go down the field and kick the game-winning field goal with three seconds left in regulation.

The ESPN College GameDay podcast crew of Rece Davis and Pete Thamel threw their two cents in on the matter. They debated whether or not it was ultimately the right call on the official’s behalf which Davis called great theatre.

“There were a couple of questionable things along the way, but I got to tell you, Pete, from my eyes, it’s defensive holding, man,” Davis told Thamel. “I mean, it just was. It was unfortunate. It might have been unnecessary, but it just was. And I don’t have a problem with the flag.”

However, many on the Utah side of things didn’t see it that way. That included Utes athletic director Mark Harlan, who joined the media during the postgame press conference to state that he was “disgusted” after the game was “absolutely stolen” from them and they “won this game.” He was fined $40,000 for his comments.

Thamel pointed out how much of an anomaly seeing someone in Harlan’s position take the podium after a game.

“Athletic directors don’t talk in the postgame press conference. They just don’t,” Thamel said. “So pretty rare for him to go take the podium to do that. It wasn’t like, he, in a moment of frustration, grumbled to the beat writer on the side. He went in intentionally and said that.

“So I’m like, ‘Man, where is this controversial call?’ And like, it wasn’t even on Twitter because it wasn’t really that controversial. Because when I did dig in and finally found it — I mean, it was one of those things where like, do you call the off-ball foul in the last minute of the basketball game? It maybe had a little bit of that vibe. But was it actually a penalty? Yes, absolutely.”

The victory keeps BYU firmly in the College Football Playoff race and atop of Big 12 Conference standings. For Utah, the Utes dropped to 4-5 on the season with three games left on their schedule to become bowl-eligible. They play No. 17 Colorado on Saturday.