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The University of Utah Athletics
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Kyle Whittingham Weekly Press Conference: TCU
10/14/2024 12:46 PM | Football
SALT LAKE CITY – University of Utah head football coach Kyle Whittingham held his weekly press conference on Monday, meeting with members of the media inside the Spence and Cleone Eccles Football Center.
Selected quotes from Coach Whittingham can be seen below. Click here for full press conference video.
Opening Statement…
Tough weekend in Tempe to say the least. I'll start out by saying that Cam Rising is out indefinitely. Isaac Wilson will be our starter until further notice and that way we don't have to address that each time we talk. Tough game, as I said. The positive is we have a lot of people playing really good football. We have a lot of good play going on at some positions and our big nemesis right now is the throw game. We're just not efficient enough in throw game. We're last in the conference in completion percentage, we're worst in the conference throwing picks. We have to figure that out. Our third down percentage is suffering, our red zone is suffering. It's really a product of not being efficient enough in the throw game. We have to coach that better and put our guys in better positions to succeed. If you were going to say what is the main problem with our football team, that's it. Like I said, we're getting a lot of good play. I'm proud of Dallas Vakalahi. He's stepped in as a true freshman, just got finished with a church mission six months ago and here he his playing at a very high level in a power four conference. He got his first chance to play significant snaps and made the most of it. Defensive ends are playing well, receiving corps, very few drops, making plays when they have the opportunity. Micah Bernard is giving us everything he's got every single week. He had another big game on Friday night. Defense as a whole is putting up really good numbers They weren't our best numbers of the year, but still well below what Arizona State was averaging. That's really our main issue, that we've got to find a way to get fixed. It starts with the coaching. Not pointing the finger at any specific player. We have to coach better in that area. We had one punt in the game. When you have one punt, you should score some points, but we got in the end zone one time, so that doesn't equate. That tells you we're moving the football and we're finding ways to bog down. Cole Becker did a great job, but typically a field goal is a consolation prize for a drive gone bad and that's what it is unless its end of half, end of game, game-winner at the end. Typically, that is a negative if you're attempting too many field goals. Congrats to Cole for being as efficient as he had been. He's really on a good streak right now, but again, from a team perspective, that has to change. We have TCU coming in off a bye, so they'll be fresh and ready for us and hungry for a win. We know we'll get their best shot. We feel like we get everybody's best shot, which is how it should be. We have no problem with that. They're doing some good things, particularly on offense, well over 400 yards per game, 35-plus points per game, nearly 25 first downs. What's really impressive to me is their conversion rate, almost 50 percent on third down, almost 75 percent on fourth down and in the red zone, they're almost 80-percent touchdown efficient. They're doing some really good things offensively and they're really difficult to stop. We've got our work cut out for us.
On if they kept Cameron Rising in the game too long on Friday…
Cam is a warrior and wanted to play. We really moved the ball at the end of the first half even though we didn't get in the end zone and then moved the ball well the first drive of the second half. We had that thought on if that would be a move we would make, but he wanted to finish. He's a seasoned vet. He would let us know if he felt like he was not being effective enough. We did not make the move and that's that.
On if there was a conversation about using a medical redshirt waiver for Cam…
No, but there will be now. Now that we're in the situation we're in, that's a possibility, I think. I don't know. We'll have to explore it in detail with compliance. I'm not even sure Cam would be interested in going that route. He's got a lot to think about. We'll just take a step back right now and let him get thoroughly diagnosed and then that will be something we talk about sooner rather than later.
On what's been the biggest issue tackling-wise…
The running back is very good. Skattebo is a good back. He went over a 100 yards on us, a couple big plays. He'll make everybody look a little suspect tackling-wise because he's just so powerful, but we did miss 19 tackles, which is far above our sweet-spot of single-digits. That said, we did a lot of good things. One thing we're not doing a good job of defensively is taking the ball away. We've made a living at that through the years. We had a great takeaway team that sets the offense up in short field situations. We did set the offense up inside the 30 on Junior Tafuna's pick and also set them in up great field position with the fourth down stop, but typically we do more than we've been doing with havoc plays, sacks and takeaways. We have to get better at that.
On what Micah Bernard has meant to the team this season…
He's been huge for this football team. He's been so consistent, like clockwork every week. He's averaging [6.6] yards per carry, runs hard, catches the ball out of the backfield, picks up blitzes. He's done everything. He's a complete back for us, the clear-cut RB1. Again, his workload can't get much above 20 carries, which is where we try to keep him, but that's a lot of carries. I'm not saying that's a light load, because that's a full-day's work. You project that over the season, that's nearly 250 carries. He has been a very bright spot for us. Like I said, we have a lot of guys playing good football. The O-line is playing good football. We had a few breakdowns on Friday night, but I challenge you to find any game where the O-line doesn't have a few breakdowns with any team. They're being very consistent in their play.
On what Spencer Fano's evolution has meant to the offensive line room…
Huge. When you're good on the edges, which is the most demanding offensive line spot where you're out on an island, you have a chance to really be good and both him and Caleb Lomu are doing an excellent job out there. They're both only second year in the program and you're right, Spencer is playing at an elite level and he's just getting better and better and so is Caleb, which has been a big plus. The inside three are doing a good as well. I don't want to diminish what they're doing, but it's very demanding out there and they're holding down the fort to say the least.
On what he's looking for in Isaac Wilson's development and how that will help him move forward…
We have to try to get our completion percentage up, like I said. We're at the bottom of the league in completion percentage. Job one is cutting down on interceptions. We've thrown 10 this year and nobody in the league is in double digits. Taking care of the football, more completions. Isaac does give us an element of the QB run game. He's pretty adept at that. We can't forget he's a true freshman. No excuses, because whoever is out there has to get it done, but there are going to be some things we're going to have to live with, but as long as he stays on the trajectory he's been on, which is we think in the right direction, then we have a chance.
On his report card on the linebackers so far…
C-plus to B, somewhere in there. I know Lander feels like he needs to be more productive. That's coming from his mouth to me. He feels like he has to pick it up. He's playing hard, just leaving a few plays out there that he usually makes. Johnathan Hall has been a big plus for us, coming in and picking up some of the slack. We usually go a 4-2-5, so we only have two linebackers on the field and if we do go with a third guy, right now it would be Trey Reynolds as the third guy. Trey's doing a nice job. He only had about five or six snaps, but he graded out 100 percent. He does a good job for us and he's a special teams stalwart and we believe he had a bright future.
Selected quotes from Coach Whittingham can be seen below. Click here for full press conference video.
Opening Statement…
Tough weekend in Tempe to say the least. I'll start out by saying that Cam Rising is out indefinitely. Isaac Wilson will be our starter until further notice and that way we don't have to address that each time we talk. Tough game, as I said. The positive is we have a lot of people playing really good football. We have a lot of good play going on at some positions and our big nemesis right now is the throw game. We're just not efficient enough in throw game. We're last in the conference in completion percentage, we're worst in the conference throwing picks. We have to figure that out. Our third down percentage is suffering, our red zone is suffering. It's really a product of not being efficient enough in the throw game. We have to coach that better and put our guys in better positions to succeed. If you were going to say what is the main problem with our football team, that's it. Like I said, we're getting a lot of good play. I'm proud of Dallas Vakalahi. He's stepped in as a true freshman, just got finished with a church mission six months ago and here he his playing at a very high level in a power four conference. He got his first chance to play significant snaps and made the most of it. Defensive ends are playing well, receiving corps, very few drops, making plays when they have the opportunity. Micah Bernard is giving us everything he's got every single week. He had another big game on Friday night. Defense as a whole is putting up really good numbers They weren't our best numbers of the year, but still well below what Arizona State was averaging. That's really our main issue, that we've got to find a way to get fixed. It starts with the coaching. Not pointing the finger at any specific player. We have to coach better in that area. We had one punt in the game. When you have one punt, you should score some points, but we got in the end zone one time, so that doesn't equate. That tells you we're moving the football and we're finding ways to bog down. Cole Becker did a great job, but typically a field goal is a consolation prize for a drive gone bad and that's what it is unless its end of half, end of game, game-winner at the end. Typically, that is a negative if you're attempting too many field goals. Congrats to Cole for being as efficient as he had been. He's really on a good streak right now, but again, from a team perspective, that has to change. We have TCU coming in off a bye, so they'll be fresh and ready for us and hungry for a win. We know we'll get their best shot. We feel like we get everybody's best shot, which is how it should be. We have no problem with that. They're doing some good things, particularly on offense, well over 400 yards per game, 35-plus points per game, nearly 25 first downs. What's really impressive to me is their conversion rate, almost 50 percent on third down, almost 75 percent on fourth down and in the red zone, they're almost 80-percent touchdown efficient. They're doing some really good things offensively and they're really difficult to stop. We've got our work cut out for us.
On if they kept Cameron Rising in the game too long on Friday…
Cam is a warrior and wanted to play. We really moved the ball at the end of the first half even though we didn't get in the end zone and then moved the ball well the first drive of the second half. We had that thought on if that would be a move we would make, but he wanted to finish. He's a seasoned vet. He would let us know if he felt like he was not being effective enough. We did not make the move and that's that.
On if there was a conversation about using a medical redshirt waiver for Cam…
No, but there will be now. Now that we're in the situation we're in, that's a possibility, I think. I don't know. We'll have to explore it in detail with compliance. I'm not even sure Cam would be interested in going that route. He's got a lot to think about. We'll just take a step back right now and let him get thoroughly diagnosed and then that will be something we talk about sooner rather than later.
On what's been the biggest issue tackling-wise…
The running back is very good. Skattebo is a good back. He went over a 100 yards on us, a couple big plays. He'll make everybody look a little suspect tackling-wise because he's just so powerful, but we did miss 19 tackles, which is far above our sweet-spot of single-digits. That said, we did a lot of good things. One thing we're not doing a good job of defensively is taking the ball away. We've made a living at that through the years. We had a great takeaway team that sets the offense up in short field situations. We did set the offense up inside the 30 on Junior Tafuna's pick and also set them in up great field position with the fourth down stop, but typically we do more than we've been doing with havoc plays, sacks and takeaways. We have to get better at that.
On what Micah Bernard has meant to the team this season…
He's been huge for this football team. He's been so consistent, like clockwork every week. He's averaging [6.6] yards per carry, runs hard, catches the ball out of the backfield, picks up blitzes. He's done everything. He's a complete back for us, the clear-cut RB1. Again, his workload can't get much above 20 carries, which is where we try to keep him, but that's a lot of carries. I'm not saying that's a light load, because that's a full-day's work. You project that over the season, that's nearly 250 carries. He has been a very bright spot for us. Like I said, we have a lot of guys playing good football. The O-line is playing good football. We had a few breakdowns on Friday night, but I challenge you to find any game where the O-line doesn't have a few breakdowns with any team. They're being very consistent in their play.
On what Spencer Fano's evolution has meant to the offensive line room…
Huge. When you're good on the edges, which is the most demanding offensive line spot where you're out on an island, you have a chance to really be good and both him and Caleb Lomu are doing an excellent job out there. They're both only second year in the program and you're right, Spencer is playing at an elite level and he's just getting better and better and so is Caleb, which has been a big plus. The inside three are doing a good as well. I don't want to diminish what they're doing, but it's very demanding out there and they're holding down the fort to say the least.
On what he's looking for in Isaac Wilson's development and how that will help him move forward…
We have to try to get our completion percentage up, like I said. We're at the bottom of the league in completion percentage. Job one is cutting down on interceptions. We've thrown 10 this year and nobody in the league is in double digits. Taking care of the football, more completions. Isaac does give us an element of the QB run game. He's pretty adept at that. We can't forget he's a true freshman. No excuses, because whoever is out there has to get it done, but there are going to be some things we're going to have to live with, but as long as he stays on the trajectory he's been on, which is we think in the right direction, then we have a chance.
On his report card on the linebackers so far…
C-plus to B, somewhere in there. I know Lander feels like he needs to be more productive. That's coming from his mouth to me. He feels like he has to pick it up. He's playing hard, just leaving a few plays out there that he usually makes. Johnathan Hall has been a big plus for us, coming in and picking up some of the slack. We usually go a 4-2-5, so we only have two linebackers on the field and if we do go with a third guy, right now it would be Trey Reynolds as the third guy. Trey's doing a nice job. He only had about five or six snaps, but he graded out 100 percent. He does a good job for us and he's a special teams stalwart and we believe he had a bright future.
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QB
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