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The University of Utah Athletics
Utah vs. UCLA Postgame Quotes
10/22/2016 11:14 PM | Football
Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
Opening Remarks
"Not our typical way of winning a football game. We don't find ourselves in many shootouts. It was great to see our offense respond the way they did, defense struggled a little today against the throw game, but their run game was almost non-existent. It was almost like playing Washington State with almost 70 pass attempts which I think is what we had against us today. Defense had just enough in the tank to get that last stop that we needed. They did come away with some takeaways that we needed. We had four or five takeaways, four picks and a fumble, so five takeaways which was huge. Started fast, got jump started with that kickoff return. It was nice to see us get one of those right out of the gate and break loose with a kickoff return. Great job by Cory [Butler-Bird] and the kickoff unit blocking it up. Storyline of the game is the offense and how they kept moving the ball and kept answering every time UCLA scored we answered. Just a great performance by Joe Williams. He was on a pitch count. He wasn't going to go above 30 carries, and we held him to 29 and he got over 300 yards. I can't say enough about that young man and what he has meant to our team the last two weeks. What a blessing it is for us to have him back and how unselfish it was of him to come back. It was legitimate when he stepped away, he was really hurting. He did it for his teammates, he is an unselfish guy. We are elated to have him back."
On mentality change for Joe Williams
"Well he did have a month off to kind of heal up and get some of the soreness out of his body. He's just rejuvenated. I don't really have a great answer for you other than he is not feeling perfect but he is still got some things that ail him. He has about 53 carries the last two weeks and that's a huge workload for him."
On big plays
"It's awesome. We've had some pretty good running backs come through here and play against some inferior teams and have not been able to rack up the yardage like he did here today. To say that he broke the all-time record is really saying something. We've had some running backs go to the NFL that have done some really great things. So to run that well against a really good defensive team – and they are a good defensive team, they've put up some good defensive numbers. It's a credit to the offensive line, it's not just Joe. The offensive line worked their tail off this afternoon. We had just enough throw game to keep them honest. Last couple of years we've been a little bit too one-dimensional and weren't able to open up the running lanes because we did not throw the ball efficiently enough. Now we are throwing the ball with much more efficiency."
On offensive mismatches
"No, I don't think so. There were no individual matchups, I just think our offensive line played well today. They have some really big kids up front. It was just our offensive line was able to work as a unit and that was great to see. That's how we envision those guys would be able to be coming into the season that they would be one of the better offensive lines in the Pac-12."
On UCLA's offense gameplan
"There wasn't much run game. I don't know how many times they ran the football. Pure runs you can probably count on one hand, maybe two. But our defensive line responded to their run game. Pass rush wasn't as good as it usually is, and the coverage wasn't nearly as good as it usually is, but we had enough."
On turnovers
"The turnovers made a huge difference. If we don't get those we don't win the game. Other than the final score, and I've said it over and over, the turnover margin is the most important stat and we were like plus-two or three which really helped our cause."
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Opening Remarks
"Not our typical way of winning a football game. We don't find ourselves in many shootouts. It was great to see our offense respond the way they did, defense struggled a little today against the throw game, but their run game was almost non-existent. It was almost like playing Washington State with almost 70 pass attempts which I think is what we had against us today. Defense had just enough in the tank to get that last stop that we needed. They did come away with some takeaways that we needed. We had four or five takeaways, four picks and a fumble, so five takeaways which was huge. Started fast, got jump started with that kickoff return. It was nice to see us get one of those right out of the gate and break loose with a kickoff return. Great job by Cory [Butler-Bird] and the kickoff unit blocking it up. Storyline of the game is the offense and how they kept moving the ball and kept answering every time UCLA scored we answered. Just a great performance by Joe Williams. He was on a pitch count. He wasn't going to go above 30 carries, and we held him to 29 and he got over 300 yards. I can't say enough about that young man and what he has meant to our team the last two weeks. What a blessing it is for us to have him back and how unselfish it was of him to come back. It was legitimate when he stepped away, he was really hurting. He did it for his teammates, he is an unselfish guy. We are elated to have him back."
On mentality change for Joe Williams
"Well he did have a month off to kind of heal up and get some of the soreness out of his body. He's just rejuvenated. I don't really have a great answer for you other than he is not feeling perfect but he is still got some things that ail him. He has about 53 carries the last two weeks and that's a huge workload for him."
On big plays
"It's awesome. We've had some pretty good running backs come through here and play against some inferior teams and have not been able to rack up the yardage like he did here today. To say that he broke the all-time record is really saying something. We've had some running backs go to the NFL that have done some really great things. So to run that well against a really good defensive team – and they are a good defensive team, they've put up some good defensive numbers. It's a credit to the offensive line, it's not just Joe. The offensive line worked their tail off this afternoon. We had just enough throw game to keep them honest. Last couple of years we've been a little bit too one-dimensional and weren't able to open up the running lanes because we did not throw the ball efficiently enough. Now we are throwing the ball with much more efficiency."
On offensive mismatches
"No, I don't think so. There were no individual matchups, I just think our offensive line played well today. They have some really big kids up front. It was just our offensive line was able to work as a unit and that was great to see. That's how we envision those guys would be able to be coming into the season that they would be one of the better offensive lines in the Pac-12."
On UCLA's offense gameplan
"There wasn't much run game. I don't know how many times they ran the football. Pure runs you can probably count on one hand, maybe two. But our defensive line responded to their run game. Pass rush wasn't as good as it usually is, and the coverage wasn't nearly as good as it usually is, but we had enough."
On turnovers
"The turnovers made a huge difference. If we don't get those we don't win the game. Other than the final score, and I've said it over and over, the turnover margin is the most important stat and we were like plus-two or three which really helped our cause."
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Players Mentioned
RB
/ FootballFormer Utah Football Head Coach Urban Meyer inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
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