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Postgame Quotes: Utah at BYU
9/11/2021 4:39 PM | Football
Postgame Notes
(at) BYU 26, Utah 17
Provo, Utah (LaVell Edwards Stadium)
Sat., Sept. 11, 2021
Kick: 8:25 p.m. MT | End: 11:47 p.m. MT
Attendance: 63,470 (sellout)
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(at) BYU 26, Utah 17
Provo, Utah (LaVell Edwards Stadium)
Sat., Sept. 11, 2021
Kick: 8:25 p.m. MT | End: 11:47 p.m. MT
Attendance: 63,470 (sellout)
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Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
Opening Statement
"First of all, congratulations Kalani and their football team. They played outstanding, give them credit, they won the football game tonight. They beat us at the line of scrimmage, which I would have bet my house going into the game, that we wouldn't lose at the line of scrimmage. My house isn't worth that much, so it's not that big of a deal, but I never would have seen that coming where we didn't control the line of scrimmage. That's our MO, that's what we do best and we surrendered 250 yards rushing, had zero sacks, zero takeaways on defense which is not a good recipe for success. Offensively, we were not good enough on third down. We only snapped it 50 times because we couldn't convert on third down. We were two for nine on third down and they were 11 for 21, so consequently, we snap it 55 times and they snap it 70 times. You have to do a better job and win third downs. They deserved to win, we need to regroup and we have a road trip to San Diego State who put one on Arizona tonight, so we have our hands full in that game. What we'll do is pick ourselves up on the mat, figure out where our deficiencies are and get them corrected so we are ready to play the Aztecs next week."
On the play up frontÂ
"On our defensive line, we were getting pushed and that is evident by the running backs. After contact, they were getting three or four extra yards because of the surge of the offensive line. Thor runners ran hard and did a really nice job. We couldn't hold up, we didn't hold up. That's my fault, I guess I need to find a way to get them better and put them in situations and positions to make them more successful.
"Offensively, we ran the ball pretty well at times. We came away with about 180 yards and I think we were over seven yards per carry, but if you cant convert third downs and extend drives then it's not going to be a good outcome. "
On the 4th and 2 from the 8-yard line
"I thought that was the play right there. Just because it's a bad outcome, doesn't mean that it was a bad decision. I'd do it again. That's what should have happened in that situation in my opinion and as well as the analytics. You cant base the decision on the outcome. Then they proceeded to go 93 yards after that which shocked me because people don't usually drive on our defense like that. We just couldn't find a way out of that drive.'
On message to the team after the game
"The message was that we're disappointed. We didn't play as well as we are capable of playing, I can tell you that for certain, but again I'm not trying to take away anything from their victory because they earned it. That was not our best football, we need to pick ourselves up off the mat because we have a lot of football ahead of us. This does nothing to our ultimate goal of trying to win the Pac-12 which obviously is going to be very challenging. We need to pick ourselves up, figure out what we did wrong, get better and move forward."
On quarterback Charlie Brewer
"His numbers weren't bad, we didn't throw the ball a ton, but his completion percentage was fairly high. We did have the interception and that wasn't the ideal way to start the game with two turnovers. It could have been 21-0 early very easily, but our defense did some good things early on in the game. As far as Charlie's performance, we'll have to take a good hard look at the film and see was going on there."
On running back Micah Bernard
"He played very well tonight, ran hard, and ripped off some big runs. He's also a great receiver out of the backfield, so he's a weapon for us and he played his heart out. Micah certainly seemed to get some separation between him and the other backs tonight."
On his team's resolve
"Our guys, there's no quit in our guys and I was proud of ourguys for hanging in there until the very end, continuing to battle and that's encouraging. There's a lot of fight in these guys but we came up short tonight."
On the defensive line
"They were surging off the ball and we weren't getting any knockback. THats something we stress, pride ourselves on and is the starting point to play D-line here. We have to get knockbacks on the offensive line, re establish the line of scrimmage and we weren't able to do that. Consequently, no tfl's no sacks, no takeaways."
Utah linebacker Devin LloydÂ
On the difference between this game and 2019's game
"We did good on control downs, first and second downs, but too many third-down conversions. That's as simple as it gets. We gave them too many third-down conversions."
On not getting to quarterback Jaren Hall
"We had zero sacks, and that's unacceptable. Zero turnovers, no havoc plays at all, that's unacceptable for our defense. It wasn't conservative play-calling, we've got to take pride in getting to the quarterback and making big plays."
On anything BYU did that caught Utah by surprise
"Everything we saw, we studied. Defensively, we felt very prepared, we just didn't execute. We didn't convert in critical situations."
Utah running back Micah Bernard
On going forward on fourth down when Utah was down three
"It's a big game, we're trying to get in the end zone any way we could. It was a rough little miscommunication, that's all it was. We've just got to get better."
On what BYU did that was so effective
"I don't think they did anything specific. We went over everything they ran, we just couldn't execute."
On the difference between him and Utah's other running backs
"We all came to work this week. I don't know what the difference was, I guess I've just been here longer. I know what this game means to everyone, so I came out here and just played."
On Utah's win streak over BYU ending
"Nine in a row, we tried to make it 10. We had a good run. We won't see these guys for another couple years, so it's tough we had to end it on this one, but we're going to come back harder and start a new streak."
Players Mentioned
Crimson Corner with Bill Riley - Keith Kelley, voice of the Wyoming Cowboys
Tuesday, September 09
Ute greats Ron McBride and Roy Jefferson Ring of Honor Induction
Monday, September 08
Utah: 63, Cal Poly: 9 | POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE
Saturday, September 06
Crimson Corner with Bill Riley - Ron McBride
Wednesday, September 03