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The University of Utah Athletics
Utah vs. Arizona State Postgame Quotes
10/18/2015 12:00 AM | Football
Oct. 18, 2015
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | USATSI Photo Gallery 
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham
Opening thought:
I'm proud of our guys. They're a tough group of guys. Very physical. Just warriors. They were not going to be denied tonight. It was tough sledding running the ball. They have a good run defense. We couldn't get much going there. For three and three-quarters of the game we were really struggling to run the ball.
On special teams:
Special teams were atrocious and almost cost us the game. That's not like us. We have to get that fixed. We gave up 15 points on special teams with the safety, kick return for a touchdown and punt return that set up a field goal.
On the defense:
Our defense shut them out. I'm very proud of them. Collectively, they were the player of the game. The front four, it starts up front with them. They were outstanding. Our linebackers, the secondary, the whole defense, played well.
On how he feels:
It was a good win. We are now halfway through and two wins up in the win column in the Pac-12 south. Right now, that's a good position to be in but there are still a lot of games left. We couldn't ask for a better spot moving into week seven. We'll celebrate for a day and then get working Monday on our next opponent.
On throwing the ball more than last year in this game:
Their run defense is so tough. Last year we didn't throw as much as we would have liked. We were not going to make the same mistake twice. They crowd the box and bring everybody. They just keep coming from different locations. Essentially, they come from the same spots, just from different sides of the field. So if you pick it up and get the ball out, you can do a ton of damage and we did. We had a good night throwing the ball.
On Travis Wilson's performance:
I thought Travis threw the ball really well. He had some good numbers, almost 300 yards. Travis did a good job going through his read progression and picking things up. Our offensive line did a nice job protecting him. It starts up front. If you have time, you can make plays. The offensive line played well and our receivers made plays. Kenneth [Scott] had a great catch and some other guys made plays.
On the mindset of the team trailing in the fourth quarter:
We were not going to be denied. We were focused and men on a mission. We were not going to be denied in that fourth quarter. That's part of the equation -- winning the fourth quarter. We did that in a big way.
On the play that resulted in the safety:
That's a play we had put in. It was a collaborative play and we had it set up how we wanted it, we just didn't execute. It was an aggressive play and we wanted to keep the pedal down. If the throw had gotten there, it would have been a big play. It was barely raining so we didn't think a wet ball would be a factor. The throw was just not what it needed to be.
On Chase Hansen:
We lost Andre Godfrey to an injury last week and we were thin there. He is our third-string quarterback and playing special teams so whatever he can do to help us win. He's been out there two or three times. We play our good players and he's one of them. So if we can get him on the field, we'll do that. He's still our third-string quarterback but you'll see him in the secondary as the season goes on.
On what this team means to him:
Without a doubt I love these guys. I've coached about 280 games here and this is the best group of guys to be around. I'm excited to go to work everyday and come to practice. They're just a great group of guys to be around.
Linebacker Gionni Paul
On the game plan coming in:
We knew that we had to come in and stop the run. We did a great job with that.
On the team's mentality coming in:
Coach mentioned it but we wanted to come in here ourselves and prove something. It's been what, 11 times, we've lost to them. We had to get the Sun Devils so that's a great team victory.
On the team's defensive performance:
I thought Hunter Dimick and Jason Fanaika did a great job. Our whole defensive line was outstanding. They kept us clean. They're the best defensive line in the country.
On the open-field tackle late in the game:
We do it so much in practice. Our coach, Justin Ena, emphasizes it every day in practice. We need to make plays in open space and I had to make that one tonight.
Wide Receiver Britain Covey
On his feelings after the game:
I'm overwhelmed. After coming to the sidelines after that play, I think I heard just one negative thing. I appreciate that. Every victory is a team victory and we got it done.
On what happened with the safety:
We knew he was going to kick it deep so I was going to catch it, run up right before the goal line and throw a backward pass to Bubba. It worked in practice but it was a really bad throw. I don't have any excuses.
Wide Receiver Kenneth Scott
On the play of the receivers:
All the credit to Travis and our offensive line. Travis had trust in us to go make plays and he threw the ball up there for us receivers. We just caught the ball.
On his touchdown:
It was a double move. The linebackers were outside and the defensive back was inside so we knew the linebacker would follow the bubble screen. I faked the slant and then went on a slant-and-go. I had a good trajectory to the ball and I just caught it.
On Travis Wilson's play:
Stats are cool and I know people care about them. I'm just glad we got the win. I called Travis the other day and told him he has a chance to leave a legacy. He could break Alex Smith's (career touchdown) record and I texted him to say how great a quarterback he is. I wanted him to leave his legacy. He gets a lot of scrutiny so I just wanted him to know we're behind him.
Quarterback Travis Wilson
On the offensive mindset entering the game:
We knew their defense was tough. Going into this game, we wanted to make some big plays and we had some dialed up. I trust my guys to make plays and when the ball is in the air, the receivers made great plays on the 50-50 balls.
On the win:
It's huge for this program. We are right where we want to be in the Pac-12. We have to keep working. This was a great win and a great team effort. We obviously have some things we need to keep working on. I'm really happy with how hard we played.
On what this victory means:
We knew going in what would happen if we won. That was something big as far as we were concerned. We wanted to get a comfortable lead in the standings. We wanted to take care of business against the Sun Devils and fortunately, we did.
On the team's mindset entering the fourth quarter:
We kept going. Everyone was comfortable and confident we would win. Guys stepped up and made big plays. I'm really happy with how we finished.
On Devontae Booker's touchdown run:
It was a great play. They knew it was coming the second time. But the first time, we got them. Our perimeter guys did a great job blocking. I had a sigh of relief. We had negative rushing yards before that play and I'm glad we got on the positive side. I'm happy for Devontae to get that touchdown.
On ASU's defense:
They blitz every play. Our offensive line did a great job picking it up. Devontae picked up the extra guy and that allowed me to get the throws off and be comfortable.
Arizona State Head Coach Todd Graham
On the outcome of the game --
"I want to congratulate Kyle [Whittingham] and Utah. Obviously, they were the better team tonight. It was a very, very physical battle. They got it done. I'm really proud of our guys and couldn't be more proud of how they played. You look at some of the individual efforts, they were phenomenal. I really felt like we were going to win the game the whole time."
On the turning point in the game --
"The turning point in the game was that set of downs where we fielded the ball inside our five and had the short punt out of bounds that hurt us. Then they score on the third down play, then the turnover on the read zone. That was the difference in the game. You look at the game, they couldn't run the ball and we couldn't either. It boiled down to passing the football, that's about what happened. They executed a couple of plays, but we had great coverage early in the game."
On things that went well for his team and things that didn't go well --
"I'm really proud of our guys. You look at the rushing yards and [Utah] only had two yards rushing at halftime. We played stellar against the run. We had seven or eight mental errors in the back end leaving people uncovered. That can't happen. We had some metal mistakes. But, man, our guys played extremely hard.
"Special teams was phenomenal. Tim White, the blocks we had, and Coach [Sean] Slocum has done a great job with our special teams. So, really, we're playing better than we've ever played in that area. Defensively, we kind of got it under control in the second half. We created second- and third-and-longs in the first half, but they converted two or three that they shouldn't have converted. Gotta give them credit. Proud of our guys for the effort that they gave. Their crowd was impressive. It was a very difficult atmosphere to play in. I never doubted that we would be able to get it done. Our guys were phenomenal on our sideline."
On the defensive game plan and getting pressure on Utah QB Travis Wilson --
"Our game plan was to stop the run. We're a team where that's what we do. We get tackles for loss on some base downs, and then we force third-and-longs and we get after the quarterback. Pretty much all of that went as planned. I thought we got after him pretty well. But I thought he showed a lot of character because you know we've really done pretty well in the past getting to him, and I thought he did a good job. He hit some plays that were big.
"What kind of hurt us a little bit is that we left a couple of guys uncovered and we had some guys come off their men a little bit. Just eight or nine plays that we don't make, because we needed to shut them down the way the game was going. It was a defensive struggle, but we made too many mental mistakes in the back end that hurt us. Getting pressure on the quarterback is what we do. At no point in the game did we ever feel like they ever established the running game, and that's a pretty good running football team. We did a pretty good job on the quarterback on the zone read stuff. They got out on one that was a speed option. We got a whole bunch of pressure, TFLs and a whole bunch of sacks. That all went as planned. They hit some big plays. The difference in the game was field position when it counted."
Players Mentioned
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QB
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