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The University of Utah Athletics
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Kyle Whittingham Weekly Press Conference (Oct. 18)
10/18/2021 4:39 PM | Football
Utes prepare for a Saturday matchup at Oregon State
SALT LAKE CITY - University of Utah head football coach Kyle Whittingham met with members of the media on Monday morning inside the Spence and Cleone Eccles Football Center. The full press conference can be viewed here, and selected quotes from Coach Whittingham follow.
Utah heads to Corvallis, Oregon this weekend to take on Oregon State in another key Pac-12 clash. Kick is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. MT on Pac-12 Networks.
Opening Statement
"I thought our team played very well Saturday night overall. Obviously, much better in the second half than the first. But you judge the game in its entirety, you don't judge in segments. Overall, we played a good football game against a really good opponent. A lot of positives in that game, particularly in the second half as I mentioned. We had four possessions in the second half and four long touchdown drives, 60-plus, 70-plus-yard drives. No short fields. The offense did a great job moving the football in the second half. Defense pitched a shutout in the second half. That was the end result because of that, a win, which puts us in good shape. Still a lot of football left, obviously. We've got a lot of challenges starting this week. Oregon State is a good football team. Really good football team. Running the heck out of the football, leading the Pac-12 by a considerable margin running the football. Two good backs that are really productive. It starts with their offensive line. Their offensive line is playing exceptional football. That's something that we've got to try to take care of this week, and slow them down in their run game. Their quarterback's playing well. They're leading the conference in scoring, as well as rushing, as well as third-down conversions. When you run the football that well, it lends itself to a lot of third-and-shorts, which they're taking advantage of. Big challenge, it's on the road, tough place to play up there in Corvallis. But we'll hopefully have a good week of practice and be ready to go."
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On differences lately in the first half versus second half…
"Like I said, you judge the game in its entirety. You don't judge it in segments. When you judge in its entirety, we played pretty good defense. Held them under 400 yards, well below what they were averaging, below what they were scoring. I think we are playing good defense overall. It just so happens to be that we're playing a little better in the second half than the first right now. We're not really concerned about that, we're just concerned with the final product and the final result. It'd be great to play great defense every single snap of the game. But things ebb and flow during the course of a game. Same with our offense. And this year, for whatever reason, we've proven to be a pretty good second half team. Our fourth quarter scoring differential is really good, it's [73-26]. We seem to be a little stronger in the second half this year. Each year is a little bit different. But that's been our M.O. I don't have a great answer for you, other than our guys do a really good job of hanging in there, overcoming adversity and handling adversity. That's been the storyline this year."
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On schematic changes and in-game adjustments…
"Halftime adjustments are big and play into that. I think that's a credit to our assistant coaches and the coordinators to come in at halftime and make those adjustments. You have to make them all throughout the game, because if you wait until halftime, it's too late a lot of the time. Just coming in from the first half, sitting down together, talk about what's happening and what we want to change and what we want to tweak going forward. Our coaches have done a really good job of setting up our players to be successful in the second half."
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On the energy within this team…
"Every team has its own personality and its own chemistry. This team is really fun to be around. There's a lot of great leaders, and the leadership has been outstanding from the onset. But the personality of this team is just more, I don't want to say jovial, but they're having a lot of fun this year. We have a lot of guys that love football, and it shows. That's what you want. You want guys that love football, and that's what has been exuded during the course of the season."
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On Mika Tafua…
"You can't have too many of those guys. The most valuable commodities for a defensive coordinator are edge rushers and shut-down corners. [Mika] is a premier edge rusher…he's responsible for knocking the guy off his spot…and letting other guys clean up and get the sack. But right now Mika is leading the Pac-12 in sacks. So he's doing a good job, but an even better job than what is showing up statistically."
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On Devin Lloyd…
"He plays within the structure and the framework of the defense. But we utilize him in a lot of different ways. You saw us bring him off the edge quite a bit so far this season. What makes him a good football player is just a myriad of things. He's got great size, he's nearly 6-foot-3, just pushing 240 pounds. He runs like a deer. He's instinctive, he's got a long wingspan. You see him tip balls quite often, particularly on the pass rush. He's a playmaker, he's a guy that when there's a play there to be made, he almost always makes it. He is an absolute football junkie and student of the game. He watches as much film during the course of the week as anybody we've ever had here."
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On what makes playing at Oregon State so tough…
"Don't know. You typically get a pretty boisterous crowd. It's just an environment that is one of the tougher places to play in the Pac-12. Other than the fans and the overall environment, I don't have a great answer for you. It has proven to be a tough place. Although last time we were there, we started out incredible in the first half…that game was not typical of a game that you have in Corvallis. We're expecting a hard-fought battle."
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On assessing each side of the ball at this point of the season…
"Offensively, I think we're just starting to hit our stride. We sputtered in the first few games. But the last two or three we've started to figure out who we are, who we have to get the ball to, and how we're going to get them the ball. Tavion Thomas is starting to emerge as more of a run threat, which gives us more in the run game. Defensively, I think that we've been fairly consistent throughout the course of the season. Certainly had some problems in the run defense early on. We seem to have shored that up. I just think that overall, we're trending in the right direction I think as a football team. Special teams wise, there hasn't been a lot of huge impact plays on special teams. We did have the big punt return, and of course we've given up some things in the kickoff return game. It's been a little bit of give-and-take in the special teams, but I think we're holding our own."
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On the long snapper group…
"We lost Keegan Markgraf, which is a big blow. Although JT Greep came in and did a great job, and we expect him to continue to do that. Very talented young snapper, he's just a freshman. [Keegan] is a captain, he's one of our leaders. And that says something when a special teams guy gets voted captain. That's not real common. But he's unfortunately done for the year. We'll miss him. He was a big part of our special teams for the last several years.
"[The long snappers are] absolutely critical. As soon as you notice them, that's a bad thing. As long as you're not noticing the snappers, that means everything's going as it should. We haven't noticed Keegan hardly at all because he's been so consistent. That's a big factor. But like I said, we have all the confidence in the world in JT, and expect that he'll get the job done."
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Utah heads to Corvallis, Oregon this weekend to take on Oregon State in another key Pac-12 clash. Kick is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. MT on Pac-12 Networks.
Opening Statement
"I thought our team played very well Saturday night overall. Obviously, much better in the second half than the first. But you judge the game in its entirety, you don't judge in segments. Overall, we played a good football game against a really good opponent. A lot of positives in that game, particularly in the second half as I mentioned. We had four possessions in the second half and four long touchdown drives, 60-plus, 70-plus-yard drives. No short fields. The offense did a great job moving the football in the second half. Defense pitched a shutout in the second half. That was the end result because of that, a win, which puts us in good shape. Still a lot of football left, obviously. We've got a lot of challenges starting this week. Oregon State is a good football team. Really good football team. Running the heck out of the football, leading the Pac-12 by a considerable margin running the football. Two good backs that are really productive. It starts with their offensive line. Their offensive line is playing exceptional football. That's something that we've got to try to take care of this week, and slow them down in their run game. Their quarterback's playing well. They're leading the conference in scoring, as well as rushing, as well as third-down conversions. When you run the football that well, it lends itself to a lot of third-and-shorts, which they're taking advantage of. Big challenge, it's on the road, tough place to play up there in Corvallis. But we'll hopefully have a good week of practice and be ready to go."
Â
On differences lately in the first half versus second half…
"Like I said, you judge the game in its entirety. You don't judge it in segments. When you judge in its entirety, we played pretty good defense. Held them under 400 yards, well below what they were averaging, below what they were scoring. I think we are playing good defense overall. It just so happens to be that we're playing a little better in the second half than the first right now. We're not really concerned about that, we're just concerned with the final product and the final result. It'd be great to play great defense every single snap of the game. But things ebb and flow during the course of a game. Same with our offense. And this year, for whatever reason, we've proven to be a pretty good second half team. Our fourth quarter scoring differential is really good, it's [73-26]. We seem to be a little stronger in the second half this year. Each year is a little bit different. But that's been our M.O. I don't have a great answer for you, other than our guys do a really good job of hanging in there, overcoming adversity and handling adversity. That's been the storyline this year."
Â
On schematic changes and in-game adjustments…
"Halftime adjustments are big and play into that. I think that's a credit to our assistant coaches and the coordinators to come in at halftime and make those adjustments. You have to make them all throughout the game, because if you wait until halftime, it's too late a lot of the time. Just coming in from the first half, sitting down together, talk about what's happening and what we want to change and what we want to tweak going forward. Our coaches have done a really good job of setting up our players to be successful in the second half."
Â
On the energy within this team…
"Every team has its own personality and its own chemistry. This team is really fun to be around. There's a lot of great leaders, and the leadership has been outstanding from the onset. But the personality of this team is just more, I don't want to say jovial, but they're having a lot of fun this year. We have a lot of guys that love football, and it shows. That's what you want. You want guys that love football, and that's what has been exuded during the course of the season."
Â
On Mika Tafua…
"You can't have too many of those guys. The most valuable commodities for a defensive coordinator are edge rushers and shut-down corners. [Mika] is a premier edge rusher…he's responsible for knocking the guy off his spot…and letting other guys clean up and get the sack. But right now Mika is leading the Pac-12 in sacks. So he's doing a good job, but an even better job than what is showing up statistically."
Â
On Devin Lloyd…
"He plays within the structure and the framework of the defense. But we utilize him in a lot of different ways. You saw us bring him off the edge quite a bit so far this season. What makes him a good football player is just a myriad of things. He's got great size, he's nearly 6-foot-3, just pushing 240 pounds. He runs like a deer. He's instinctive, he's got a long wingspan. You see him tip balls quite often, particularly on the pass rush. He's a playmaker, he's a guy that when there's a play there to be made, he almost always makes it. He is an absolute football junkie and student of the game. He watches as much film during the course of the week as anybody we've ever had here."
Â
On what makes playing at Oregon State so tough…
"Don't know. You typically get a pretty boisterous crowd. It's just an environment that is one of the tougher places to play in the Pac-12. Other than the fans and the overall environment, I don't have a great answer for you. It has proven to be a tough place. Although last time we were there, we started out incredible in the first half…that game was not typical of a game that you have in Corvallis. We're expecting a hard-fought battle."
Â
On assessing each side of the ball at this point of the season…
"Offensively, I think we're just starting to hit our stride. We sputtered in the first few games. But the last two or three we've started to figure out who we are, who we have to get the ball to, and how we're going to get them the ball. Tavion Thomas is starting to emerge as more of a run threat, which gives us more in the run game. Defensively, I think that we've been fairly consistent throughout the course of the season. Certainly had some problems in the run defense early on. We seem to have shored that up. I just think that overall, we're trending in the right direction I think as a football team. Special teams wise, there hasn't been a lot of huge impact plays on special teams. We did have the big punt return, and of course we've given up some things in the kickoff return game. It's been a little bit of give-and-take in the special teams, but I think we're holding our own."
Â
On the long snapper group…
"We lost Keegan Markgraf, which is a big blow. Although JT Greep came in and did a great job, and we expect him to continue to do that. Very talented young snapper, he's just a freshman. [Keegan] is a captain, he's one of our leaders. And that says something when a special teams guy gets voted captain. That's not real common. But he's unfortunately done for the year. We'll miss him. He was a big part of our special teams for the last several years.
"[The long snappers are] absolutely critical. As soon as you notice them, that's a bad thing. As long as you're not noticing the snappers, that means everything's going as it should. We haven't noticed Keegan hardly at all because he's been so consistent. That's a big factor. But like I said, we have all the confidence in the world in JT, and expect that he'll get the job done."
Â
Players Mentioned
LB
/ Football
SN
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DE
/ Football
RB
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