Aaron Roderick Explains Clock Management Issues to End the First Half Against Utah

BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier against Utah | BYU Photo

Late in the first half against Utah, BYU was faced with a 4th & 1 deep in Utah territory. With the score tied 7-7, the Cougars were looking to take a lead into the halftime locker room. With 1:00 remaining, BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier converted the fourth down to move the chains.

BYU was at the Utah 11 with 44 seconds remaining and no timeouts. The Cougars ran on first and second down before spiking the ball with six seconds remaining to setup the field goal. While the field goal was critical to give BYU a lead, BYU wanted more points in that situation.

On Coordinator's Corner, BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick explained the end-of-half situation.

"I made a mistake on that. It's my fault," Roderick said. "We got to 4th & 1, and we had a play called, and they were in a defense that was going to stop the play, so we called timeout and went to a different 4th & 1 play, but we changed our personnel grouping out there...[it] was a big personnel group."

Roderick continued, saying the personnel grouping that was on the field for the fourth down limited the plays he could call after the first down.

"We needed to get to a fast play and throw the ball, but we didn't have the right personnel in the game to do that. I should have had a better plan there to get to a faster pass play after the 4th & 1 conversion. Now, the positive was we got three points and we left them with no time to answer...So it wasn't all negative. I just wish I would have done a better job there getting us to a pass play after the 4th & 1...they were still critical points, and again, leaving them with no time was still a big deal. But in hindsight, I wish I would have gotten to a different personnel grouping on that 4th & 1 so that we could get to a faster pass play on the next play. But lesson learned for all of us."

While BYU would have liked to get more points out of that drive, the field goal was critical. It was ultimately the different on the final scoreboard, and it was executed better than the exact scenario in the rivalry game last year.

In 2024, BYU was driving to cut the Utah lead to seven going into halftime. With the clock winding down under 10 seconds, BYU was flagged for a false start. BYU, like they did this time around, didn't have any timeouts remaining, so BYU was subject to a 10-second run-off. That drained all the remaining time on the clock and BYU was unable to attempt a field goal.

The game might have had a different outcome had BYU failed to get points on that drive.