Utah coaches, AD embarrass themselves with response to controversial penalty against BYU

A college football Saturday already full of upsets and general chaos nearly added one heck of an exclamation point early Sunday morning.

No. 9 BYU entered the latest edition of the Holy War against arch rival Utah very much on upset alert. Sure, the Cougars were undefeated, and sure, Utah had lost four in a row amid one of the most disappointing seasons of the Kyle Whittingham era. But BYU felt ripe for the picking after surviving multiple close calls en route to an 8-0 start, and this Utes defense, at night in front of a raucous Rice-Eccles crowd, felt like the team to get it done.

For nearly 60 minutes, the script played out exactly according to plan. Utah harassed BYU QB Jake Retzlaff and got just enough from a grind-it-out running game, using three second-quarter TDs to build a 21-10 lead at halftime. The Cougars fought their way back into it, narrowing the lead to 21-19 in the fourth quarter. But Utah stood tall on a two-point conversion attempt that would've tied the game, and while BYU got the ball back one more time with a chance to pull out another miraculous win, the Utes D appeared to have shut the door. That is, until a penalty call that will go down in Holy War history.

BYU escapes upset at Utah thanks to controversial holding call

With the Cougars backed up inside their own 10 and under two minutes remaining in the game, Utah teed off on Retzlaff, sending him running for his life on each of the first three plays of the possession. They did the same on fourth down, forcing a sack that would have effectively ended the game. Rice-Eccles erupted, and it seemed like yet another top-ranked team had gone down.

But amid all the commotion, a flag had come out: The refs whistled Utah for defensive holding on the play, giving BYU new life and an automatic first down. The initial replay angle didn't seem like much:

But a closer look revealed that the Utah DB definitely got a hold of BYU receiver Keelan Marion, to an extent that would justify a flag — maybe a little ticky-tack given the situation, but certainly within the bounds of the justifiable.

From there, you can probably guess what happened next. BYU finally figured out how to protect Retzlaff, and the QB promptly started making big throws to march the Cougars into field-goal range. Will Ferrin knocked through a 44-yarder with just seconds remaining, and BYU's perfect season was improbably still alive.

It was a new low in what's been a very difficult season for the Utes, the chance to ruin their rival's dream season slipping through their fingers when it seemed all but sown up. So you can understand why Utah's players, coaches and fans would be distraught, and you can even understand why they'd be inclined to pin blame for the loss on the one late call. But even still, the way the program's leadership reacted publicly was not a good look.

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, AD Mark Harlan embarrass themselves after BYU loss

First up was Whittingham, who didn't want to talk about anything else but that one last call.

"Things out there were ridiculous, that's how I'll leave it," Whittingham said. "Game was all but over, it was all over, but then it wasn't."

His athletic director, Mark Harlan, took things one step further. It's virtually unprecedented for an AD to demand podium time at a postgame press conference, and even more so for that AD to put a conference officiating crew on blast like this.

"This game was absolutely stolen from us. We were excited about being in the Big 12, but tonight I am not. We won this game, someone else stole it from us. Very disappointed, I will talk to the commissioner. This was not fair to our team, I'm disgusted by the professionalism of the officiating crew tonight."

That is ... above and beyond, and you can bet it'll cost Utah a hefty fine; criticizing the refs is one thing, but putting the entire Big 12 on blast like that is bound to get some attention from Brett Yormark and Co.

It's also behavior that Utah fans shouldn't be proud of. Whittingham's remarks are one thing; he's hardly the first head coach to blow up at a decisive call, and he certainly won't be the last. Harlan, however, has to know better. This was a 60-minute game, one that featured all manner of officiating decisions (including one highly debatable facemask earlier in the game that set up a Utah touchdown). You might feel wronged, and you might feel heated in the moment, but part of earning the big bucks is the ability to keep a cooler head and see the bigger picture. The officials were absolutely in their rights to whistle that as holding, and all Harlan is doing here is putting a target on his team's back and making his program out to be one that refuses to take accountability.