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The University of Utah Athletics
Photo by: Brooke Frederickson
Quotes From Kyle Whittingham's Weekly Press Conference
9/17/2018 1:32 PM | Football
Opening Statement…
"Obviously it was disappointing to lose. It is always disappointing to lose, that is kind of a ridiculous statement, but we did do some good things. I thought defensively we showed up. We slugged it out with them and just looking at the raw numbers after the game, we did some good things there. The defense is playing well. I don't think there is any secret about that or any doubt about that. On special teams, it was great to see Britain Covey get the punt return game going. The kick return game was a non-factor. Nobody had any kick returns because they were all kicked out of the end zone, but we really had an advantage with our punt return. We out netted them by 17 or 18 yards which is a big difference when you are talking about field position. It was good to get special teams on track after having a couple of weeks of frustration. Offensively, we have to get more going there obviously. We turned the ball over three times and it is really hard to win a game against a team of Washington's caliber when you do that, especially when you only take it away one time. So it was minus two in the turnover margin was probably the biggest issue of the night if I had to pinpoint one thing. I still feel really good about our team and I really believe in them. I believe in the offensive guys, the defensive guys, I believe in everything. It is just we have to find a way to put it all together, keep working and get better. This South Division is wide open. It certainly didn't help our cause dropping a Pac-12 game, but I think we are still in good shape to contend. We will see what happens going forward."
On Britain Covey having a physical game against Washington and if that concerns him because of his size…
"He is a tough kid. He did get knocked around quite a bit, but he just keeps getting back up and gets ready for the next play. We are concerned because we have to be smart with him. At the same time, kind of like Tyler last year, Britian can do some things to take himself out of harm's way at times instead of taking that last shot. We have to try and avoid those direct shots, but they got after him pretty good. Washington is a physical team. We feel like we are a physical team too, but he did take some licks on Saturday night."
On if Zack Moss is still banged up if he will lean more toward the quarterback run option or the secondary running back…
"Probably the latter. We need to get Armand a few more carries. Hopefully, Zack will be 100-percent by next week and we can start feeding him the ball more, which we do anyway and we know that. We feel that Zack is one of our best weapons on offense and as soon as he is ready for it, up his load."
On how much he will look at the offense during bye week…
"We look at everything. It is a self-study time and we will look at the first three games and find tendencies we may have built up, players that are playing well, players that maybe need to get more playing time or less playing time based on production. It was a physical game on Saturday and we did get some guys that were pretty beat up, so it helps in that regard as well. We just try to maximize the time, get some recruiting done. We will be doing all the things you do on a bye week, but also certainly self-examination."
On the offensive line's performance against Washington…
"Much, much improved and they played better than the week before. I think they can be even better. I have a lot of faith in our offensive line and I think they can dominate games. I think that is their potential. We certainly took a big step forward on Saturday when you compare it to the week prior. They are a group that takes a lot of pride in what they are doing and they came out and were physical. We were not overmatched in that game in terms of physicality at the line of scrimmage."
On if he sees Utah's seven points attributed to Utah's offensive play or Washington's defense…
"Both. I think you give them credit because they played good defense, but we didn't capitalize. We had the ball in the second half on the plus-11, plus-28, plus-42-ish going in and came away with zero, so we aren't capitalizing on opportunities. By the same token, they did a great job of keeping us out of the end zone. It is too bad the ball popped out of our defensive lineman's hand because he was just walking in, but that was an unfortunate turn of events because we got nothing out of it."
On the drops by the wide receivers and if it is a mental thing…
"It can be. You have to include the tight ends in that as well because we had a couple of drops from their group as well. It is not due to lack of effort or practice time. Every skill player we have works on the jug machines after practice, so we are putting the time in. My guess is that it is going to be corrected and we are going to get better at it. Those are drive killers. It is tough enough to score on a defense like Washington, without you shooting yourself in the foot over and over."
On how they graded Tyler Huntley as a passer against Washington…
"That is kind of a relative question because if we don't drop a ball, it would have been really, really good numbers. So with all of the drops, it was just average. Everybody in the country has a drop or two, nobody is not dropping the football, but when you have excessive drops, it makes the quarterback numbers look not as good as they were."
On if he feels the bye week has come at a good time for the team…
"We make it opportune whenever it comes. If they let you choose where the bye week was then I'd give it more thought, but without having any choice or any say in the matter, then we just plan for it. Even when you know it months in advance, you don't know what the state of the team is going to be when it happens. If you are playing real well, then you'd rather just keep playing and not take a week off. But we just take them as it comes."
On how he would evaluate Tyler Huntley after three weeks and if he will take a look at the other quarterbacks during bye week…
"He has room for improvement just like everyone on the football team. Right now, we aren't going to create some quarterback controversy. We feel Tyler gives us our best chance to win right now, and as long as that stays the case, then he will be the guy. If something happens to change that, then we will open it back up to competition. Right now, we feel he is the best guy that gives us our best chance on Saturdays."
On what he senses as the identity of the offense…
"First of all we are physical. We have a really good back in Zack Moss. We know that he has limited, but we would like to get to the point where we are physical in the run game and feeding the ball to our best runner. Identity is kind of an ambiguous term. There is a lot of different directions that can go, but we want a team that takes care of the football, has physicality in the run game and has big play capability."
On how he would grade Troy Taylor in his play-calling capabilities…
"We will grade at the end of the year. You can't do that week-to-week. You just look at what your issues are currently and keep trying to work at that."
On what their plan is for the bye week with practice and giving the guys time off…
"We don't have a set way. It all depends on when we are playing next, how we are playing, how early in the season it is. A bye week later in the season you are going to give them more time off. This particular week our travelers will practice a couple of times, our developmental guys will practice three times. We will get in the weight room and try to get some strength back. It is hard to maintain your strength during the course of the season. We will also get some recruiting in toward the tail end of the week. The coaches will go out and recruit and the guys will get some time off."
On if he has an opportunity to watch other Pac-12 teams this season and if he will use the bye week to focus in on that…
"I've had an occasion to watch three or four conference games. We will hone in on Washington State since we have a head start and that is the only team we are concerned with right now. As I mentioned though, you look at the South Division and see the scores and it looks pretty wide open. So, we will focus on Washington State exclusively, but whenever you have a chance to watch a game and look at somebody that is coming up on the schedule, you take a peek if you have the opportunity."
On offensive personnel groups…
"We need to scale back on the amount of groups we have. I think that is something that we maybe overloaded our guys a little bit with personnel groups. That is just our offensive coaches trying to get the best particular group out there for that play and sometimes you can take that a little bit too far. It can get a little convoluted and a little tough to sort out, so I think that is what you saw during some of those drives where you couldn't tell who was in and who was out. That is on us as coaches to get that sorted out, that is not the players' fault."
On when Moss was banged up against Washington if they gave thought to going with Armand Shyne as the main guy late in the game…
"We should have given Armand a few more carries instead of diminishing the run game or supplementing it with Tyler. But you have to practice the right way and earn your playing time that way too. Just because you are the next guy up, you have to practice right. I am not saying Armand has been a bad practice guy, but the coaches have to feel confident in you and trust that you are going to do the job. So it isn't just when the main guy goes down that the second guy up gets the same amount of work the starter would have got, it is what gives you the best chance to move the football."
On the search for offensive consistency and his level of frustration with that…
"Like I said, it is too early because we don't have a huge body of work. For two weeks, we have struggled a little bit, and that is probably an understatement. The name of the game on offense is points, followed by taking care of the football, and right now we aren't putting enough points up and we have turned the ball over more than anybody in the Pac-12. So, based on those two things we have a lot of work to do, but I keep going back to the confidence I have in our players. I really like our offensive players and we really believe in them. We as coaches have to put them in positions to be successful."
On if there is a concern on getting the ball down field more than they are…
"Yeah I think you have to have a balance in the throw game. You have to balance in the run pass and in the pass game. You can't have all short game and all deep shots, you have to keep the defense off balance and guessing. I think we maybe got a little heavy in the quick game and Washington rolled up the corners and played some cover two. That is something that is a concern. Obviously, we had gone to that too much and we took some shots from those corners in that scenario."
On if there are any specific areas they are looking to hit in recruiting this week…
"Our normal footprint. Southern California, Texas, we will send a coach to Miami and Northern California. Nowhere out of the norm for us."
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"Obviously it was disappointing to lose. It is always disappointing to lose, that is kind of a ridiculous statement, but we did do some good things. I thought defensively we showed up. We slugged it out with them and just looking at the raw numbers after the game, we did some good things there. The defense is playing well. I don't think there is any secret about that or any doubt about that. On special teams, it was great to see Britain Covey get the punt return game going. The kick return game was a non-factor. Nobody had any kick returns because they were all kicked out of the end zone, but we really had an advantage with our punt return. We out netted them by 17 or 18 yards which is a big difference when you are talking about field position. It was good to get special teams on track after having a couple of weeks of frustration. Offensively, we have to get more going there obviously. We turned the ball over three times and it is really hard to win a game against a team of Washington's caliber when you do that, especially when you only take it away one time. So it was minus two in the turnover margin was probably the biggest issue of the night if I had to pinpoint one thing. I still feel really good about our team and I really believe in them. I believe in the offensive guys, the defensive guys, I believe in everything. It is just we have to find a way to put it all together, keep working and get better. This South Division is wide open. It certainly didn't help our cause dropping a Pac-12 game, but I think we are still in good shape to contend. We will see what happens going forward."
On Britain Covey having a physical game against Washington and if that concerns him because of his size…
"He is a tough kid. He did get knocked around quite a bit, but he just keeps getting back up and gets ready for the next play. We are concerned because we have to be smart with him. At the same time, kind of like Tyler last year, Britian can do some things to take himself out of harm's way at times instead of taking that last shot. We have to try and avoid those direct shots, but they got after him pretty good. Washington is a physical team. We feel like we are a physical team too, but he did take some licks on Saturday night."
On if Zack Moss is still banged up if he will lean more toward the quarterback run option or the secondary running back…
"Probably the latter. We need to get Armand a few more carries. Hopefully, Zack will be 100-percent by next week and we can start feeding him the ball more, which we do anyway and we know that. We feel that Zack is one of our best weapons on offense and as soon as he is ready for it, up his load."
On how much he will look at the offense during bye week…
"We look at everything. It is a self-study time and we will look at the first three games and find tendencies we may have built up, players that are playing well, players that maybe need to get more playing time or less playing time based on production. It was a physical game on Saturday and we did get some guys that were pretty beat up, so it helps in that regard as well. We just try to maximize the time, get some recruiting done. We will be doing all the things you do on a bye week, but also certainly self-examination."
On the offensive line's performance against Washington…
"Much, much improved and they played better than the week before. I think they can be even better. I have a lot of faith in our offensive line and I think they can dominate games. I think that is their potential. We certainly took a big step forward on Saturday when you compare it to the week prior. They are a group that takes a lot of pride in what they are doing and they came out and were physical. We were not overmatched in that game in terms of physicality at the line of scrimmage."
On if he sees Utah's seven points attributed to Utah's offensive play or Washington's defense…
"Both. I think you give them credit because they played good defense, but we didn't capitalize. We had the ball in the second half on the plus-11, plus-28, plus-42-ish going in and came away with zero, so we aren't capitalizing on opportunities. By the same token, they did a great job of keeping us out of the end zone. It is too bad the ball popped out of our defensive lineman's hand because he was just walking in, but that was an unfortunate turn of events because we got nothing out of it."
On the drops by the wide receivers and if it is a mental thing…
"It can be. You have to include the tight ends in that as well because we had a couple of drops from their group as well. It is not due to lack of effort or practice time. Every skill player we have works on the jug machines after practice, so we are putting the time in. My guess is that it is going to be corrected and we are going to get better at it. Those are drive killers. It is tough enough to score on a defense like Washington, without you shooting yourself in the foot over and over."
On how they graded Tyler Huntley as a passer against Washington…
"That is kind of a relative question because if we don't drop a ball, it would have been really, really good numbers. So with all of the drops, it was just average. Everybody in the country has a drop or two, nobody is not dropping the football, but when you have excessive drops, it makes the quarterback numbers look not as good as they were."
On if he feels the bye week has come at a good time for the team…
"We make it opportune whenever it comes. If they let you choose where the bye week was then I'd give it more thought, but without having any choice or any say in the matter, then we just plan for it. Even when you know it months in advance, you don't know what the state of the team is going to be when it happens. If you are playing real well, then you'd rather just keep playing and not take a week off. But we just take them as it comes."
On how he would evaluate Tyler Huntley after three weeks and if he will take a look at the other quarterbacks during bye week…
"He has room for improvement just like everyone on the football team. Right now, we aren't going to create some quarterback controversy. We feel Tyler gives us our best chance to win right now, and as long as that stays the case, then he will be the guy. If something happens to change that, then we will open it back up to competition. Right now, we feel he is the best guy that gives us our best chance on Saturdays."
On what he senses as the identity of the offense…
"First of all we are physical. We have a really good back in Zack Moss. We know that he has limited, but we would like to get to the point where we are physical in the run game and feeding the ball to our best runner. Identity is kind of an ambiguous term. There is a lot of different directions that can go, but we want a team that takes care of the football, has physicality in the run game and has big play capability."
On how he would grade Troy Taylor in his play-calling capabilities…
"We will grade at the end of the year. You can't do that week-to-week. You just look at what your issues are currently and keep trying to work at that."
On what their plan is for the bye week with practice and giving the guys time off…
"We don't have a set way. It all depends on when we are playing next, how we are playing, how early in the season it is. A bye week later in the season you are going to give them more time off. This particular week our travelers will practice a couple of times, our developmental guys will practice three times. We will get in the weight room and try to get some strength back. It is hard to maintain your strength during the course of the season. We will also get some recruiting in toward the tail end of the week. The coaches will go out and recruit and the guys will get some time off."
On if he has an opportunity to watch other Pac-12 teams this season and if he will use the bye week to focus in on that…
"I've had an occasion to watch three or four conference games. We will hone in on Washington State since we have a head start and that is the only team we are concerned with right now. As I mentioned though, you look at the South Division and see the scores and it looks pretty wide open. So, we will focus on Washington State exclusively, but whenever you have a chance to watch a game and look at somebody that is coming up on the schedule, you take a peek if you have the opportunity."
On offensive personnel groups…
"We need to scale back on the amount of groups we have. I think that is something that we maybe overloaded our guys a little bit with personnel groups. That is just our offensive coaches trying to get the best particular group out there for that play and sometimes you can take that a little bit too far. It can get a little convoluted and a little tough to sort out, so I think that is what you saw during some of those drives where you couldn't tell who was in and who was out. That is on us as coaches to get that sorted out, that is not the players' fault."
On when Moss was banged up against Washington if they gave thought to going with Armand Shyne as the main guy late in the game…
"We should have given Armand a few more carries instead of diminishing the run game or supplementing it with Tyler. But you have to practice the right way and earn your playing time that way too. Just because you are the next guy up, you have to practice right. I am not saying Armand has been a bad practice guy, but the coaches have to feel confident in you and trust that you are going to do the job. So it isn't just when the main guy goes down that the second guy up gets the same amount of work the starter would have got, it is what gives you the best chance to move the football."
On the search for offensive consistency and his level of frustration with that…
"Like I said, it is too early because we don't have a huge body of work. For two weeks, we have struggled a little bit, and that is probably an understatement. The name of the game on offense is points, followed by taking care of the football, and right now we aren't putting enough points up and we have turned the ball over more than anybody in the Pac-12. So, based on those two things we have a lot of work to do, but I keep going back to the confidence I have in our players. I really like our offensive players and we really believe in them. We as coaches have to put them in positions to be successful."
On if there is a concern on getting the ball down field more than they are…
"Yeah I think you have to have a balance in the throw game. You have to balance in the run pass and in the pass game. You can't have all short game and all deep shots, you have to keep the defense off balance and guessing. I think we maybe got a little heavy in the quick game and Washington rolled up the corners and played some cover two. That is something that is a concern. Obviously, we had gone to that too much and we took some shots from those corners in that scenario."
On if there are any specific areas they are looking to hit in recruiting this week…
"Our normal footprint. Southern California, Texas, we will send a coach to Miami and Northern California. Nowhere out of the norm for us."
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