The University of Utah ran into “The Farm” late Friday night and ran out with such a convincing victory that it looked like they faced a JV football team. They thoroughly dominated the Stanford Cardinal to the tune of 52-7.

“Obviously proud of our guys and the way they played the game tonight. Started fast. Never really let up,” said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham. “Offensively, just kept executing and doing things the way they're supposed to be done. All first half defense smothered them, played exceptional. The statistics at halftime were so skewed. I don't know how we could play much better than we did.”

At one point in the first half, Utah had 38 points and Stanford had 38 yards of total offense. Stanford had no answer for Utah’s run game as 18 carries went for at least 10 yards.

“We were hitting on all cylinders tonight,” Whittingham continued. “Run game was in high gear. That was really the key to the game, was our ability to run the football efficiently and effectively and for a bunch of yards.”

The Utes were so dominant running the ball that three running backs—Tavion Thomas, Micah Bernard, and TJ Pledger—ran for over 100 yards each. On the majority of carries, it seemed as though the backs weren’t even touched until 5-6 yards through the line of scrimmage.

“I want to see all my brothers eating, man. We all got a goal,” continued Thomas. “I was happy for them. I just want to see them keep doing they thing. We going to finish this thing, we going to need everybody.”

Of course, as good as all of the running backs were, Thomas knows we’re all the credit is due after a performance like that. “Starting to see it pay off for us. O-block, baby.”

For the second game in a row, the Utes employed the lineup of LT Bam Olaseni, LG Nick Ford, C Paul Maile, RG Sataoa Laumea, and RT Braeden Daniels. It was dominating. With Maile calling out the line assignments, just about everything seemed to go smoothly.

Over the last two games, Whittingham had elected to do something he historically has been against, go on offense first after winning the coin toss. Quarterback Cam Rising, for one, is appreciative of the confidence that gives them.

“Coach Whitt has a tremendous amount of confidence in this offense and just knows we like to start fast and we like to get things going early, and shout out to O-block,” said Rising. “They did a great job with our first drive, set the tone, really dominated up front, and that's why we ended up getting in the end zone.”

For the night, Utah ended up with 581 yards of total offense, 441 being on the ground. Thomas finished with 177 and four touchdowns, Bernard had 110 and touchdown, while Pledger had 107 as he stiff-armed his way to a 96-yard touchdown run—a new school record.

Rising was 13-22 on the night for 140 yards, as more often than not he was asked to throw the ball when they needed a play to move the chains.

Defensively, Utah held Stanford to 3-13 on third down efficiency and they could only muster 167 yards for the game. Their lone touchdown drive wasn’t really a dominating one, as they caught Utah with the element of surprise a couple times.

“I think everyone was just playing assignment sound football,” said linebacker Devin Lloyd. “We pride ourselves on playing hard every time we're on the field, so I think that's something our team does a great job of doing as far as technique and doing our assignment properly. I think we did a really good job of that.”

Lloyd, of course, was his typical self on the night with nine tackles and five tackles for loss. He also provided a defensive touchdown, by intercepting a pass at the goal line and falling forward into the end zone.

“It was incredible,” said Whittingham. “I saw it happen in real time and watched the replay and still couldn't believe that he could have the reflexes and the athleticism to make that catch, and then find his way into the end zone. It was only a couple yards, but that's who he is. He's a big play guy.”

The win on Friday gives Utah a commanding lead in the Pac-12 South with three games to go. While one could be a preview of the Pac-12 Championship Game against no. 4 Oregon, the other two are against South division bottom dwellers, Arizona and Colorado.

With one of their big goals in sight, Utah has no plans on taking things for granted.

“Pedal to the metal. It has to stay down,” said Rising. “We have a job to do and a goal we want to accomplish. We still have to keep going, come in, and show up like this game never happened pretty much on Monday and take it from there.”

Lloyd agrees with Rising. “Like Cam said, really just taking everything one day at a time, too. Obviously wins like this are great for our confidence as a team, understanding how good we are. But we can't get too high on ourselves because I'm almost certain on both sides of the ball there were mistakes made.”

With that kind of leadership, Utah is looking good for a third conference championship appearance in four years.