Devon Dampier threw for 176 yards and three touchdowns while leading No. 21 Utah to a 66-14 victory over Idaho in Salt Lake City on Thursday night.
Dampier completed 13 of 18 passes and added 31 yards on six carries to help the Utes (1-0) run away from the Vandals (0-2). Wayshawn Parker churned out 71 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries and added a pair of touchdown catches.
Braden Pegan tallied 81 yards and a touchdown on four receptions in his Utah debut. Pegan also tacked on a 12-yard scoring run on Utah’s second-half-opening drive.
The Utes, who had the No. 2 rushing offense in the FBS a year ago, racked up 364 rushing yards on 7.4 yards per carry. Utah totaled 633 yards of offense while finishing with the highest single-game point total for either team in the history of the 29-game series.
Idaho gained only 95 total yards before halftime and coughed up a pair of turnovers. Joshua Wood connected on just 9 of 27 passes for 111 yards with an interception.
Utah forced back-to-back turnovers to open the first quarter. Trey Reynolds picked off Wood at the Idaho 31 to end Idaho’s opening drive. Then, Rabbit Evans pounced on Wood’s fumble at the Idaho 12 to cut short the Vandals’ second drive.
The Utes cashed in on both takeaways. Dampier tossed a 9-yard pass to Parker to put Utah on the board. Dillon Curtis followed with a 24-yard field goal on the Utes’ second drive.
Parker weaved past defenders and scored on a 21-yard run to extend the Utes’ lead to 17-0 with 1:07 left in the first quarter.
Dampier threw two more touchdown passes in the second quarter to put Utah up 31-7 going into halftime. He found Pegan on a 7-yard toss to cap off the Utes’ fourth scoring drive after Idaho cut the deficit to 10 points with Hayden Kincheloe’s 3-yard run. Then, Dampier found Parker a second time on a 3-yard dart with 32 seconds left before halftime.