TEMPE, Ariz. -- As the Utes took on No. 14 in the country Arizona State, it all came down to a guy nicknamed "Automatic Andy". He is used to making the clutch field goals the Utes need when games are down to the wire.
After a night with only two touchdowns and plenty of field goals, the game went into overtime tied at 16.
he Utes lost the coin toss and the Sun Devils chose to start overtime on defense. After two unsuccessful attempts from junior running back Devontae Booker to run the ball and a pass from senior quarterback Travis Wilson that was thrown away, the Utes were forced to kick a field goal.
"The clock had expired on the last kick so I called timeout," head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "In the overtime, for some reason, they weren't able to get the snap off quick enough, he missed that one. After the timeout, he wasn't able to connect on the last one either."
Sophomore kicker Andy Phillips described both attempts.
"It was just a missed judgement on my part," he said. "The wind was going right to left, so I played that first one right. Then coach called the timeout, so I thought the wind didn't push it too much, so I'd put a little bit more left and the wind caught ahold of it... I should have gone with my instinct and it was just a missed judgement on my part."
Phillips said he was, "obviously disappointed" by the loss.
"I feel like our team fought pretty hard tonight," he said. "Usually, you know, those are situations that I thrive in... No one is harder on themselves than I am on myself for not putting the ball through the uprights."
Whittingham spoke about Phillips' value to the team.
"He's a heck of a kicker, and we're not even in the game if it's not for him," he said. "I think he had a 50-yarder and a couple 40+ yarders, so he's a heck of a weapon for us. He'll be back; he's one of the best kickers in the country."
ASU went on to kick a field goal on their possession to win the game 19-16.
Utah will be at home for their next game against No. 5 in the country Oregon on Saturday, November 8 at 8 p.m. (MT).
