Here’s how Urban Meyer and the Utah Utes helped kick-start TCU’s glory days

In the summer of 2005, Tye Gunn could be found perched in TCU’s film room watching tape from previous seasons.

The Horned Frogs’ quarterback would often be joined by his head coach, Gary Patterson, and some teammates to prepare for their inaugural season in the Mountain West.

But those study sessions weren’t filled with the plays from their previous season. In fact, they weren’t watching film of TCU at all.

They were watching the Utah Utes.

Under Urban Meyer, the Utes went 12-0 in 2004, becoming the first BCS busters and defeating Pitt in the Fiesta Bowl. Meyer perfected a formula for the empty shotgun offense with then-Utah quarterback Alex Smith, who went on to be the No. 1 pick in the 2005 NFL Draft.

“When Urban Meyer left for Florida, we studied so much film on the empty shotgun set from Utah’s season, and what they did with Alex Smith,” Gunn told The Salt Lake Tribune. “It was kind of a new wrinkle that a lot of people didn’t know much about. We closed practices, and we really tried to copy as much of what Utah did under Urban Meyer as possible.

“I’ve always thought it was kind of ironic that we were running some of Utah’s offense.”

That fall, TCU went on to an 11-1 season. It had marquee wins over Oklahoma and Utah, which had its 18-game win streak ended in Fort Worth. The Horned Frogs dethroned the Utes as the Mountain West champions using their own formula.

That season ignited an intense, six-year rivalry, which ended in a 3-3 split. On Saturday, Utah (4-2, 1-2 Big 12) will take on TCU (3-3, 1-2) in Salt Lake City for the first time since 2010, restoring a rivalry that formed in the Mountain West a decade ago. Both the Horned Frogs and the Utes now find themselves in the Big 12, together in the same conference once again.

“There were some great battles,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said on Monday. ‘There were a lot of memorable games with the Horned Frogs when Gary Patterson was at the helm for so many years. In fact, every one of those games stands out in your mind because they were so competitive.”

Patterson was fired from TCU in 2021 and is now out of coaching, but he still looks back on Utah and TCU’s past matchups fondly.

“I think we both were able to accomplish success,” Patterson told The Tribune. “Kyle and I — during our times there — we didn’t leave. We both had opportunities to coach other places, and we wanted to stay at those universities, to help the city and the school raise their level of people’s understanding of who they were.”

Now, as the two programs get set to face off for the first time in over a decade, fans and former players have found

themselves traveling down memory lane.

“We were kind of similar programs,” Gunn said. “We weren’t quite the mainstay names of college football, but we were making ripples, and we were winning games. Most people probably didn’t think we should win. But, we found a way, and it was exciting.”

‘Incredible football’

Kelly Talavou was approached by former TCU defensive tackle Zarnell Fitch during the Baltimore Ravens minicamp in 2008.

Talavou, a Utes defensive lineman from 2004-07, and Fitch were teammates then, chasing their dreams of making it in the NFL. The pair chatted about the times Utah and TCU took each other on in 2005 and 2006.

“Who were the two guys that shut down our run game in 2006?” Fitch asked Talavou once.

Funny enough, it was Talavou and former Utah defensive tackle Steve Fifita who shut down the Horned Frogs during Utah’s 20-7 win.

The pair of defensive tackles helped Utah hold TCU to 31 carries and 81 overall rush yards. It was just one example of the type of physical, intense football that would be played for years to come.

So much so, it stuck in the back of Fitch’s mind years later

“TCU was the up-and-coming team,” Talavou said. “They were a physical team, and they loved to run the ball.”

During Utah’s 2005 loss, Alex Puccinelli, a Utah defensive end from 2004-07 remembers getting a taste of true Texas football in Fort Worth. TCU fans were screaming at the Utes as they entered the field. The Texas humidity dampened their uniforms and skin.

He can vividly remember one fan shouting, “Hey Pooch,” the Californian’s nickname, “Where’s your surfboard?” Those moments defined what was set to be a physical, intense rivalry for years to come.

Whether it be fan interactions or the play on the field, Utah felt TCU the moment they joined the Mountain West.

“For some reason, when we played TCU, it felt like ‘Oh this is real football,’” Puccinelli said. “It was the first real introduction to big-time football that you hear about or dream about as a kid.

“I just remember it being very intense. Those games were always tough.”

Stevenson Sylvester, a Utah linebacker from 2006-09 that went on to play in the NFL, played in several of the historic games. In 2008, when Utah was ranked No. 9 and TCU was No. 11 in the country, Sylvester helped the Utes to a gritty 13-10 win in Salt Lake City. He had a team-high 10 tackles in the contest, making a few key stops en route to a massive win.

Utah hosted its first “dark mode” game at Rice-Eccles Stadium, where the Utes wore black uniforms for the first time in program history and black-clad fans filled the stands. On TCU’s final drive of the contest, following a back-and-forth affair, Andy Dalton threw a game-sealing interception to Robert Johnson with four seconds left on the clock.

Sylvester could later be seen pumping his fist and congratulating Johnson, as the roars of Utes’ fans echoed throughout RES.

“That place erupted and that was a great game for us,” Whittingham said this week.

Under a microscope, TCU and the Utes were two teams battling for the crown of the Mountain West during those times.

But, those matchups introduced the programs to national audiences, high-stakes football and, eventually, a bid into two of the major conferences in the NCAA.

“If you go back and look at pictures from the 2008 game, you can see how intense every single moment of that whole week and game was,” Sylvester said. “Every single moment of that game was just locked in center focus, from the first play to the last play, you had to have perfection. There was no room for error anywhere on that field. There was just incredible, incredible football that happened when Utah went against TCU.”

While the teams enter their first Big 12 matchup unranked and near the bottom of the conference standings, Sylvester hopes the game can return to its former glory.

He can’t imagine anything else.

“This has been a traditionally high, potent and great football matchup,” Sylvester said. “I hope it carries on here in the future.”

‘They wanted to make themselves better’

Michael DePriest still has the game ball from his overtime touchdown in 2005.

The former TCU wide receiver recently pulled it out and showcased it to his wife and children a few weeks ago while moving. Tucked away in an old VHS tape, which includes a mix of his DePriest’s best plays from high school and college, the last-second catch can be found.

That, too, he’s shown to his sons.

“It was just a great, incredible feeling to experience that,” DePriest said. “To break that winning streak for them it was great to get in that end zone, great play call, great throw, and I caught the ball in the end zone. It was just an incredible feeling.”

DePriest’s touchdown catch, which ended the Utes’ historic winning streak and was also the first loss of Whittingham’s coaching career, wasn’t without its drama. While DePriest ran open on a flat toward the end zone, his teammate, Cory Rodgers, clocked a Utes defender on an obvious pick play.

As DePriest extended his arms toward pay dirt, he looked around waiting for a flag. But one never came.

The game was over. TCU had done the unthinkable.

“Cory Rogers was supposed to rub the defensive back, not knock his head off,” Gunn said, while reflecting on the play.

“It was so blatant. Looking back at the film, he just leveled him. Coach Kyle, that’s what I call him, he was just staring out onto the field, thinking, ‘What the hell just happened?’”

Talavou certainly thought it was a penalty.

“They picked him and didn’t call it,” Talavou said. “They had home court advantage. We had a lot of calls that did not go our way. I felt like we were ready, but they didn’t call a flag on that play. They totally picked us.”

In a six-year span, plays like that became legend. There were intense hits. The opposing crowds were loud and relentless. The games, in many ways, were a glimpse into the decade of success and dominance both programs would have into the 2010s.

“I think both universities have to put themselves in a situation where they’ve got to keep playing at a certain level,” Patterson said. “They’ve got to make themselves be relevant

“I do appreciate how Utah has done it. Both of the universities had visions that they wanted to make themselves better and enhance not only their football programs, but their universities. I think we both were able to accomplish that.”

Time will tell what will be born out of this next chapter of the rivalry.