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The University of Utah Athletics
Utah vs. UCLA Postgame Quotes
11/21/2015 12:00 AM | Football
Nov. 21, 2015
Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
Opening statement:
Unfortunately, we did not get it done. You are not going to win many Pac-12 games scoring only nine points. Two big issues were the red-zone offense, where we seemed to bog down, and the lack of takeaways. We couldn't take it away on defense. Those were the two primary issues. We ran the ball effectively. We threw the ball o.k. and played pretty good defense except for not getting a takeaway. There's not that much more to it. Red zone offense, takeaways and losing the turnover margin. Unfortunately, with USC losing the table was set for an opportunity and we didn't take advantage.
On the passing game:
Their defensive backs did a great job in coverage. They have great athletes back there, a bunch of them. They did a nice job covering us.
On running the read option:
No, we had a package for Covey and that went down the tubes when he went out. We didn't have aspirations of anyone else running it other than Covey.
On Joe Williams:
He ran pretty hard and had over 100 yards. But, he fumbled and you can't do that. He ran hard and gave us a lot of production. He has a bright future and he's a good back.
On the last offensive play:
Yes, we could have run the ball at any time in the series because we had two timeouts. It looked as if Joe's elbow hit the football and jarred it loose.
On injuries:
We'll have to see what's going on. Hunter Dimick was supposed to be back weeks ago but he's still out. Reggie Porter was supposed to be able to go. We will have more information tomorrow or Monday. I think we found out about Devontae [Booker] Tuesday night or Wednesday morning and he is officially out for the year. He won't be here next week or for the bowl game. Long term, he will be ok and back to full strength. He is done as Ute.
On the loss of Britain Covey:
It is huge. Between him and Devontae Booker, that's about 80 percent of the offense right there. No one is going to feel bad for you . They're going to be happy, your opponents. It's part of the game.
Utah Postgame Quotes - Players
Running Back Joe Williams
On what happened during the final offensive play:
It was a play action fake so things got messed up. It was not Travis' fault, it was more my fault.
On his mindset heading into the game:
Just do what I do best. I mean Devontae [Booker] has been doing it for the past year and a half . My motivation was people who doubted me. They thought the offense and running game would not be the same so that pushed me today.
I don't like to be stopped. I wanted to do my best for the team and put us in good situations. Carrying the rock was something I wanted to do for all four quarters.
Kicker Andy Phillips
On how he, and the team, feels:
Obviously, not positive. It's difficult when you have something in your grasp and you let it slip away. We put in so many hours of preparation for this game and to have an outcome like this definitely hurts. There are also positives we can take from this as we move forward. We want to finish the season strong and it's still been successful.
Quarterback Travis Wilson
On what happened with the offense:
I was not making throws and there was nothing there. They were playing good defense but we have to do better. I have to a better job of throwing the ball and getting guys open.
On how he, and the team, feels:
We still need to finish the season strong and make sure we make these games special for the seniors. We want to finish the right way.
Defensive End Kylie Fitts
On how he, and the team, feels:
It's tough but I could not be more proud of this team. I love my family. It's tough but we have to move on and finish strong.
On playing against his former team:
It was weird because I've gone against them so many times. It was cool to catch up with some teammates and they played hard.
On what happened defensively that helped them:
First quarter, we played a lot of man and got hurt. Then we switched to zone and played that more most of the game so that helped us.
UCLA Head Coach Jim Mora
On getting the win -
"It was a good win, obviously, against a very good opponent. A really tremendous team, Utah, the way they play defense. Just the way they play football, you really respect it. Anytime you lose in the last minute or the last play, as it was last week, you worry especially at this age of a little hangover effect. But I felt right from the get-go last week that our guys really came back with a real focus and a determination to get over that one and take advantage of the second chance they were afforded when Utah lost last week. We had a really good week of practice. We came out and we executed very, very well today."
On the play of his offense -
"Obviously, we would like to be more productive on offense. We lost two offensive linemen and I think that hurt us. When Alex Redmond went out and then when Connor [McDermott] went out we had to shuffle some things around. But I think most of the credit for our offense to struggle should go to Utah's front. That's about as good of a front as you'll find in college football. I know Alabama's a great front and there's some other great ones, but those guys are tremendous and very well coached and they play hard. What we did today is we won some battles outside. We felt like we could come in here and they were going to play a lot of man free, they were going to try to take away the run. And we felt like we could get some things done on the outside and we did. I thought Jordan Payton was spectacular again. He broke the UCLA all-time receiving record today. That's quite an accomplishment for him with some of the guys who have come through here."
Players Mentioned
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QB
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