Copyright Salt Lake Tribune
A few days after Utah’s tough loss to BYU, Utah wide receiver Ryan Davis sat down next to Mana Caravalho in the Utes’ locker room in Salt Lake City. Carvalho, the Ute true freshman punt returner, muffed a punt against the Cougars. It was one of two costly turnovers that decided the outcome of the rivalry game. In the house and days after the loss, Caravalho received hateful messages from angry sports bettors and Utes fans on social media, upset about a third-straight loss to their in-state rival. “There’s going to come a point in the season coming up soon where they’re going to be loving you,” Davis told Caravalho afterward. Davis is a redshirt senior, Utah’s receiving yards leader — and perhaps a fortune teller, too. His prediction was realized several weeks later in No. 24 Utah’s 45-14 win over No. 17 Cincinnati on Saturday night in Salt Lake City With 1:50 remaining in the third quarter last night, Cincinnati punter Max Fletcher booted the pigskin into Caravalho’s hands. The former 3-star recruit then cut right and dashed up the middle of the field. In seconds, he shredded the Bearcats’ defense like papier-mache. He then skirted left with only Fletcher to beat. It only took a quick cut to the right and pay dirt was all his. Caravalho righted his wrongs in one 75-yard touchdown play, icing the game altogether. “Just kind of looking back, it really [goes] both ways,” Carvalho said, reflecting on his muffed punt. “If I would have caught it, things would have been different, but I didn’t. So just knowing that the next one I’m going to is going to be much cleaner, and I’m going to make a better decision.” At the podium following Utah’s biggest win of the season, Davis lauded Carvalho’s 75-yard touchdown as a “testimony to who he is as a player,” while dapping him up and repeating “I told you so” about his prophecy. “In today’s game, with freaking people betting and stuff like that, there’s a lot of hate and a lot of people mad at stuff,” Davis said. “People will reach out to you and send some pretty nasty stuff. “We play this game because we love it, and when we mess up, that’s where we usually hear from those people. Hate is always louder — and Mana was getting hated on big time after that game.” Now he’s a hero. Carvalho became the first Utah player since former Utes star Britain Covey in 2021 to return a punt for a touchdown. The play meant more than that, though. Sitting in fourth place in the Big 12, the Utes still have a path to Arlington, Texas. They will need some help, but the Utes appear to be getting into a “groove,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. From a muffed punt to a touchdown return weeks later, Carvalho’s jump is emblematic of a team that has licked its wounds and is now getting hot at the right time. “That was a really good football team we beat,” Whittingham said after the game. “We’re starting to get some momentum now. Just love coaching these guys. Love being around them, and the leadership is tremendous “Good win to go into a bye week on and be able to regroup again.” Whittingham and the Utes have been here before. In 2022, they suffered losses to UCLA, Oregon and Florida, but — with some help around the league — Utah snuck into the Pac-12 Championship game and later defeated USC. Utah would need a lot of things to go its way for a trip to the Big 12 Championship to be possible this time around. Texas Tech and BYU own head-to-head wins over the Utes. Even with the Utes’ victory over Cincinnati, the Bearcats still only have one loss in conference play. But stranger things have happened. The encouraging sign for Utah fans, though: The Utes believe they are a much better team than they were a few weeks ago. On Saturday, it certainly looked and felt that way. “I think we’re firing on all cylinders,” Davis said confidently at the podium. “I mean, yeah, we whooped their a--, to put it short.”
