Utah, fueled by cherry juice and adrenaline, overcame travel chaos and a gritty Arizona team to remain undefeated
TUCSON, Ariz. — You probably don’t recognize the name Anna Cruse. And that’s OK.
But as the Utah Utes loaded their team bus here, well after 1 a.m. local time (3 a.m. Eastern), Cruse, whose tenure on the Utah team is far too long to write or even explain here, chatted with a reporter about the many things that went into preparing a college football team to play a game on the same day it traveled some 800 miles.
Advertisement
First, the players consumed something called Cheribundi juice, used to help reduce inflammation, during the two-hour flight here Saturday morning from Salt Lake City. And they did it in the most creative way possible – with a “Cheribundi Juice Toast”, all raising their glasses (cups) to the extra nutrition it provides.
Then, they wore Firefly recovery devices on their ankles to help increase blood flow throughout the body. There was also plenty of water and the staff were handing out extra supplements as well.
All of this made what happened on a cold Saturday night here in Tucson possible.
By a mere score, 40-39, the second-place Utah Utes remained undefeated — only one of two in major college football (UCLA) — surviving an Arizona scare in a back-and-forth, veritable Big 12 After Dark-style fest of a football game that ended after 2 a.m. on the East Coast.
Advertisement
Before we dive back into Miss Cruse and her cherry juice drinks and weird ankle braces, let’s talk about the heroes on the field here – the ones who made this desert duel an exciting, blow-for-blow, sometimes chaotic and totally entertaining Top 25 showdown.
Like Devon Dampier, Utah’s Heisman Trophy-worthy quarterback from just north of here in Scottsdale who managed to pass for over 200 yards, rush for 100 and score four times – the last of which was the game-winning drive, a 70-yard touchdown run to Creed Whittemore with 2 minutes, 35 seconds left.
There was also running back Daniel Bray, who averaged more than 10 yards on his 18 carries and whose stat line had Dampier himself coming out of the seams in a joint postgame press conference with the two of them.
Advertisement
“You ran for 1-9-7!?” » Dampier yelped, glancing towards his teammate. “It’s crazy!”
And let’s not forget a Utah defense that, while succumbing at times to crafty Arizona QB Noah Fifita (he threw for 356), turned him away when it counted. The Utes had three of their four sacks in the fourth quarter.
Perhaps Utah coach Morgan Scalley summed it up best: “A crazy game,” he smiled afterward.
Remember the old Pac-12 After Dark games? You know those weird, highly anticipated offensive outbursts that kept us East Coasters up well past our bedtime?
Well, in a matchup between two old Pac-12 rivals, this one advanced. It had all the trappings of a match that started at 10:30 p.m. ET.
Advertisement
Nothing good happens after midnight.
Only big things, apparently.
There were six lead changes, six touchdowns in the second half and as many as 27 points in the fourth quarter alone. The play featured passes of 67, 70 and 59 yards. There was also a 62-yard run; a muffled punt in the fourth quarter to let Arizona hang around; and even a fair catch called by one player only for the punt to be caught by a completely different player.
It all unfolded against the backdrop of the nation’s most disruptive travel day in decades — a four-plus hour flight stoppage as dozens of college football teams flew to their weekend game destinations.
Advertisement
Local time on Friday, the Utah football team arrived at the Salt Lake City airport for a charter flight to Tucson on Alaska Airlines. The team began boarding and disembarking the plane, then sitting at the airport for a few more hours and, finally, returning to campus.
By the time the shutdown ended around 8:30 p.m. ET, Alaska Airlines pilots’ flight time had expired (pilots, like truck drivers, have a mandatory amount of time during which they can be active without interruption).
In a frantic race, Utah administrators sought to book other flights in a last-ditch effort to arrive Friday evening in Tucson. Nobody was available. Coaches and staff sent players home to sleep in their own beds before a road game — an unusual but perhaps beneficial thing.
“I slept well,” Dampier said.
Advertisement
“Some of these hotel pillows are crazy!” ” chimed Whittemore.
The team hosted an 8 a.m. breakfast Saturday, flew out around 10:45 a.m. MT and landed here around 12:30 p.m. for a game that started eight hours later.
As the wheels left the track, they toasted their cherry juice with these awesome devices strapped to their ankles while downing liquids and popping supplement pills.
Oh, what a scene that must have been: the same day’s game piloting Utes and their strange concoctions and strange contraptions shoved into a desert-bound jumbo jet.
“It was a bit crazy,” admits Dampier.
Advertisement
Whittemore compared it to a high school game, when schools often ride the bus to and from a road game on the same day. In fact, his father, a high school coach, messaged him about it on Saturday.
“I’m taking him back to school!” » Whittemore burst out laughing.
Utah receiver Creed Whittemore silenced the Arizona crowd with his 70-yard touchdown run late in Utah’s victory Saturday in Tucson, Arizona.
(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Maybe it wasn’t so bad. Five of the eight Power Conference programs that traveled on game day or late the night before won their games (Utah, Arizona State, Tennessee, Washington and Texas).
That’s not to say it was easy.
Moments after the game, Utah athletic director Mark Harlan, also a member of the CFP selection committee, was walking around in amazement, overcome with emotion at how his team, staff and players had just done. that with very little sleep. In fact, by the time Utah rolls into Salt Lake City, the players will have been awake for almost 24 hours straight.
Advertisement
“You picked the right game to cover,” he said, smiling.
About 30 minutes later, his quarterback, Dampier, told the media that the Utes on Saturday lived up to their culture: No excuses.
“No one would feel sorry for us if we lost this,” he said.
Dampier delivered the final haymaker of the game – this 70-yard dart to Whittemore at midfield on the second play of the drive and after the Wildcats had taken the lead. At the meeting before the game, Utah players glared at Dampier.
“This is your Heisman moment!” they told him.
He sent his passing dart – just his 13th completion – towards his target, then Whittemore ran the rest of the way to quiet the noisy crowd.
Advertisement
Dampier has what Scalley calls a “delusional self-belief.” He knows he is good and he is going to show that he is good. Like escaping potential sacks and certain tackles? Yes. He did so by scoring runs of 14 and 18 yards and ripping off another 31-yard drive.
“Here he is in his hometown and his whole family is here,” Scalley said. “He made plays. His dedication and leadership made the difference for this team.”
Another different designer? Cruse, Utah’s sports performance administrator and part scientist who helped prepare the Utes for the unusual event.
Advertisement
Cruse’s biggest concerns were the dehydration and poor blood circulation that often accompany flying. Scalley also worried about players getting enough sleep at home (there are distractions!) without coaches and staff monitoring them in a hotel. Coaches texted players to remind them of bedtime. They received enough responsive texts to make everyone feel good.
“It’s the kind of team where we weren’t really worried for a second,” Harlan said.
After the game, as reporters, some fans and university staff filed out of the press box, into a waiting elevator and onto the field, a man wearing Utah gear appeared exhausted.
He had spent nearly 24 hours straight preparing, then traveling with the team to Tucson, he told onlookers. He can’t imagine a player having to play a sloppy game like that on the same day as an eight-hour commute (taking into account airport arrival and bus rides).
“They run on adrenaline,” said one person nearby.
The man laughed.
“Yes,” he said, “and I’m rolling on beer.”
Gn sports
