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The University of Utah Athletics
Utah vs. USC Postgame Quotes
10/25/2015 12:00 AM | Football
Oct. 25, 2015
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | USATSI Photo Gallery 
Utah Postgame Quotes
Kyle Whittingham, Utah Head Coach
"Obviously, we're disappointed to lose the game. In my opinion, that's the best team we've played all year long -- certainly from a personnel standpoint. Give them credit. It was tough to give them essentially three touchdowns on turnovers and hope to have a chance to win against a team of that caliber. One was a pick six, another ended on the 5. And to get no takeaways of our own. That was the difference in the game. Credit to them, good athletes and good players. Special teams did a nice job. Gionni Paul played a heck of a game tonight.
"So, we have to regroup. We still have a one-game lead in the Pac-12 South loss column. All is not lost. That was a good team we played in their stadium and I don't know how they were 3-3 going in, but they're really good. Can't give them enough credit.
"Their quarterback played really well. He took care of the ball. Their receiver is incredible. Smith-Schuster. The guy is the best receiver we've seen all year."
On Cameron Smith's three interceptions
"One for sure, we had a player stay in and block who should've been in the route and that's who should've occupied 35. One was a deflection. Can't tell you on the other until I see the film."
Was Travis Wilson pressing?
"I don't know if he was pressing. His numbers weren't bad other than the interceptions. He completed about 70% of his throws. Didn't make many bad decisions, but you can't take away the interceptions."
On missing linebacker Jared Norris
"Everyone in this country has injuries right now. There's not a team in the nation that's not banged up. We'll never use "we're injured, we're young". Guys out there have to make the plays."
On the pick six before halftime
"We were trying to be aggressive. We were not getting ball after kickoff. It was their ball. It was fourth and 2 and we probably have a 75-80% chance of converting that. That would have been huge to convert and get some momentum going into halftime. That was a big play. If you knew it wasn't going to work you wouldn't call it. But percentages were with us."
Gionni Paul, Utah linebacker
"Wow, credit USC, they came to play today. Didn't expect to get punched in the mouth like that. It was a reality check. I had forgotten what it was like to lose. It's a bad feeling. Got to go back to work Monday.
"We knew USC was a great team with great talent. We knew they had faced adversity last couple of weeks, but they played a good game against Notre Dame. We knew they would be ready tonight.
"JuJu [Smith-Schuster] is a great player and he caught us in some bad coverages and their offensive line handled the blitzes and they ran some pick routes and just gashed us."
Travis Wilson, Utah quaterback
"They played good defense and had a lot of great athletes on their team. I need to make smarter decisions.
"Obviously we're disappointed. I'm disappointed in my play. We just have to learn from this game and get it corrected and bounce back. We still have a good season ahead of us, still on top in the South, so we have to make sure we learn from this."
Britain Covey, Utah wide receiver
"When you get an opportunity, you got to take advantage of it. You never know how many you'll get in a game. I did that at times, but at the same time we missed some opportunities.
"Our main goal is to win the Pac-12 South and we're still in the driver's seat. Going into Monday will be huge for us to have that as motivation.
"Obviously it's tough, you can use as motivation the feeling we have right now. This feeling, you never want to feel again. It's part of being a competitor, you hate to lose as much as you want to win.
Tevin Carter, Utah safety
"We came in too flat. We got big-headed - personally, in my opinion. Every team we face is a great team so we can't expect three or four turnovers a game. We have to keep them out of the end zone and it's a team effort and we came up short.
"We were ready all week. We knew what they were doing and what they wanted to do. We just did a bad job executing. We need to do a better job pressuring the quarterback, but at the same time we need to do a better job covering. We can't put it on the D-line, linebackers or secondary. It was a team effort and we came up short.
"We knew coming in they had great athletes. We said that all week. We were preparing for the best. We knew we would get their best. Today they outplayed us and we weren't ready."
On JuJu Smith-Schuster
"He's a great player. He'll play in the NFL some day. Hats off to him. All respect to him. But we should've done a better job."
Players Mentioned
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QB
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