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Kyle Whittingham Weekly Press Conference (Sept. 20)
9/20/2021 2:23 PM | Football
Utah begins Pac-12 Conference play on Saturday vs. Washington 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.
Looking to bounce back with a return to Rice-Eccles Stadium, Utah (1-2) begins Pac-12 Conference play this Saturday, Sept. 25, when the Utes host Washington State for Homecoming. Game time is slated for 12:30 p.m. MT, with the matchup televised on Pac-12 Networks.
Opening Statement
"A frustrating loss vs. San Diego State down in Carson on Saturday. Offensively, we just couldn't get anything going until late in the game. Then, fortunately we were able to find a spark late in the game and mount a comeback, obviously we fell short in that comeback attempt. We saw some really good things out of Cameron Rising when he came in—he provided a spark. Not immediately, but after a couple series he settled in and did some really good things, put up some good numbers. Defensively, we played well enough to win. You give up less than 250 yards, 12 first downs, you should win the football game. But we didn't, obviously. We've got to continue working, trying to find an identity on offense. That really is our primary issue right now. We lost Viane Moala for the season; that's going to be a season-ending injury, which is a blow to our defensive front. He was the leader of that defensive tackle group. But he's not going to be able to play any more this year. Special teams wise, some good, some bad. The punt return unit continues to be a bright spot for us. Britain Covey brought one back, and we amassed 100-plus yards in the punt return game, which is outstanding. As good as that was, the kickoff coverage was that bad. We let another one out of the gate, and that's unacceptable. Needless to say, we need to figure that out. It was the same exact type of return, a break return, where they start one way and break it back across the field. We have to coach that better. That's really, special teams wise, our Achilles heel right now, the kickoff coverage unit. That's the long and short of it. Washington State coming in this week, coming off a loss to USC. They were playing well early in the game, in fact they had the ball in great field position up 14-0, with the opportunity to go up 21-0. Then everything just started to turn…but they played well for a period of time and had [USC] on the ropes. But S.C. surged back and took control of the game. So that was that. But we have a home game, Pac-12 opener. We're 0-0 in Pac-12 play. That's the mentality right now, we have a fresh start. Non-conference games went nothing like we expected or anticipated. Now we're on to conference play."
On the status of who will start at quarterback vs. Washington State…
"We won't [announce] that. We have a solid idea of what we're going to do, but we won't make any official announcement. You'll just see him trot out there on Saturday."
On the offense finding an identity…
"That's the most important question we have in our program right now. We haven't really been as physical running the football as we anticipated we were going to be. We're not throwing the football for as much production as we need to. We're not throwing it badly, but we're not getting out of it what we need to in order to win games…Offensive line wise, we've still got improvements we can make. We're better talent-wise than what we're portraying on game day. That's got to translate. We've got to portray and play to the level of our capabilities."
On the offensive line…
"That's another work in progress. We have to settle on the five [offensive linemen]. We think we have a good handle on that right now after pouring over the tape in the first three games. We've studied everything meticulously. We'll have a depth chart [Tuesday] for you and you'll see what we're thinking there."
On the team's mentality heading into Pac-12 play…
"I don't think there's any signs of a bad attitude. Everyone's upbeat. Everyone's more angry and frustrated than they are despondent. The one thing I did notice the first two games was that things didn't go great early, so we kind of got the deer-in-the-headlight look in our eyes. We can't do that. You have to fight for the full 60 [minutes], and if things don't go well early, so what. Keep fighting. Keep playing, and fight through the adversity. Nothing's easy at this level. Every week, you line up, things are going to be hard. It's hard to win a game. You've got to be ready to stay focused and confident for the full 60 minutes."
On the kicking situation…
"I still believe in Jadon [Redding]…The PAT came off his toe that we pushed to the right, and then he just didn't hit the [field goal] like he usually does. We have Jordan Noyes as the No. 2 guy. He's a solid kicker, but right now we're sticking with Jadon at least at this point in time.
"He's a mentally tough kid. With kickers, you have to forget. Kind of like corners, forget what happened and just move forward, and rely on your fundamentals and technique. That's really what everyone needs to do when stuff gets tough. You start hitting adversity in a game, you've got to fall back on your fundamentals, your training. Just like the Navy SEALs. That's part of their training, when the crap hits the fan, you go back to your training, you understand what got you there and fight through it. Same mentality."
On who could step up in Viane Moala's absence…
"Fortunately, we've got a pretty deep group of defensive tackles. We knew going into the season that we had good depth there. Between Devin Kaufusi, Junior Tafuna—he played really well on Saturday—and then you have the Pututaus, [Hauati], Tennessee and Fua. Then you have Tevita Fotu…we're toying with the idea of redshirting him. But we'll see if he gets pressed into action now. We have plenty of bodies, but when you lose your No. 1 tackle, no matter what your depth is that's never a good thing. But you've got to respond. Next man up, and away you go."
On whether he likes that a players-only meeting was held Sunday…
"I do. I wasn't aware that it was going to happen until they came and talked to me after. It appeared to be very productive and got some things hashed out. I think it was positive, we'll find out it helps us throughout the practice week and in the game. But certainly it's an indicator that there's a lot of care and investment by them to do that. It wasn't encouraged—they did it on their own."
Looking to bounce back with a return to Rice-Eccles Stadium, Utah (1-2) begins Pac-12 Conference play this Saturday, Sept. 25, when the Utes host Washington State for Homecoming. Game time is slated for 12:30 p.m. MT, with the matchup televised on Pac-12 Networks.
Opening Statement
"A frustrating loss vs. San Diego State down in Carson on Saturday. Offensively, we just couldn't get anything going until late in the game. Then, fortunately we were able to find a spark late in the game and mount a comeback, obviously we fell short in that comeback attempt. We saw some really good things out of Cameron Rising when he came in—he provided a spark. Not immediately, but after a couple series he settled in and did some really good things, put up some good numbers. Defensively, we played well enough to win. You give up less than 250 yards, 12 first downs, you should win the football game. But we didn't, obviously. We've got to continue working, trying to find an identity on offense. That really is our primary issue right now. We lost Viane Moala for the season; that's going to be a season-ending injury, which is a blow to our defensive front. He was the leader of that defensive tackle group. But he's not going to be able to play any more this year. Special teams wise, some good, some bad. The punt return unit continues to be a bright spot for us. Britain Covey brought one back, and we amassed 100-plus yards in the punt return game, which is outstanding. As good as that was, the kickoff coverage was that bad. We let another one out of the gate, and that's unacceptable. Needless to say, we need to figure that out. It was the same exact type of return, a break return, where they start one way and break it back across the field. We have to coach that better. That's really, special teams wise, our Achilles heel right now, the kickoff coverage unit. That's the long and short of it. Washington State coming in this week, coming off a loss to USC. They were playing well early in the game, in fact they had the ball in great field position up 14-0, with the opportunity to go up 21-0. Then everything just started to turn…but they played well for a period of time and had [USC] on the ropes. But S.C. surged back and took control of the game. So that was that. But we have a home game, Pac-12 opener. We're 0-0 in Pac-12 play. That's the mentality right now, we have a fresh start. Non-conference games went nothing like we expected or anticipated. Now we're on to conference play."
On the status of who will start at quarterback vs. Washington State…
"We won't [announce] that. We have a solid idea of what we're going to do, but we won't make any official announcement. You'll just see him trot out there on Saturday."
On the offense finding an identity…
"That's the most important question we have in our program right now. We haven't really been as physical running the football as we anticipated we were going to be. We're not throwing the football for as much production as we need to. We're not throwing it badly, but we're not getting out of it what we need to in order to win games…Offensive line wise, we've still got improvements we can make. We're better talent-wise than what we're portraying on game day. That's got to translate. We've got to portray and play to the level of our capabilities."
On the offensive line…
"That's another work in progress. We have to settle on the five [offensive linemen]. We think we have a good handle on that right now after pouring over the tape in the first three games. We've studied everything meticulously. We'll have a depth chart [Tuesday] for you and you'll see what we're thinking there."
On the team's mentality heading into Pac-12 play…
"I don't think there's any signs of a bad attitude. Everyone's upbeat. Everyone's more angry and frustrated than they are despondent. The one thing I did notice the first two games was that things didn't go great early, so we kind of got the deer-in-the-headlight look in our eyes. We can't do that. You have to fight for the full 60 [minutes], and if things don't go well early, so what. Keep fighting. Keep playing, and fight through the adversity. Nothing's easy at this level. Every week, you line up, things are going to be hard. It's hard to win a game. You've got to be ready to stay focused and confident for the full 60 minutes."
On the kicking situation…
"I still believe in Jadon [Redding]…The PAT came off his toe that we pushed to the right, and then he just didn't hit the [field goal] like he usually does. We have Jordan Noyes as the No. 2 guy. He's a solid kicker, but right now we're sticking with Jadon at least at this point in time.
"He's a mentally tough kid. With kickers, you have to forget. Kind of like corners, forget what happened and just move forward, and rely on your fundamentals and technique. That's really what everyone needs to do when stuff gets tough. You start hitting adversity in a game, you've got to fall back on your fundamentals, your training. Just like the Navy SEALs. That's part of their training, when the crap hits the fan, you go back to your training, you understand what got you there and fight through it. Same mentality."
On who could step up in Viane Moala's absence…
"Fortunately, we've got a pretty deep group of defensive tackles. We knew going into the season that we had good depth there. Between Devin Kaufusi, Junior Tafuna—he played really well on Saturday—and then you have the Pututaus, [Hauati], Tennessee and Fua. Then you have Tevita Fotu…we're toying with the idea of redshirting him. But we'll see if he gets pressed into action now. We have plenty of bodies, but when you lose your No. 1 tackle, no matter what your depth is that's never a good thing. But you've got to respond. Next man up, and away you go."
On whether he likes that a players-only meeting was held Sunday…
"I do. I wasn't aware that it was going to happen until they came and talked to me after. It appeared to be very productive and got some things hashed out. I think it was positive, we'll find out it helps us throughout the practice week and in the game. But certainly it's an indicator that there's a lot of care and investment by them to do that. It wasn't encouraged—they did it on their own."
Players Mentioned
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