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The University of Utah Athletics
Photo by: Rob Gray
Kyle Whittingham Weekly Press Conference (Oct. 25)
10/25/2021 1:53 PM | Football
Utes look to bounce back in Dark Mode game Saturday night vs. UCLA
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 is coming off a tough loss at Oregon State on Saturday, and returns to Rice-Eccles Stadium this weekend as the Utes (4-3, 3-1 Pac-12) host UCLA (5-3, 3-2 Pac-12) in the team's annual Dark Mode game. Kickoff is slated for 8 p.m. MT on Saturday, Oct. 30 and the game will be carried on ESPN.
Opening Statement
"Coming off of a physical game at Oregon State. I thought our offense played well. We did some good things offensively, a lot of good things offensively. Over 450 yards of total offense. We didn't turn the ball over. Very productive, a lot of first downs, 28 first downs. One thing we didn't do well on offense was red zone production. We got in the red zone eight times and only came away with four touchdowns; need two more. If we can get six out of eight, that's a really good percentage. But four out of eight, that was really our demise on offense, the red zone touchdown percentage. Defensively, we didn't play well at all…they rushed for 260 yards, over six yards [per] carry. We knew going in, that has been Oregon State's M.O. all year long. We knew going in that if they were able to do what they usually do, it wasn't going to be a good situation for us. And they did exactly that, they ran the football very effectively. Not a lot of throwing yards, couple hundred. But we just weren't our usual selves on defense. Earlier in the year we had that same issue, then it went away, as far as our run defense, and it showed back up on Saturday.
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"We sit still in pretty good position in the Pac-12 South. There's three teams really vying for [the South title] right now. It's not quite to the halfway point—at least we're not—four games down, five to go in conference play. But a big one this week, as they all are, against UCLA. They're running the football well, second only to Oregon State in the conference as far as rushing production. They're playing the run extremely tough. Their defense is allowing less than 100 yards per game rushing, which is leading the league. They've got dynamic players, the quarterback is a dynamic player, he's talented. Two good running backs. And the way the quarterback runs the ball, they've got three really good runners. [Wide receiver Kyle Philips] is a great player. Like I mentioned, defensively they're pretty stingy against the run. They're scoring 33 points or thereabouts a game offensively. They're very productive. They're a good team. Chip [Kelly] is always hard to defend. He's going to have some things you haven't seen. Every single week, he's got things that you haven't practiced and you've got to be able to adjust to during the course of the game. We've got a challenge ahead of us. We're at home which is a positive, back home in Rice-Eccles…another late kickoff, should be a great crowd and another great environment."
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On assessing the run defense…
"We're starting three freshmen d-linemen. You never make excuses, because if you're out there, you've got to perform. But we're just not quite where we need to be up front yet. We've had flashes during the course of the year, but not quite enough consistency. When we lost Devin [Lloyd], that was obviously a blow, but we had been soft before he was gone. That wasn't the key to the whole thing, but we certainly missed him when he got ejected."
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On preparing for UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson…
"He'll play. He's a tough kid, he'll be there. I'd be shocked if he's not there…he is lightning quick, like I said he's like another running back on the field essentially."
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On similarities between UCLA's running game and Oregon State's…
"It's a little more diverse. Oregon State just hammers you with a zone and the stretch. They do it over and over, and they do it as good as anybody in the country. Their blocking combinations, their footwork with their O-line, their aiming points, how they get up to the next level. They're as good as there is in the country at that. UCLA has got some similarities in the run game, they'll give you a few more looks than Oregon State will."
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On improving physicality…
"You recruit it, first of all. That's the number one thing is, you recruit physicality. Like I said, we've got some young front guys that aren't quite yet as big and strong as they're going to be. They're going to be really good. We've got a lot of confidence in them going forward. But right now, we don't have the 315-pound Leki Fotus and guys we've had in the middle. They're 295, 290ish [pounds]. But again, they'll get bigger and better as time goes on."
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On Cameron Rising's ground performance at Oregon State…
"I wouldn't say there was more quarterback run game, he pulled it down a few more times. There weren't any more designed runs than we've had in the past. But you're 100% accurate, he took some hits. That's a learning process. We're comfortable with Cam running the ball because he gives us so much when he does. But he's got to use better judgement at the end of the run and take some of those hits off himself by stepping out of bounds, sliding, whatever the case may be. Because he's so competitive. He wants to win as bad as anybody I've ever been around, and wants to do anything he can to help. At times, he has put himself in some situations where you're just hoping he gets up, because there was some pretty good hits. Hopefully going forward, we see him continue to add to that 40-75 yard range of yardage in the run game, but not take the hit at the end of the play.
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On Rising's tuck-and-run decision-making…
"I thought he did a great job with that. When things were not there and things were covered up, I don't think he prematurely pulled it down. I think he made good decisions each time. What he brings to the table in the run game is part of what makes him so effective. He's in the top-10 in the nation in QBR. I think he's number eight, he was number five last week. That's your best barometer of how a quarterback is playing. It takes into account everything—how often he's getting sacked, how many yards he's gained in rushing the football, how well he's throwing the football. All that is packaged into that rating. He's playing really well.
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On balancing reps in practice with Devin Lloyd out for the first half vs. UCLA…
"That's another good question. We'll have to have a guy ready for the first half that will take [Devin's] reps. We'll just have to split them up and divide them kind of 50/50 with what Devin gets and what the replacement kid will get. That's going to be a juggling act. But Devin is a very experienced, accomplished guy. He doesn't need a ton of reps. We'll probably err on giving the guy that's going to start in place of him more reps."
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On special teams during the Oregon State game…
"The first block, [Cameron Peasley] got it out in 1.84 [seconds] which is really fast. It was a protection breakdown, it wasn't the punter mechanics. The second one, which fortunately didn't count because that would've been even more disastrous at that point in the game…that was an error with the punter getting too close to the shield. The kick came out with really low trajectory. That was more on the punter. People have been testing us, particularly in the last game when we have a new snapper because [Keegan Markgraf] is gone for the season. So they're going to test you out. But it wasn't a snapping issue. [JT Greep] played just fine in the game on Saturday and did a great job with his place-kicking snaps as well as short snaps. But that is a concern and we've got to shore than up this week."
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On Theo Howard…
"Theo's done a nice job for us. He hasn't caught as many balls as maybe we projected, at least not yet…But Theo's a guy that works hard, he's a great teammate, always has a great attitude, and we really enjoy having him on our team."
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On his biggest takeaway after the Oregon State game…
"I would say the takeaway is we've got a bunch of competitive guys that have no quit in them. I would say the offense is starting to find a rhythm, knock on wood. Hopefully that continues…hopefully we're starting to discover and be who we envisioned we could be in Fall camp. Defensively, inconsistent throughout the year. More good than bad, but some games [where] that's not us, not our usual defense. Special teams has had some real bad moments. There's some bright spots too, with [Britain] Covey and the return game. We're as good as there is in the country in punt returns. But as good as we are there, we're that bad in some other areas."
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Utah is coming off a tough loss at Oregon State on Saturday, and returns to Rice-Eccles Stadium this weekend as the Utes (4-3, 3-1 Pac-12) host UCLA (5-3, 3-2 Pac-12) in the team's annual Dark Mode game. Kickoff is slated for 8 p.m. MT on Saturday, Oct. 30 and the game will be carried on ESPN.
Opening Statement
"Coming off of a physical game at Oregon State. I thought our offense played well. We did some good things offensively, a lot of good things offensively. Over 450 yards of total offense. We didn't turn the ball over. Very productive, a lot of first downs, 28 first downs. One thing we didn't do well on offense was red zone production. We got in the red zone eight times and only came away with four touchdowns; need two more. If we can get six out of eight, that's a really good percentage. But four out of eight, that was really our demise on offense, the red zone touchdown percentage. Defensively, we didn't play well at all…they rushed for 260 yards, over six yards [per] carry. We knew going in, that has been Oregon State's M.O. all year long. We knew going in that if they were able to do what they usually do, it wasn't going to be a good situation for us. And they did exactly that, they ran the football very effectively. Not a lot of throwing yards, couple hundred. But we just weren't our usual selves on defense. Earlier in the year we had that same issue, then it went away, as far as our run defense, and it showed back up on Saturday.
Â
"We sit still in pretty good position in the Pac-12 South. There's three teams really vying for [the South title] right now. It's not quite to the halfway point—at least we're not—four games down, five to go in conference play. But a big one this week, as they all are, against UCLA. They're running the football well, second only to Oregon State in the conference as far as rushing production. They're playing the run extremely tough. Their defense is allowing less than 100 yards per game rushing, which is leading the league. They've got dynamic players, the quarterback is a dynamic player, he's talented. Two good running backs. And the way the quarterback runs the ball, they've got three really good runners. [Wide receiver Kyle Philips] is a great player. Like I mentioned, defensively they're pretty stingy against the run. They're scoring 33 points or thereabouts a game offensively. They're very productive. They're a good team. Chip [Kelly] is always hard to defend. He's going to have some things you haven't seen. Every single week, he's got things that you haven't practiced and you've got to be able to adjust to during the course of the game. We've got a challenge ahead of us. We're at home which is a positive, back home in Rice-Eccles…another late kickoff, should be a great crowd and another great environment."
Â
On assessing the run defense…
"We're starting three freshmen d-linemen. You never make excuses, because if you're out there, you've got to perform. But we're just not quite where we need to be up front yet. We've had flashes during the course of the year, but not quite enough consistency. When we lost Devin [Lloyd], that was obviously a blow, but we had been soft before he was gone. That wasn't the key to the whole thing, but we certainly missed him when he got ejected."
Â
On preparing for UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson…
"He'll play. He's a tough kid, he'll be there. I'd be shocked if he's not there…he is lightning quick, like I said he's like another running back on the field essentially."
Â
On similarities between UCLA's running game and Oregon State's…
"It's a little more diverse. Oregon State just hammers you with a zone and the stretch. They do it over and over, and they do it as good as anybody in the country. Their blocking combinations, their footwork with their O-line, their aiming points, how they get up to the next level. They're as good as there is in the country at that. UCLA has got some similarities in the run game, they'll give you a few more looks than Oregon State will."
Â
On improving physicality…
"You recruit it, first of all. That's the number one thing is, you recruit physicality. Like I said, we've got some young front guys that aren't quite yet as big and strong as they're going to be. They're going to be really good. We've got a lot of confidence in them going forward. But right now, we don't have the 315-pound Leki Fotus and guys we've had in the middle. They're 295, 290ish [pounds]. But again, they'll get bigger and better as time goes on."
Â
On Cameron Rising's ground performance at Oregon State…
"I wouldn't say there was more quarterback run game, he pulled it down a few more times. There weren't any more designed runs than we've had in the past. But you're 100% accurate, he took some hits. That's a learning process. We're comfortable with Cam running the ball because he gives us so much when he does. But he's got to use better judgement at the end of the run and take some of those hits off himself by stepping out of bounds, sliding, whatever the case may be. Because he's so competitive. He wants to win as bad as anybody I've ever been around, and wants to do anything he can to help. At times, he has put himself in some situations where you're just hoping he gets up, because there was some pretty good hits. Hopefully going forward, we see him continue to add to that 40-75 yard range of yardage in the run game, but not take the hit at the end of the play.
Â
On Rising's tuck-and-run decision-making…
"I thought he did a great job with that. When things were not there and things were covered up, I don't think he prematurely pulled it down. I think he made good decisions each time. What he brings to the table in the run game is part of what makes him so effective. He's in the top-10 in the nation in QBR. I think he's number eight, he was number five last week. That's your best barometer of how a quarterback is playing. It takes into account everything—how often he's getting sacked, how many yards he's gained in rushing the football, how well he's throwing the football. All that is packaged into that rating. He's playing really well.
Â
On balancing reps in practice with Devin Lloyd out for the first half vs. UCLA…
"That's another good question. We'll have to have a guy ready for the first half that will take [Devin's] reps. We'll just have to split them up and divide them kind of 50/50 with what Devin gets and what the replacement kid will get. That's going to be a juggling act. But Devin is a very experienced, accomplished guy. He doesn't need a ton of reps. We'll probably err on giving the guy that's going to start in place of him more reps."
Â
On special teams during the Oregon State game…
"The first block, [Cameron Peasley] got it out in 1.84 [seconds] which is really fast. It was a protection breakdown, it wasn't the punter mechanics. The second one, which fortunately didn't count because that would've been even more disastrous at that point in the game…that was an error with the punter getting too close to the shield. The kick came out with really low trajectory. That was more on the punter. People have been testing us, particularly in the last game when we have a new snapper because [Keegan Markgraf] is gone for the season. So they're going to test you out. But it wasn't a snapping issue. [JT Greep] played just fine in the game on Saturday and did a great job with his place-kicking snaps as well as short snaps. But that is a concern and we've got to shore than up this week."
Â
On Theo Howard…
"Theo's done a nice job for us. He hasn't caught as many balls as maybe we projected, at least not yet…But Theo's a guy that works hard, he's a great teammate, always has a great attitude, and we really enjoy having him on our team."
Â
On his biggest takeaway after the Oregon State game…
"I would say the takeaway is we've got a bunch of competitive guys that have no quit in them. I would say the offense is starting to find a rhythm, knock on wood. Hopefully that continues…hopefully we're starting to discover and be who we envisioned we could be in Fall camp. Defensively, inconsistent throughout the year. More good than bad, but some games [where] that's not us, not our usual defense. Special teams has had some real bad moments. There's some bright spots too, with [Britain] Covey and the return game. We're as good as there is in the country in punt returns. But as good as we are there, we're that bad in some other areas."
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Players Mentioned
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