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Postgame Quotes: Utah vs. TCU
10/20/2024 1:12 AM | Football
UTAH QUOTES
Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
Opening Statement…
"I'm very proud of our defense. Let me start with that. To hold that crew to 13 points with what they've been doing this year with essentially no help field-position-wise or staying off the field, very proud of the defenders. Obviously, we have some work to do on the offensive side of the ball. I guess we're fine other than not being able to score points, get first downs, run the ball, throw the ball efficiently, make a conversion on third or fourth down, I think we're OK. We're not doing much, so I guess the positive is we know exactly where the problem lies and what we have to do to fix it is our job as coaches. The players are all playing hard. I'm not throwing any player under the bus. It's tough to figure out. If you'd have told me we'd hold them to 13 points, I thought we'd win 20 out of 20 times. It wasn't to be. Special teams didn't do us any favors, punt blocked early, although we survived it and ended up getting out of that unscathed. That was disappointing. We punted a bunch tonight. It's very obvious. There's no mystery as to what our issue is thus far. It's been showing for three weeks in row now, so we've got to look at everything really hard in the next 24 to 48 hours and make some tough decisions and see where we're at."
On if there will be any changes to who calls plays on offense…
"Everything is up in the air right now. Everything is up for evaluation. We will evaluate it."
On if he feels like the offense can be fixed this season…
"I sure hope so, but the last three games have not been very encouraging. I know I'll keep working and trying to figure things out. We'll just have to see what happens."
On how TCU's defense made life difficult for the offense…
"They played hard on defense, they had a nice scheme. The brought the safeties down low knowing we had to run the ball and we only got like [68] yards rushing. We can't protect the quarterback either. That's another thing we couldn't do. Give them credit, they had a plan and they executed it and we couldn't get anything going. We had the one drive, we found the end zone one time. The touchdown we did have was from distance. We have plenty on our plate to keep us busy until we line up and play again."
On what he saw from Isaac Wilson…
"He's a fighter. He's a kid who's a competitor. He has a lot of confidence in himself. He doesn't get skittish, he just keeps coming back and playing hard and that [touchdown] was a good throw, a good play. That was the highlight of the game offensively. He's a true freshman. It's a learning curve and it's not completely surprising that we're not performing better throwing the football, but I didn't expect the run game to be so poor tonight. That was really the biggest disappointment. It's something we'd been decent at and all of a sudden, we're not real good at that either."
#11 Isaac Wilson, QB
On the game…
"Give props to TCU; they did a lot of stuff on defense, a lot of mixed coverages. We could have executed a lot better offensively. Not really much (more to say) there, just execution."
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On where the offense needs to go from here…
"Sticking together. Everyone had their (mistakes). We're not going to blame anyone. We stick (together) as a team. As a whole offensive unit, we want to apologize to the defense. It's a team game, but they played their butts off. We need to step up with more than seven points a game. Like I said before, hats off to TCU. I feel like they played defense pretty good, put a lot of pressure on me and mixed a lot of coverages."
#21 Karene Reid, LB
On keeping the team engaged right now, as a leader…
"We're just trying to keep everybody together. It's so easy to go in your own little corner when you lose. It's not one person's fault, one side of the ball's fault. It's a team sport. You win or lose as a team. You have to remind everybody of that. It's always about the team. You win as a team, you lose as a team."
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On returning from injury and being back on the field…
"It felt good. I missed way more games that I would have liked. But we go forward. I'm happy to be back."
#57 Keanu Tanuvasa, DT
On the feeling after tonight's game…
"We played good defense. Holding a team to 13 points—we played our butts off. I'm very proud of my defense—our defense. We didn't get it tonight. But we're not a team that folds. We aren't a team that quits. We are going to find a way to go get it next week."
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On pressures turning into sacks…
"We just have to finish. We're working hard, but almost is never enough. We have to get there. At the end of the day, it wasn't enough. We're getting close to the pocket, and we're playing good defense. But is it at an elite level? I wouldn't say we're completely there yet. We're playing very well, but we can be even better. I have full faith in this defense."
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Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
Opening Statement…
"I'm very proud of our defense. Let me start with that. To hold that crew to 13 points with what they've been doing this year with essentially no help field-position-wise or staying off the field, very proud of the defenders. Obviously, we have some work to do on the offensive side of the ball. I guess we're fine other than not being able to score points, get first downs, run the ball, throw the ball efficiently, make a conversion on third or fourth down, I think we're OK. We're not doing much, so I guess the positive is we know exactly where the problem lies and what we have to do to fix it is our job as coaches. The players are all playing hard. I'm not throwing any player under the bus. It's tough to figure out. If you'd have told me we'd hold them to 13 points, I thought we'd win 20 out of 20 times. It wasn't to be. Special teams didn't do us any favors, punt blocked early, although we survived it and ended up getting out of that unscathed. That was disappointing. We punted a bunch tonight. It's very obvious. There's no mystery as to what our issue is thus far. It's been showing for three weeks in row now, so we've got to look at everything really hard in the next 24 to 48 hours and make some tough decisions and see where we're at."
On if there will be any changes to who calls plays on offense…
"Everything is up in the air right now. Everything is up for evaluation. We will evaluate it."
On if he feels like the offense can be fixed this season…
"I sure hope so, but the last three games have not been very encouraging. I know I'll keep working and trying to figure things out. We'll just have to see what happens."
On how TCU's defense made life difficult for the offense…
"They played hard on defense, they had a nice scheme. The brought the safeties down low knowing we had to run the ball and we only got like [68] yards rushing. We can't protect the quarterback either. That's another thing we couldn't do. Give them credit, they had a plan and they executed it and we couldn't get anything going. We had the one drive, we found the end zone one time. The touchdown we did have was from distance. We have plenty on our plate to keep us busy until we line up and play again."
On what he saw from Isaac Wilson…
"He's a fighter. He's a kid who's a competitor. He has a lot of confidence in himself. He doesn't get skittish, he just keeps coming back and playing hard and that [touchdown] was a good throw, a good play. That was the highlight of the game offensively. He's a true freshman. It's a learning curve and it's not completely surprising that we're not performing better throwing the football, but I didn't expect the run game to be so poor tonight. That was really the biggest disappointment. It's something we'd been decent at and all of a sudden, we're not real good at that either."
#11 Isaac Wilson, QB
On the game…
"Give props to TCU; they did a lot of stuff on defense, a lot of mixed coverages. We could have executed a lot better offensively. Not really much (more to say) there, just execution."
Â
On where the offense needs to go from here…
"Sticking together. Everyone had their (mistakes). We're not going to blame anyone. We stick (together) as a team. As a whole offensive unit, we want to apologize to the defense. It's a team game, but they played their butts off. We need to step up with more than seven points a game. Like I said before, hats off to TCU. I feel like they played defense pretty good, put a lot of pressure on me and mixed a lot of coverages."
#21 Karene Reid, LB
On keeping the team engaged right now, as a leader…
"We're just trying to keep everybody together. It's so easy to go in your own little corner when you lose. It's not one person's fault, one side of the ball's fault. It's a team sport. You win or lose as a team. You have to remind everybody of that. It's always about the team. You win as a team, you lose as a team."
Â
On returning from injury and being back on the field…
"It felt good. I missed way more games that I would have liked. But we go forward. I'm happy to be back."
#57 Keanu Tanuvasa, DT
On the feeling after tonight's game…
"We played good defense. Holding a team to 13 points—we played our butts off. I'm very proud of my defense—our defense. We didn't get it tonight. But we're not a team that folds. We aren't a team that quits. We are going to find a way to go get it next week."
Â
On pressures turning into sacks…
"We just have to finish. We're working hard, but almost is never enough. We have to get there. At the end of the day, it wasn't enough. We're getting close to the pocket, and we're playing good defense. But is it at an elite level? I wouldn't say we're completely there yet. We're playing very well, but we can be even better. I have full faith in this defense."
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Players Mentioned
Crimson Corner with Bill Riley - Ron McBride
Wednesday, September 03
Head Coach Kyle Whittingham weekly press conference - 9.1.25
Monday, September 01
Utah Football Postgame Press Conference | Utah: 43, UCLA: 10
Sunday, August 31
Crimson Corner with Bill Riley - Debut
Tuesday, August 26