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The University of Utah Athletics
Quotes from Kyle Whittingham's Weekly Press Conference
11/10/2008 12:00 AM | Football
Nov. 10, 2008
Opening statement:
The storyline of Thursday's game was two top 10 defenses. It was great pitching vs. great hitting and usually great pitching wins. TCU is an excellent football team. They are fast, physical and they have excellent defensive schemes, so we knew it'd be tough and indeed that's what it was. The best thing our offense did was not turn the ball over. If we had been minus 2 in turnovers we would not have won the football game. That was the most important stat in the ball game. Also, we did good things offensively, especially in the two minute situation. Brian [Johnson] led us right down the field for the win. He showed poise and confidence and so did our entire offense. It's become our trademark and we've done a nice job of that. We did a good job with penalties. We had very few and didn't shoot ourselves in the foot. Defensively, we settled down after giving up a couple of drives early. It was 10-0 before we knew what had happened, but we played three quarters of shutout ball and made some nice plays down the stretch. On special teams, our ability to convert field goals against TCU missing a few helped us. Those were the biggest factors.
San Diego State is another conference game and our last road game. They are deciminated by injuries and have lost a lot of good players. Nonetheless, we have to play our game and stay focused. Nothing is on our mind except them. We can guarantee ourselves at least a share of the conference title with a win and our focal point is getting that done on Saturday.
On the 2-minute drill:
We have dabbled in some hurry-up offense early in the season. The defenses are a little different during the course of the game. We are taking a look at speeding things up at different portions of the game, but we are still just looking at it. It's not as easy as running the 2-minute drill all the time. Some teams will become a little less tight in coverage, some teams will up the dose of pressure and will give up big plays sometimes.
For us, part of our success is Brian Johnson's poise and confidence. Everyone believes in him getting it done. The o-line has done a nice job and our receivers have very few drops. We spend a lot of time in practice working on the 2-minute drill. Most of our success comes from the guys we have running it and the time we invest in it.
On injuries:
Mike Wright got beat up a little bit and Bradon Godfrey took some shots over the middle. We are pretty good injury wise. Nobody will be missing from this game that we didn't have last week. Kenape Eliapo went from 12 snaps against New Mexico to 31 snaps this week. He will continue to get more snaps.
On the defense against TCU:
The first snap of the game we were in man coverage and they ran out across the middle. They do a nice job making it difficult to cover and they went out for a big gain. Coach Anderson did a good job blending in zone defense and eliminating a problematic situation. TCU does a good job attacking man coverage. They got us in 2005 on the same type of route for the game-winner. The players and coaches responded well to the change in philosophy. We mixed in more zone than we typically do.
On national attention:
We tell them to do the same thing they have been doing week-in and week-out the last 10 weeks. We can't fall in love with ourselves and thinking that we've arrived. There is plenty that we need to fix from the TCU game. There is never a point where we've got it all figured out and there is nothing to fix.
We have been able to take a week-to-week approach through 10 games and fully anticipate being able to do the same thing this week and not catch ourselves looking beyond.
Look at Iowa/Penn State. If you're not ready to play each and every week someone's going to get you. That was a wakeup call for our guys.
On the identity of the team:
They are emerging as a hard-nosed blue-collar team that responds well to adversity. That's been their M.O. ever since fall camp. They work hard in practice and gotten it done when they have their backs against the wall. They have handled that very well.
Some people believe that is a reflection of the staff, but I think it is one of primary leadership. Greg Newman, Brian Johnson, Brice McCain and Robert Conley all have a hard-nosed mentality. They work hard in practice and expect everyone else to live up to that.
On the offense:
We would like to score a few more points. The TCU defense is a huge reason for our lack of production and New Mexico played well against us defensively. Looking at the big picture, our offense as a whole is looking good. They are doing good thing but we are never where we want to be and are always trying to get better. We want to score more than 13 points a game.
Players Mentioned
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QB
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DB
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DE
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LB
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