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The University of Utah Athletics
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Postgame Quotes: Utah vs. Kansas
11/28/2025 2:41 PM | Football
Utah Quotes
Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
Opening Statement…
"Proud of our guys getting the 10th win on the season. That's not easy to do. Just so proud of them for hanging in there, kept finding ways to make plays. The key to the entire game was our red zone defense, there's no doubt about that. Jackson Bennee's pick in the end zone, [Davis]' pick, pick-six in the red zone, holding them to a field goal early on. There were so many in things in the red zone defensively that we did well. That was really, again, the difference in the game. Run defense, we still have a lot of work to there. They rushed for nearly 300 yards, so we didn't get that entirely fixed, but they did a nice job. They had a nice plan. They followed the blueprint Kansas State followed, multiple tight ends, power run game. It wasn't as bad as last week by any means, but it's still not were we need to be, but again the red zone defense offset that and really is what the biggest key in the game was. Offense took a while to get going, didn't really get into a rhythm in that first half. Started getting some things going in the second half. They're good on third down. We converted 7-of-13 on third down. We were not good enough on third down defensively. They had a lot of success on third down as well, but overall, we kept finding ways to make plays, stay in the game and our guys found a way to win in the end. A 10-win season is outstanding for anybody, so we're excited about that."
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On the final touchdown…
"We were debating on whether to just run ball, keep the clock running or not and to take our best shot to get the first down. After talking to Jason, we decided whatever play you think has the best success to get a first down, don't worry about the clock running, just to convert and he'd been sitting on that play for quite a while. I guess he'd been sitting on it since he was back in Virginia or something. It worked and Larry Simmons touchdown to reception ratio is incredible this year. I call him touchdown Larry. I started calling him that about a month-and-a-half ago and he's lived up to that name. He was the recipient of that pass, beautifully executed by Devon. Offensive line did another nice job, although that was one of our lower rushing totals for the year. I thought the offensive line played well in addition. Really the only negative in the game was the rush defense, but we'll continue to work on that."
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On Jackson Bennee's interception and how that changed the game…
"It looked like the quarterback was just trying to throw it away. We had everything covered up and flushed him out of the pocket. He was on the move and just didn't get it out of harms way. Jackson tracked it down and made a great play and that one and the Davis pick-six were huge. We probably would've had another pick-six if Smith Snowden hadn't fallen down earlier in the game. Three interceptions in a game is outstanding. Interceptions are more damaging to an offense than fumbles. It's just statistically proven. Any time you could pick a guy off three times, your chance of winning is pretty good."
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On what it means for the team to get to 10 wins…
It's huge. I thought about maybe last year being the last go-around, but as I've said many times, I just couldn't stomach ending on that one. We needed to right the ship, get things headed back in the right direction and I believe we've certainly done that this year.
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 Quaterback Devon Dampier
On his final touchdown pass…
"First, it starts off with coach Beck. He dials up a lot of things week in, week out. We've been holding on to that one for a long time now. The situation just presented itself. I was able to get a couple of first downs. They got a little heavy to stop that run game. You put Larry on a deep route, he's going to come down with it, so its just how that play came up in that situation."
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On the play of the offense…
"I think we held ourselves back multiple times, whether it was loss of yardage on a down or penalties. I think that put us in very bad third down situations. We hope to be more efficient than we were, but that's what happens in football. Not everything is going to be perfect. I think the offense did a great job of getting on top of that and helping the defense. It makes us play a lot better too."
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On if Bennee's interception lit a fire under the offense…
"That's a tremendous play. That could've been huge for them. It would've made it a lot harder for us to come back. Again, the fight of our defense. They were on it all night. That just showed up another time where they lifted us up a little bit on offense where the defense has been balling out all game. It's time for us to go out there and do what we need to do."
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Wide Receiver Larry Simmons
On his second touchdown…
"Just piggy-backing off what Devon says, coach Beck, he dials up a lot of stuff and that [play] is something we've been working for a long time. We finally got the chance to call it and we were able to execute it."
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Defensive Back Jackson Bennee
On his interception…
"Just kind of playing scramble drill out there. We're basically taught that when the quarterback is scrambling, looking for something, you've just got to plaster to the closest guy. That's what I was trying to do. He threw it my way. I was a little surprised, but just went and got it."
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On what it means to get to 10 wins…
"I feel like we definitely had two little hiccups there throughout the season, but I feel like I'm just really proud of how our guys have played just bouncing back from adversity, either after a loss or in-game. Last game, a lot of people would've hung it up, but I'm just proud of our offense, our defense for just sticking to our guns, doing what we do best. It's been a good season."
Â
On the mindset of the defense…
"It just wasn't our ball last week. Everybody knows that. We just didn't play our best football at all, but today, we just wanted to leave it in the past and continue with how we know how to play defense, gap-sound, assignment-sound defense and I thought we did well with that today."
Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
Opening Statement…
"Proud of our guys getting the 10th win on the season. That's not easy to do. Just so proud of them for hanging in there, kept finding ways to make plays. The key to the entire game was our red zone defense, there's no doubt about that. Jackson Bennee's pick in the end zone, [Davis]' pick, pick-six in the red zone, holding them to a field goal early on. There were so many in things in the red zone defensively that we did well. That was really, again, the difference in the game. Run defense, we still have a lot of work to there. They rushed for nearly 300 yards, so we didn't get that entirely fixed, but they did a nice job. They had a nice plan. They followed the blueprint Kansas State followed, multiple tight ends, power run game. It wasn't as bad as last week by any means, but it's still not were we need to be, but again the red zone defense offset that and really is what the biggest key in the game was. Offense took a while to get going, didn't really get into a rhythm in that first half. Started getting some things going in the second half. They're good on third down. We converted 7-of-13 on third down. We were not good enough on third down defensively. They had a lot of success on third down as well, but overall, we kept finding ways to make plays, stay in the game and our guys found a way to win in the end. A 10-win season is outstanding for anybody, so we're excited about that."
Â
On the final touchdown…
"We were debating on whether to just run ball, keep the clock running or not and to take our best shot to get the first down. After talking to Jason, we decided whatever play you think has the best success to get a first down, don't worry about the clock running, just to convert and he'd been sitting on that play for quite a while. I guess he'd been sitting on it since he was back in Virginia or something. It worked and Larry Simmons touchdown to reception ratio is incredible this year. I call him touchdown Larry. I started calling him that about a month-and-a-half ago and he's lived up to that name. He was the recipient of that pass, beautifully executed by Devon. Offensive line did another nice job, although that was one of our lower rushing totals for the year. I thought the offensive line played well in addition. Really the only negative in the game was the rush defense, but we'll continue to work on that."
Â
On Jackson Bennee's interception and how that changed the game…
"It looked like the quarterback was just trying to throw it away. We had everything covered up and flushed him out of the pocket. He was on the move and just didn't get it out of harms way. Jackson tracked it down and made a great play and that one and the Davis pick-six were huge. We probably would've had another pick-six if Smith Snowden hadn't fallen down earlier in the game. Three interceptions in a game is outstanding. Interceptions are more damaging to an offense than fumbles. It's just statistically proven. Any time you could pick a guy off three times, your chance of winning is pretty good."
Â
On what it means for the team to get to 10 wins…
It's huge. I thought about maybe last year being the last go-around, but as I've said many times, I just couldn't stomach ending on that one. We needed to right the ship, get things headed back in the right direction and I believe we've certainly done that this year.
Â
 Quaterback Devon Dampier
On his final touchdown pass…
"First, it starts off with coach Beck. He dials up a lot of things week in, week out. We've been holding on to that one for a long time now. The situation just presented itself. I was able to get a couple of first downs. They got a little heavy to stop that run game. You put Larry on a deep route, he's going to come down with it, so its just how that play came up in that situation."
Â
On the play of the offense…
"I think we held ourselves back multiple times, whether it was loss of yardage on a down or penalties. I think that put us in very bad third down situations. We hope to be more efficient than we were, but that's what happens in football. Not everything is going to be perfect. I think the offense did a great job of getting on top of that and helping the defense. It makes us play a lot better too."
Â
On if Bennee's interception lit a fire under the offense…
"That's a tremendous play. That could've been huge for them. It would've made it a lot harder for us to come back. Again, the fight of our defense. They were on it all night. That just showed up another time where they lifted us up a little bit on offense where the defense has been balling out all game. It's time for us to go out there and do what we need to do."
Â
Wide Receiver Larry Simmons
On his second touchdown…
"Just piggy-backing off what Devon says, coach Beck, he dials up a lot of stuff and that [play] is something we've been working for a long time. We finally got the chance to call it and we were able to execute it."
Â
Defensive Back Jackson Bennee
On his interception…
"Just kind of playing scramble drill out there. We're basically taught that when the quarterback is scrambling, looking for something, you've just got to plaster to the closest guy. That's what I was trying to do. He threw it my way. I was a little surprised, but just went and got it."
Â
On what it means to get to 10 wins…
"I feel like we definitely had two little hiccups there throughout the season, but I feel like I'm just really proud of how our guys have played just bouncing back from adversity, either after a loss or in-game. Last game, a lot of people would've hung it up, but I'm just proud of our offense, our defense for just sticking to our guns, doing what we do best. It's been a good season."
Â
On the mindset of the defense…
"It just wasn't our ball last week. Everybody knows that. We just didn't play our best football at all, but today, we just wanted to leave it in the past and continue with how we know how to play defense, gap-sound, assignment-sound defense and I thought we did well with that today."
Head Coach Kyle Whittingham weekly press conference - 11.24.25
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