Postgame Quotes vs. California
10/27/2019 12:05 AM | Football
Head coach Kyle Whittingham Quotes
Opening Statement
On the defense not buying into the hype…
On knowing when Tyler Huntley was ready to go…
On challenges with Washington ahead…
Whether or not he's surprised on how the offense did versus Cal's defense…
On being surprised by Zack Moss' performance on the sidelines…
On the team being more amped up that Tyler played tonight…
"Yeah, I believe so. I think the offensive line was more determined than ever to protect him and take the hits off of him. They did a nice job with that."
Utah Player Quotes vs. California
#2 Zack Moss, RB
On his consecutive record breaking 100-yard rushing game…
"It all feels really good, especially when you are winning and in the fashion that it came in tonight. I'm just grateful everything went well and everyone came out injury free, so it was a good night."
On what it was like playing with Huntley who is injured and still played…
"Yeah it makes you want to go harder because the guy is a warrior. I didn't really doubt him missing this game, he prepared his tail off each and every day. Late nights just working and trying to get himself ready to go for this game. I know we all wanted to go hard for him and the O-line did a great job protecting him tonight."
On where Huntley's inner toughness comes from…
"That's just how he grew up. Just fighting the tougher battles in life and things like that so when something like this happens to him he just will man-up and takes it down like he did tonight"
On how the defense makes his job easier…
"Yeah when you can stop the ball like they do, it puts us in a really good position to go out there and play lights out. I don't think they had 45 snaps on defense tonight, so when you can do something like that with the amount of talent and depth we have at each position on that side of the ball, it's going to work in our favor."
#26 Terrell Burgess, SS
On how well the defense has played recently…
"Coach Scalley is a very smart man, so I think he knows exactly what's coming before it comes and he puts us in the right position. We need to give credit to him and just credit to everybody working hard throughout the week."
On the next challenge at hand, Washington, and whether it's a make or break game…
"Every game is a big game. Everybody is good in the Pac-12 and each week we need to come out and play great football because there are some teams that you wouldn't expect to lose, and they lose every week. So we just need to prepare for this next week just like any other week and make sure we play assignment sound football and come out and hope it goes well for us."
On what helps keep them locked in without much mistakes week in and week out…
"We just know what we are after. There are a lot of guys in the locker room that love playing for each other and love being with each other and love the coaches, so I think it's just the fact that we know exactly what we are after. We are just trying to make sure that this season is special."
#99 Leki Fotu, DT
On the first Utah shutout in the against a Pac-12 team since joining the conference …
"It means a lot. All the hard work that we have put in during the offseason, throughout this week paid off and everybody was locked in during the game."
On what it means to be one of the top teams in the nation limiting teams in rushing yards…
"The defensive line, we take a lot of pride in that. We try to be the No. 1 D-line, especially in the run game. Coming off this game I felt like we dominated the line of scrimmage up front and that's something that's positive and we are pretty happy to hear about that."
California Quotes
Head Coach Justin Wilcox
On how you approach your team in the locker room tonight...
"We have to be better. There are injuries and that's part of the game. It starts with me. I have to give them better answers. Myself and our coaches have to help our players, and the players have to go out and execute to the best of their ability. If we do that and it's good enough, we'll win; if it's not, we won't. I think it's going to be a week of getting healthy and pushing reset. We've got to own it. We signed our names to the performance, and it wasn't good enough, obviously."
On the offense not possessing the ball the defense getting worn down...
"We didn't play well. We didn't play the run well. We didn't play the pass well. We didn't tackle very well. We didn't do anything. Their offense, whether it was run game or pass game, they kind of did whatever they wanted and we weren't able to get enough stops. It's not for a lack of effort. We didn't have a lot of loafs on tape. We didn't make the plays and they did. It's really frustrating. We have to go back and keep encouraging the guys and keep coaching them and giving them answers. That's our job. We don't talk about the other side of the ball. It's a team game. We don't talk about if the offense does this or that, or doesn't. It's a team game."
On Spencer Brasch's performance...
"Just wanted him to go out there and cut it loose. Spencer can throw the ball. It was tough to get things going, which would be a little bit of an understatement. The run game, pass game, we've got to help him some more. We have to give him answers. I think Spencer did fine. This is not on Spencer."
On why the defense hasn't played well lately...
"If it was one thing we would do the drill and fix it. It's not one thing. We have to tackle better. We have to better on the run game. We have to cover better. Tonight, we didn't do any of that. It's not for lack of effort. If it was one thing, we would do that drill and fix it."
Spencer Brasch, QB
On how he played tonight...
"I was just trying to make plays. Just trying to do what I can and move the ball. There were still some passes I could have completed, some reads I could have made and some things I could have done better."
On what Utah did to make things tough for him...
"It's a pretty solid scheme. They were blitzing us in certain ways and we were just trying to pick them up. They had great coverage. Their secondary is nice and their front is phenomenal. They just beat us up and down the field"
Jake Curhan, C
On how big of a punch in the gut this loss is...
"It's huge. I speak for myself and everyone else on the team in saying that we never go into a game expecting to lose and we were not expecting to lose in that fashion. That's not what our expectations are here. We go into every game expecting to be able to grind it out and get a victory. It's been a long time since we played a game and it felt this way."
Kuony Deng, LB
On what blew the game open for Utah...
"Early on we gave up explosive plays and bailed them out on third and long. We were making them earn everything they got and then on third and long we'd have some miscommunication. Those are plays that very rarely come against our defense. We usually make them earn what they get. We just had too many plays where we had miscommunication and breakdowns."
