Upcoming Event: Football versus No. 17 Cincinnati on November 1, 2025 at 8:15 p.m.
8:15 p.m.
Football
vs No. 17 Cincinnati
.png&width=31&height=31&type=webp)
The University of Utah Athletics
Utah vs. Stanford Postgame Quotes
11/15/2014 12:00 AM | Football
Nov. 15, 2014
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
COACH WHITTINGHAM: Another gutty performance by our guys. It's a tough group that we have in our locker room there and very proud of them. Hung in there. Third overtime game I guess of the season.
And like I said, many times before, there's no quitting these guys. They're physically tough, they're mentally tough and proud to be associated with them.
Defensive battle obviously for the first four quarters through regulation. 7 all. Both defenses played very well. I don't think either offense reached 300 yards the entire game. A lot of good defense out there and not a whole lot of offense.
Some good special teams play. But in the end kind of the opposite of the ASU game a few weeks ago. We had one more play in the tank than they did.
And they're a heck of a football team. This place is a class place. Really impressed with how they handled their business and just everything about this place, it's definitely a class place, like I said. Questions?
Q. Maybe the third or fourth time now that your offense has kind of saved its best for last. Is there anything that's playing into that that maybe the casual observer
COACH WHITTINGHAM: We're not doing it on purpose. We'd like to use our best all game long, if possible. I think Dave and the staff, through four quarters, had a sense of maybe the techniques and the leverage they may be playing in the secondary and they got what they wanted and that was the result, those two touchdowns in overtime.
Q. Those were both addressed as play calls, touchdowns, can you talk about those?
COACH WHITTINGHAM: Great play, wheel route to Kaelin, wide open. Good throw. Good catch. Good protection. Then the slant to Scotty. Good to see Scotty, Scotty worked his tail off the last, however long, five years in the program. Great to see him have success.
Found a nice ball tonight. And had a PI that he drew in another situation. And of course caught the game winner. So it's great to see him have that happen. Kaelin as well after last week's disappointment, to come back and be a big player in this game shows his resiliency.
Q. Talk about Nate, single season sack record for Utah tonight?
COACH WHITTINGHAM: He did? Didn't realize that. That's great. He's been a stalwart for us all year long. And he is the team leader, as I've said many times before. And it's great to see him have the individual success he's having. And it's helping contribute obviously to our team's success.
Q. The winning season for the first time since 2011, what your thoughts are?
COACH WHITTINGHAM: I guess that's seven. So I haven't had time to think about that, but that's good for
Q. I'll do that for you.
COACH WHITTINGHAM: Proud of our players, happy for them. It's all about the players. Happy they've accomplished that.
Q. It's not the first time that Tom Hackett once again with a pretty huge night for you guys, talk about the importance of that.
COACH WHITTINGHAM: Him flipping the field position time and time again. We had the one just hit about a half a yard in the end zone. I know he wishes he had back that went for touchback. He hates touchbacks.
But he kicked the ball exceptionally well. Didn't allow Montgomery, who is a heck of a player, to ever get on track in punt return game because he kept the ball away from him. That was our plan going in, try to keep it out of his hands, both on the kickoff game and the punt game. And both Tom and Andy did a great job doing that.
Q. Did you resolve you're not going to set the world afire offensively but you're getting just enough
COACH WHITTINGHAM: We're doing whatever we gotta do. We're just trying to protect the football first and foremost, which is what we did. Zero turnovers. It's huge in a game like this.
And we're not very prolific right now on offense. We're not putting up huge numbers. But I believe we're playing smart. And we're playing disciplined. And tonight we had just enough, like I said.
Q. Can you talk about maybe some of the unsung heroes maybe that aren't showing up on the stat sheet tonight, any good ones?
COACH WHITTINGHAM: Okay. Let's see we talked about the specialists, Scotty. I thought Kenric Young came in, even though he didn't catch a bunch of balls, he blocked very well, our true freshman, the wide receiver, and he replaces Timny Patrick.
I thought he stepped up in the situation and didn't have the deer in the headlights look. He was ready to play and competitive.
Travis Travis I thought ran the offense well even though he didn't throw for a ton of yards. I think we had about 175. He took care of the ball, made good decisions, completion percentage was very good. And then probably the defense overall, yielded very little on defense throughout the whole evening.
Quarterback Travis Wilson and receiver Kenneth Scott
Q. Travis, what clicked in overtime for the offense?
Travis Wilson: I think we just knew, it was really crunch time. We knew we had to execute. And that first play on overtime we saw the look we've been practicing in practice, and it was Kaelin executed it perfectly and set it up really nice.
Q. Talk about earlier in the week. You said throw it up for me and I'll get it. Happened a couple of times, to come out game winner. How big of a game was it personally?
Kenneth Scott: It was a good win. I was very confident in my abilities. Some people think it's cocky or anything, but I was very confident in what I do because I spend a lot of time working.
And it's a good thing that happened. But just focus on next week, to be honest with you.
Q. What's the difference in the overtime, what changed?
Travis Wilson: I mean, we just knew we had to make plays. I think our defense was playing great throughout the whole game. And Stanford answered back. So we knew we had to make some big plays, and I think a lot of playmakers on offense really stepped up and really took on that role.
Q. Just having the extra pressure of the overtime?
Travis Wilson: Yeah, it's a game that I think we wanted it more. And we really fought. And I think that win meant more to us. And I think that helped us kind of motivate us to push through all the way through overtime.
Q. This is not the first time this season you guys struggled offensively and found it when you really needed in the fourth quarter in overtime. Having done it before, does it partly make it easier, knowing you guys have proven that you can do it before in these kind of moments?
Kenneth Scott: Definitely. It was about five minutes left in the game. I went up to Travis, I said, "It's going to fall in your hands." And I believe in Travis, just probably as everybody else believe in Travis.
I told him, "It's going to come down to your hands. You're going to be the winner of this game."
So it happened like that. Just being a great leader out there, warrior. He's a warrior. And so all credit to him just being a leader at the quarterback position, that's what you need.
Q. Last play, third and one, how did you like that pass play?
Travis Wilson: I wanted nothing more than that pass play. I knew K. Scott was going to run and get open. And I knew he was going to fight for that ball even if he wasn't open. So all I had to do was put it in a position where he could catch it, and I knew he was going to make the play. And he made a good play.
Q. You clinched a winning season for Utah for the first time after two back to back losing seasons. What does that mean?
Kenneth Scott: Freakin' awesome, I ain't going to lie to you because we know how much talent we have on this team. And for us not to do the things that we're supposed to do. It's kind of frustrating, but now we get it back on things.
And we're seeing all this hard work just paying off and paying off, and we just keep grinding. We have that workers like mentality. No matter if everybody's against us or our backs against the wall we just know how to persevere and click as a team. And I think the biggest reason why we just are just fighting and grinding because our brotherhood. We're very close to each other as you can tell.
And we always have each other's back no matter what. It doesn't matter if you drop a ball, someone's going to pick you up, okay, we know you make those type of plays or someone misses a block, compliment and encourage them and those things prolong better success in the end.
Q. Travis, you have been off and on offensively as a team. But I guess your philosophy now, you could get enough points that you need to, not setting records but
Travis Wilson: Definitely. I think a combination of just this whole team really fighting and just really having a passion for this game. And a lot of it just making big plays when it really counts. And I think our offense has found to do that, we're not crushing the scoreboard with points, but we're finishing games and we're executing when we need to.
Players Mentioned
P
/ Football
WR
/ Football
QB
/ Football
WR
/ FootballHead Coach Kyle Whittingham weekly press conference - 10.27.25
Monday, October 27
Utah: 53, Colorado: 7 | POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE
Saturday, October 25
Crimson Corner with Bill Riley - ESPN's Fran Fraschilla
Wednesday, October 22
Head Coach Kyle Whittingham weekly press conference - 10.20.25
Monday, October 20