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The University of Utah Athletics
Quotes From Kyle Whittingham's Weekly Press Conference
10/16/2017 1:48 PM | Football
Opening Statement…
"Tough game down at the Coliseum on Saturday night. I am proud of our guys because they played extremely hard. It was a great college football game for the fans. We came up one play short, that was the bottom line. We have to put it behind us now, regroup and get ready for the next one. We need to learn from our mistakes and try to get better. I thought we took steps forward as a football team against USC. Even though I have said many times that there are no moral victories, I think we progressed as a team and got better from the previous week. Obviously though, it wasn't quite good enough. There were a lot of positives in the game. I thought we ran the ball effectively. Zack Moss played his best game as a Ute. He ran with great violence and determination. Defense stepped up. They got three takeaways. They got a little soft there at the end and that is not like us. We got a little soft in the run game, particularly in the fourth quarter. Special teams, kind of a non-factor in the game. It was probably a wash as far as special teams goes, no big plays by either special teams unit. But it is time to move on and focus on Arizona State. They are coming off a big win, a huge win, against Washington. We have our work cut out for us this week just like we do every week."
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On the delay of game call against USC…
"The explanation I got was that we had 12 guys on the field, which I didn't see that, but maybe I missed it. They were holding it until we got the 12th guy off, and so we couldn't snap it. So yeah, the explanation that I got was that we had 12 on the field and they were holding it up until things got situated."
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On if he regrets going for the two-point conversion or the play that was called…
"No regrets, he was wide open. No regrets, and I mean you don't make every play, but the play was there. We just missed him, didn't see him. It happens all the time."
Â
On if after USC called a timeout before the two-point conversion if there was a discussion on keeping the original play or changing the decision…
"Troy dialed up what he thought was best. I can't recall if they had a different play call or not. He can't second guess though."
Â
On any season-ending injuries that have occurred in the last two games…
"Christian Drews is done for the season, I should have mentioned that last week. That is a big loss special teams wise and was a team captain. This week, no apparent season-ending injuries that have been brought to my attention yet."
Â
On what goes through his thought process on if he should challenge where the ball is spotted if it is close…
"Typically it will come from the booth. With the coaches up there, there are monitors and they can see the replays much clearer and it is much more accessible up there. Typically, your determination on whether you are going to challenge a play is from up in the booth when they say 'hey that was clearly in, clearly out' or if it is a bad spot, whatever the case may be. The one where Zack had the ball and appeared to have the first down. It was across the field from our sideline, so I didn't get a great view of where his knee actually went down and they didn't get any feeds up in the box either. We went on to convert it anyway. But that is how it happens."
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On Pac-12 standings and if he thinks with two losses Utah can still contend for the south division title…
"It is not out of the question. Was it last year, or the year before, two losses has won you the conference before with tie breakers and things like that. I don't think there will be an outright champion with two losses and everyone else with three or more, but with tiebreaking there could be a co-champion. It was a weird weekend, a wild weekend. Washington and Washington State getting beat, which you weren't expecting that out of either of those teams. Across the country there were five or six unbeatens that went down. There were a lot of upsets this week."
Â
On if he has more optimism that Tyler Huntley will get to play this weekend…
"Every week that goes by he gets healthier and closer to being cleared. Like I said last week, it is just day to day until they say yes or no. No yes's yet."
Â
On if he has pinpointed what the issue is when Utah gets in the redzone…
"Nope. We have studied it relentlessly, worked on it, schemed for it and we are still not good enough. We were 2-for-4 on Saturday night and I guess you could say if we would have been 3-for-4 we would have won the game. There were a lot of things that could have made the difference. You could say if we would have hit our field goal we would have won that game. There are a lot of ifs, but one thing that is constant is that we have to get better in the redzone. Third downs and redzone production are our biggest Achilles heels offensively."
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On what Arizona State did differently to slow down Washington's high powered offense…
"They had great pressure on the quarterback first and foremost. They had eight sacks and they hadn't given up less than 30 points in any of their last five games, so it was a complete turnaround on how they played on defense. It was a home game and they were juiced up and excited. It is such a game of emotion and that is one example right there on how your mental state of mind and preparedness is so key in football, it is huge. They were ready."
Â
On Troy improving from his performance against Stanford in the USC game…
"Much better performance by Troy and I think a lot of that ties in with another week of preparation and another game under his belt. It was great to see him come out and play with more efficiency and success."
Â
On when the decision was made in the final drive to go for the two-point conversion if they score…
"Early on. It depended on how much time was doing to be left on the clock, but I knew if we were down under a minute, it looked like that was going to be the decisive determiner in the game and that is when I made that decision. Again, no regrets. I thought out best chance to win, given that our defense had played 80 snaps and having trouble stopping them with Darnold making play after play after play, I just thought that was the best opportunity to win the game."
Â
On if he felt Utah did better as a wide receiver group with Darren Carrington II getting extra coverage against USC…
"I thought we did better. You saw some really nice plays made by Raelon Singleton, Demari Simpkins, Bryan Thompson, guys picked up the slack. Darren was hurting this week. He has some ailments going on and he wasn't himself, but he was tough enough to be out there and contribute to the extent that he could. As I said last week, the other guys have to step up. We have five or six guys at wide receiver that can make plays. Samson Nacua and Siaosi Wilson are two of them as well. It is up to those guys to step up. I thought the pass protection was decent, but we still gave up four sacks which is way too many. It wasn't all on the offensive line. Offensively, we just didn't score enough points. We are moving the ball, but we are leaving points on the field and that is what has really been the difference. We have lost two games by a total of four points. We point directly to that as one of the problems."
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On if he saw something in USC's defense that was going to allow Zack Moss to average over seven yards a carry…
"No. That is the Zack Moss that I have been waiting on for some time now. He is a very capable back. He is physical, he can run people over. I mean you saw him running linebackers over from USC. The light switch has come on and hopefully that is what we get week in and week out. He is a very talented back."
Â
On how explains Utah's defense giving up multiple drives of over 90 yards against USC…
"Sam Darnold, for one thing. He is a terrific quarterback. Their receivers made a bunch of catches. I mean they are making circus catches with one-handed grabs and seeming to find ways to make plays. That is as big as anything to contribute to that. Our usual M.O. on defense is to be tough against the run and we didn't' do that. We got soft late in the game. We got cut out of gaps a few times, so it was just some fundamental errors that we made on big plays."
Â
On what else they will focus on defensively against Arizona State outside of the run game…
"They have a terrific receiver in N'Keal Harry. He is as good of looking receiver as you will see in the country. He is 6-3, 6-4, 200-plus pounds and fast. The quarterback is playing well. He is coming of age and is playing much better than he had in years past. Not that he was bad, but he has really improved. Last week, it was the story of their defense. They only had 230 yards of offense against Washington and Washington only had 280, so it was a game of two defenses really dominating the game last week. So that was the storyline for that."
Â
On the run-pass plays that have been drawing penalties this season and if they will look to change the shape of the play to avoid that…
"I think that every RPO team that is fairly heavy in RPOs is going to have that on occasion. We have to get better at, we call it 'hovering' on the offensive line. The quarterback has to get it out on time as well. If he looks one way, pumps and comes back, it is almost inevitable. The offensive line can't hold forever. It is just about getting it all in sync. Overall, I think they have been pretty good to us this year, but it could be better."
Â
On what he thinks has changed that has led to the improvement of Zack Moss's performances…
"I can't tell you exactly what the mindset was, but I can tell you that he looked exactly how we wanted him to look when we recruited him. He was running over people, exploding into would be tacklers. He made so many explosive, violent runs in that game and it was impressive."
Â
On if it is hard to simulate in practice and scout teams wide receivers like N'Keal Harry…
"Without a doubt. If we had a scout team player like him, he wouldn't be on scout team. He would be playing for us. You do the best you can. You work more on body types and get the big guys to simulate him or whatever the case may be because the guys that are like him are on the travel squad."
Â
On not having a sack on defense in the past two games…
"We just aren't doing a good job of getting to the quarterback. The pressure dose is the same. We are about a mid-30-percent pressure team, that is what we are about every year. So, there is nothing that has changed as far as dialing up the pressures. We never make excuses, but we have two really good pass rushers in Kylie Fitts and Bradlee Anae and they really supply that edge pressure. We had them for a period of time in that game, but we have to find a way to get sacks. There is nothing different that we are doing in our calls and there is nothing really that the opponent is doing differently in their protections."
Â
On USC's long drives toward the end of the game…
"It was a combination of things, but it particularly Sam Darnold. He made some plays not only throwing the ball, but got out of some jams in the pocket and made people miss on some scrambles. He is a big time player."
On if they have more recruits at a game like USC then a normal away game…
"Oh yeah, that is a fertile area for us in Southern California, in fact, other than in-state that is the most productive area for us."
Â
On what he plans to do to improve the pass rush on defense…
"I mean we will just keep working on pass rush in practice. We have pass rush drills that we work on and we will continue to develop the younger guys in the system. They need to step up when other guys go down. We need to be better at blitzes. We had a lot of mental mistakes on defense in this past game and quite a few of them were in blitzes. The blitzes weren't clean enough with hitting the right gaps and executing them the right way."
Â
"Tough game down at the Coliseum on Saturday night. I am proud of our guys because they played extremely hard. It was a great college football game for the fans. We came up one play short, that was the bottom line. We have to put it behind us now, regroup and get ready for the next one. We need to learn from our mistakes and try to get better. I thought we took steps forward as a football team against USC. Even though I have said many times that there are no moral victories, I think we progressed as a team and got better from the previous week. Obviously though, it wasn't quite good enough. There were a lot of positives in the game. I thought we ran the ball effectively. Zack Moss played his best game as a Ute. He ran with great violence and determination. Defense stepped up. They got three takeaways. They got a little soft there at the end and that is not like us. We got a little soft in the run game, particularly in the fourth quarter. Special teams, kind of a non-factor in the game. It was probably a wash as far as special teams goes, no big plays by either special teams unit. But it is time to move on and focus on Arizona State. They are coming off a big win, a huge win, against Washington. We have our work cut out for us this week just like we do every week."
Â
On the delay of game call against USC…
"The explanation I got was that we had 12 guys on the field, which I didn't see that, but maybe I missed it. They were holding it until we got the 12th guy off, and so we couldn't snap it. So yeah, the explanation that I got was that we had 12 on the field and they were holding it up until things got situated."
Â
On if he regrets going for the two-point conversion or the play that was called…
"No regrets, he was wide open. No regrets, and I mean you don't make every play, but the play was there. We just missed him, didn't see him. It happens all the time."
Â
On if after USC called a timeout before the two-point conversion if there was a discussion on keeping the original play or changing the decision…
"Troy dialed up what he thought was best. I can't recall if they had a different play call or not. He can't second guess though."
Â
On any season-ending injuries that have occurred in the last two games…
"Christian Drews is done for the season, I should have mentioned that last week. That is a big loss special teams wise and was a team captain. This week, no apparent season-ending injuries that have been brought to my attention yet."
Â
On what goes through his thought process on if he should challenge where the ball is spotted if it is close…
"Typically it will come from the booth. With the coaches up there, there are monitors and they can see the replays much clearer and it is much more accessible up there. Typically, your determination on whether you are going to challenge a play is from up in the booth when they say 'hey that was clearly in, clearly out' or if it is a bad spot, whatever the case may be. The one where Zack had the ball and appeared to have the first down. It was across the field from our sideline, so I didn't get a great view of where his knee actually went down and they didn't get any feeds up in the box either. We went on to convert it anyway. But that is how it happens."
Â
On Pac-12 standings and if he thinks with two losses Utah can still contend for the south division title…
"It is not out of the question. Was it last year, or the year before, two losses has won you the conference before with tie breakers and things like that. I don't think there will be an outright champion with two losses and everyone else with three or more, but with tiebreaking there could be a co-champion. It was a weird weekend, a wild weekend. Washington and Washington State getting beat, which you weren't expecting that out of either of those teams. Across the country there were five or six unbeatens that went down. There were a lot of upsets this week."
Â
On if he has more optimism that Tyler Huntley will get to play this weekend…
"Every week that goes by he gets healthier and closer to being cleared. Like I said last week, it is just day to day until they say yes or no. No yes's yet."
Â
On if he has pinpointed what the issue is when Utah gets in the redzone…
"Nope. We have studied it relentlessly, worked on it, schemed for it and we are still not good enough. We were 2-for-4 on Saturday night and I guess you could say if we would have been 3-for-4 we would have won the game. There were a lot of things that could have made the difference. You could say if we would have hit our field goal we would have won that game. There are a lot of ifs, but one thing that is constant is that we have to get better in the redzone. Third downs and redzone production are our biggest Achilles heels offensively."
Â
On what Arizona State did differently to slow down Washington's high powered offense…
"They had great pressure on the quarterback first and foremost. They had eight sacks and they hadn't given up less than 30 points in any of their last five games, so it was a complete turnaround on how they played on defense. It was a home game and they were juiced up and excited. It is such a game of emotion and that is one example right there on how your mental state of mind and preparedness is so key in football, it is huge. They were ready."
Â
On Troy improving from his performance against Stanford in the USC game…
"Much better performance by Troy and I think a lot of that ties in with another week of preparation and another game under his belt. It was great to see him come out and play with more efficiency and success."
Â
On when the decision was made in the final drive to go for the two-point conversion if they score…
"Early on. It depended on how much time was doing to be left on the clock, but I knew if we were down under a minute, it looked like that was going to be the decisive determiner in the game and that is when I made that decision. Again, no regrets. I thought out best chance to win, given that our defense had played 80 snaps and having trouble stopping them with Darnold making play after play after play, I just thought that was the best opportunity to win the game."
Â
On if he felt Utah did better as a wide receiver group with Darren Carrington II getting extra coverage against USC…
"I thought we did better. You saw some really nice plays made by Raelon Singleton, Demari Simpkins, Bryan Thompson, guys picked up the slack. Darren was hurting this week. He has some ailments going on and he wasn't himself, but he was tough enough to be out there and contribute to the extent that he could. As I said last week, the other guys have to step up. We have five or six guys at wide receiver that can make plays. Samson Nacua and Siaosi Wilson are two of them as well. It is up to those guys to step up. I thought the pass protection was decent, but we still gave up four sacks which is way too many. It wasn't all on the offensive line. Offensively, we just didn't score enough points. We are moving the ball, but we are leaving points on the field and that is what has really been the difference. We have lost two games by a total of four points. We point directly to that as one of the problems."
Â
On if he saw something in USC's defense that was going to allow Zack Moss to average over seven yards a carry…
"No. That is the Zack Moss that I have been waiting on for some time now. He is a very capable back. He is physical, he can run people over. I mean you saw him running linebackers over from USC. The light switch has come on and hopefully that is what we get week in and week out. He is a very talented back."
Â
On how explains Utah's defense giving up multiple drives of over 90 yards against USC…
"Sam Darnold, for one thing. He is a terrific quarterback. Their receivers made a bunch of catches. I mean they are making circus catches with one-handed grabs and seeming to find ways to make plays. That is as big as anything to contribute to that. Our usual M.O. on defense is to be tough against the run and we didn't' do that. We got soft late in the game. We got cut out of gaps a few times, so it was just some fundamental errors that we made on big plays."
Â
On what else they will focus on defensively against Arizona State outside of the run game…
"They have a terrific receiver in N'Keal Harry. He is as good of looking receiver as you will see in the country. He is 6-3, 6-4, 200-plus pounds and fast. The quarterback is playing well. He is coming of age and is playing much better than he had in years past. Not that he was bad, but he has really improved. Last week, it was the story of their defense. They only had 230 yards of offense against Washington and Washington only had 280, so it was a game of two defenses really dominating the game last week. So that was the storyline for that."
Â
On the run-pass plays that have been drawing penalties this season and if they will look to change the shape of the play to avoid that…
"I think that every RPO team that is fairly heavy in RPOs is going to have that on occasion. We have to get better at, we call it 'hovering' on the offensive line. The quarterback has to get it out on time as well. If he looks one way, pumps and comes back, it is almost inevitable. The offensive line can't hold forever. It is just about getting it all in sync. Overall, I think they have been pretty good to us this year, but it could be better."
Â
On what he thinks has changed that has led to the improvement of Zack Moss's performances…
"I can't tell you exactly what the mindset was, but I can tell you that he looked exactly how we wanted him to look when we recruited him. He was running over people, exploding into would be tacklers. He made so many explosive, violent runs in that game and it was impressive."
Â
On if it is hard to simulate in practice and scout teams wide receivers like N'Keal Harry…
"Without a doubt. If we had a scout team player like him, he wouldn't be on scout team. He would be playing for us. You do the best you can. You work more on body types and get the big guys to simulate him or whatever the case may be because the guys that are like him are on the travel squad."
Â
On not having a sack on defense in the past two games…
"We just aren't doing a good job of getting to the quarterback. The pressure dose is the same. We are about a mid-30-percent pressure team, that is what we are about every year. So, there is nothing that has changed as far as dialing up the pressures. We never make excuses, but we have two really good pass rushers in Kylie Fitts and Bradlee Anae and they really supply that edge pressure. We had them for a period of time in that game, but we have to find a way to get sacks. There is nothing different that we are doing in our calls and there is nothing really that the opponent is doing differently in their protections."
Â
On USC's long drives toward the end of the game…
"It was a combination of things, but it particularly Sam Darnold. He made some plays not only throwing the ball, but got out of some jams in the pocket and made people miss on some scrambles. He is a big time player."
On if they have more recruits at a game like USC then a normal away game…
"Oh yeah, that is a fertile area for us in Southern California, in fact, other than in-state that is the most productive area for us."
Â
On what he plans to do to improve the pass rush on defense…
"I mean we will just keep working on pass rush in practice. We have pass rush drills that we work on and we will continue to develop the younger guys in the system. They need to step up when other guys go down. We need to be better at blitzes. We had a lot of mental mistakes on defense in this past game and quite a few of them were in blitzes. The blitzes weren't clean enough with hitting the right gaps and executing them the right way."
Â
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