Devon Dampier accounted for four touchdowns, including a game-winning 70-yard pass to Creed Whittemore with 2:35 left, to keep No. 2 Utah unbeaten with a 40-39 win at No. 23 Arizona in a Big 12 Conference game on Saturday night in Tucson, Ariz.
The Utes (10-0, 7-0 Big 12) continued their best start since 2008, when they went 13-0.
Dampier threw for 204 yards and two TDs and ran for 100 yards and two scores but he also turned it over twice, leading to 14 points for Arizona (7-3, 4-3). Daniel Bray ran for a career-high 197 yards and a TD as the Utes rushed for 296 yards.
Noah Fifita threw for 356 yards and three TDs, two to Isaiah Mizell, who had given Arizona a 39-33 lead on a 10-yard score with 3:13 remaining.
Up 17-14 at the half, Utah fumbled on its first snap and Arizona recovered. Fifita connected with Isaiah Mizell for a 6-yard TD pass to put the Wildcats back up 21-17, but Utah took back the lead less than two minutes later on a 4-yard pass from Dampier to fellow QB Byrd Ficklin.
Dampier was intercepted at the 1-yard line later in the third, and the Wildcats put together a 99-yard scoring drive capped by a 19-yard TD catch by Giovanni Richardson for a 28-24 lead with 3:22 left in the third.
A 39-yard field goal got Utah within one with 14:10 to go, and the Utes went up 33-28 with 11:46 remaining on an 8-yard run by Bray.
Arizona got within two on a 47-yard field goal with 8:09 to go and then went ahead 39-33 with 3:13 left. After Utah reclaimed the lead, the Wildcats turned it over on downs and didn’t get the ball back.
The Wildcats knifed through the Utah defense on the game’s opening drive, scoring on a 1-yard run by Quincy Craig. The Utes had only allowed nine points in the first quarter all season, scoring 103.
Dampier scored on a 14-yard run to cut Arizona’s edge to 14-10 with 6:27 left in the first half before putting the Utes in front on an 18-yard scoring run with 1:34 to go before halftime.
