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The University of Utah Athletics
Kyle Whittingham Particpates In Pac-12 Coaches Webinar
5/12/2020 3:25 PM | Football
SAN FRANCISCO – University of Utah football head coach Kyle Whittingham participated in today's Pac-12 Football Coaches Media Webinar, the second part in a four-part series that will feature every head coach in the conference. Today's webinar included Whittingham, Washington's Jimmy Lake and Colorado's Karl Dorrell.
The webinar is hosted by Pac-12 analyst Yogi Roth and Pac-12 Vice President of Communications Dave Hirsch with the first 15 minutes dedicated to questions from Roth on current topics and how the coaches are coping with the current climate while the second 15 minutes is a Q&A between the coaches and media that are participating in the call.
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Whittingham covered a variety of topics with Roth, including what positives are coming out of being at home more, how the Utes are keeping a competitive edge, Utah's success in the 2020 NFL Draft and the quarterback competition.
On the positives Whittingham has found with being at home more…
"The opportunity to see the grandkids more often. We are doing our part with the rules and regulations, but being around the grandkids a little bit more has been a big positive for us."
On how the staff has been working on keeping a competitive edge during this time…
"It is tough being remote and everyone being out of town and the players being at their homes all over the country, we are just taking advantage of what the NCAA allows with the eight hours of zoom meetings a week with team meetings and position meetings. I feel our strength and conditioning staff has done a great job with getting the guys workouts and being able to get them up to speed on that. We are doing everything that we can. We were able to get in three practices this spring, which is better than nothing, but we definitely could have used them all just like everyone else, especially when you are looking at a new starting quarterback and replacing eight or nine starters on defense."
On if the staff has analyzed the tape from those three days of practice they were able to get in…
"We have worn that tape out, but it was good to get on the field and was so much better than not being able to. But we got a good look at those three battling for the quarterback position in Jake Bentley, Cameron Rising and Drew Lisk and come fall camp, whenever that transpires, we need to get that narrowed down to two right away. Then ideally, two weeks out from the opener we will decide on the guy and go from there."
On using the success the Utes had in the NFL Draft for recruiting…
"It certainly helps. Any positive things going on in your program you try to translate to recruiting and we were fortunate enough to have seven guys go in the draft and another five as priority free agents. That is a big selling point to recruits because they come out of high school and they want to get an education and they want to play in the NFL, so we try to let them know there is a great opportunity for that when they come out to Utah."
After Roth finished the roundtable with the three coaches, the webinar was opened up to media with the coaches answering questions from local, regional and national news sources.
On the possibility of playing without fans and the option of playing just conference games…
"Right now all options are on the table and we have all types of things we have talked about as a conference. There are a lot of questions that still need to be answered. The ideal situation is starting the season on time and playing with fans in the stands, but if it comes to playing just a conference schedule then we are all in if that is what it takes to get the season in and get things done in the best fashion possible, then that is what we go with. I think we are still several weeks out from having concrete direction on what is going to happen and how things are going to be set up."
"One of my big issues is trying to avoid playing games during finals, because that is tough on the student-athletes. I know we are usually doing bowl prep during finals, but that is a whole other ball game in getting ready for an actual game that week. I think we are going to try our best to get as many games as we can, but like I said there is so much unknown and there is so much fluidity in the situation that it is kind of pointless to try and pinpoint any one direction that we are going to go. We will just have to wait and see and go from there."
On how the programs will approach any situations involving student-athletes or their families weary about returning to campus…
"First of all, there are going to be a lot of things that will arise that we haven't even thought of yet and hurdles we will have to get over. In answer to the question, obviously the safety of the athlete is first and foremost, so there are so many variables that I don't know if we can adequately answer that question at this time. But I think I can speak for the three of us that the student-athletes' safety and welfare is first and foremost and I don't think anybody is interested in putting them in harms way in any way, shape or form, so that will be job No. 1. As far as travel and getting people here, that will be a challenge as well. We have players from Australia and England as well, so that will be something we have to get ironed out. Like the questions we have fielded though, there are still so many things left to be determined, it is hard to give a concrete answer on that."
On what their ideal situation would be to be ready for the season to start…
"You know we've talked as coaches in the conference and the sentiment has been that six weeks would be a minimum and we think that is something we could live with. If we are presented with less than that, then we need to adjust accordingly. When you take spring ball out of the equation, the typical lead in is eight weeks with training in the summer and then four weeks of fall camp. That seems to be the consensus among the rest of the coaches as well is that a six-week lead-in would be adequate."
The webinar is hosted by Pac-12 analyst Yogi Roth and Pac-12 Vice President of Communications Dave Hirsch with the first 15 minutes dedicated to questions from Roth on current topics and how the coaches are coping with the current climate while the second 15 minutes is a Q&A between the coaches and media that are participating in the call.
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Incredible insight into being a HC during #COVID?19from @k_dorrell @UtahCoachWhitt @CoachLakeUDUB today on the #Pac12FB webinar. We explored how they are re-capturing their competitive edge, QBs, #NIL, recruiting and more. Follow @Pac12Network for all content. #UW #Utah #CU— Yogi Roth (@YogiRoth) May 12, 2020
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Whittingham covered a variety of topics with Roth, including what positives are coming out of being at home more, how the Utes are keeping a competitive edge, Utah's success in the 2020 NFL Draft and the quarterback competition.
On the positives Whittingham has found with being at home more…
"The opportunity to see the grandkids more often. We are doing our part with the rules and regulations, but being around the grandkids a little bit more has been a big positive for us."
On how the staff has been working on keeping a competitive edge during this time…
"It is tough being remote and everyone being out of town and the players being at their homes all over the country, we are just taking advantage of what the NCAA allows with the eight hours of zoom meetings a week with team meetings and position meetings. I feel our strength and conditioning staff has done a great job with getting the guys workouts and being able to get them up to speed on that. We are doing everything that we can. We were able to get in three practices this spring, which is better than nothing, but we definitely could have used them all just like everyone else, especially when you are looking at a new starting quarterback and replacing eight or nine starters on defense."
On if the staff has analyzed the tape from those three days of practice they were able to get in…
"We have worn that tape out, but it was good to get on the field and was so much better than not being able to. But we got a good look at those three battling for the quarterback position in Jake Bentley, Cameron Rising and Drew Lisk and come fall camp, whenever that transpires, we need to get that narrowed down to two right away. Then ideally, two weeks out from the opener we will decide on the guy and go from there."
On using the success the Utes had in the NFL Draft for recruiting…
"It certainly helps. Any positive things going on in your program you try to translate to recruiting and we were fortunate enough to have seven guys go in the draft and another five as priority free agents. That is a big selling point to recruits because they come out of high school and they want to get an education and they want to play in the NFL, so we try to let them know there is a great opportunity for that when they come out to Utah."
After Roth finished the roundtable with the three coaches, the webinar was opened up to media with the coaches answering questions from local, regional and national news sources.
On the possibility of playing without fans and the option of playing just conference games…
"Right now all options are on the table and we have all types of things we have talked about as a conference. There are a lot of questions that still need to be answered. The ideal situation is starting the season on time and playing with fans in the stands, but if it comes to playing just a conference schedule then we are all in if that is what it takes to get the season in and get things done in the best fashion possible, then that is what we go with. I think we are still several weeks out from having concrete direction on what is going to happen and how things are going to be set up."
"One of my big issues is trying to avoid playing games during finals, because that is tough on the student-athletes. I know we are usually doing bowl prep during finals, but that is a whole other ball game in getting ready for an actual game that week. I think we are going to try our best to get as many games as we can, but like I said there is so much unknown and there is so much fluidity in the situation that it is kind of pointless to try and pinpoint any one direction that we are going to go. We will just have to wait and see and go from there."
On how the programs will approach any situations involving student-athletes or their families weary about returning to campus…
"First of all, there are going to be a lot of things that will arise that we haven't even thought of yet and hurdles we will have to get over. In answer to the question, obviously the safety of the athlete is first and foremost, so there are so many variables that I don't know if we can adequately answer that question at this time. But I think I can speak for the three of us that the student-athletes' safety and welfare is first and foremost and I don't think anybody is interested in putting them in harms way in any way, shape or form, so that will be job No. 1. As far as travel and getting people here, that will be a challenge as well. We have players from Australia and England as well, so that will be something we have to get ironed out. Like the questions we have fielded though, there are still so many things left to be determined, it is hard to give a concrete answer on that."
On what their ideal situation would be to be ready for the season to start…
"You know we've talked as coaches in the conference and the sentiment has been that six weeks would be a minimum and we think that is something we could live with. If we are presented with less than that, then we need to adjust accordingly. When you take spring ball out of the equation, the typical lead in is eight weeks with training in the summer and then four weeks of fall camp. That seems to be the consensus among the rest of the coaches as well is that a six-week lead-in would be adequate."
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