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Photo by: Davis Kuhn/Utah Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Utah vs. Texas Tech
9/20/2025 2:41 PM | Football
Utah Quotes
Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
Opening Statement…
I'll start off by saying that's a really good football team we played. Give them a lot of credit. They've really assembled themselves a really good roster and, like I said, they're talented, physical. We didn't do anything to help our own cause, particularly on offense. First quarter was a disaster, two turnovers, another turnover on downs. Fourth-and-one, you have to convert that. Touchdown called back because of a penalty. Really didn't get into a rhythm offensively essentially the whole morning or afternoon. Nice two-minute drill in the first half, got us a field goal and then we had the one touchdown drive in the second half, but other than that, we didn't play with much rhythm or much continuity. Ran the ball very poorly, way under 100 yards if you take away the garbage yards that happened those last three or four plays and that was disappointing. I never would have believed we'd lose the line of scrimmage, never would've believed that in a million years, but we did. We didn't win the line of scrimmage. The defense played lights out for three-and-a-half quarters, and then it went from 13 [points] to 34 in the blink of an eye and that can't happen. You have to finish games and keep your poise and keep doing the things you were doing in the first three-and-a-half quarters. You can't let things get away from us like that in the fourth quarter. We have to continue to look hard at that. Looking for positives, I thought our punter punted the ball very well. He did a good job. We came up with a couple takeaways on defense, Bennee with an exceptional interception in the end zone and then we had the other one on the tipped ball, but we didn't play the run exceptionally well either. Â And for us to lose the line of scrimmage, it doesn't happen very often, but it certainly happened today. We've got to regroup now. We've got a tough road trip to West Virginia. They're playing well. Rich Rodriguez is a great football coach and they'll be ready for us. There's no doubt about that. East Coast trip, so we have to leave a day early next week and it'll be a little different schedule, but that's neither here nor there. But like I said, the bottom line, we lost the turnover margin, four of two and didn't convert on a fourth down and short. We battled field position all game. We could never tilt the field back our way because we couldn't make enough first downs on offense. We couldn't move the chains enough to give our defensive some breathing room, so it seems like they had their back to the wall a good portion of the game. They won the game. We have to review the film, fix our deficiencies and get back at it come Monday. You can't sit around and feel sorry for yourself, you just got to get back at it and go to work and try to figure out how to beat the next team.
On the struggles of the offense…
I think it was a combination of things, certainly the turnovers. You only get about 10 or 11 possessions a game on average, which is about two or three or four a quarter, max. If you turn it over [four times] and turn it over a third time on downs, that doesn't help your cause. We'll have to take a look at the film and see why we didn't win the line of scrimmage. I just don't know, I don't have a great answer right now. We just didn't play up to our usual standards up front.
On considering going up-tempo on offense more…
That's up to Jason, it's his offense. You're right in the respect that we did have success in doing that on those two drives and maybe in hindsight we should've. That's a good thought.
On the team getting off to slow starts…
No, I don't have a good answer on that either, but you obviously judge the game in its entirety, but you're right. We have seemed to come out of the gates with not a lot of a lot of production.
Quarterback Devon Dampier
On the performance of the offense…
I think we just didn't execute too well today.
On Texas Tech's defense…
We knew they were a very good defense coming in. I thought they very much played like it. Just a well-coached team.
Defensive Back Tao Johnson
On the breakdowns defensively…
Yes, just like you said, breakdowns, a lot of things that we can control, missed tackles, missed assignments, everything that we can control. They didn't do anything that was special. That's just on us.
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Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
Opening Statement…
I'll start off by saying that's a really good football team we played. Give them a lot of credit. They've really assembled themselves a really good roster and, like I said, they're talented, physical. We didn't do anything to help our own cause, particularly on offense. First quarter was a disaster, two turnovers, another turnover on downs. Fourth-and-one, you have to convert that. Touchdown called back because of a penalty. Really didn't get into a rhythm offensively essentially the whole morning or afternoon. Nice two-minute drill in the first half, got us a field goal and then we had the one touchdown drive in the second half, but other than that, we didn't play with much rhythm or much continuity. Ran the ball very poorly, way under 100 yards if you take away the garbage yards that happened those last three or four plays and that was disappointing. I never would have believed we'd lose the line of scrimmage, never would've believed that in a million years, but we did. We didn't win the line of scrimmage. The defense played lights out for three-and-a-half quarters, and then it went from 13 [points] to 34 in the blink of an eye and that can't happen. You have to finish games and keep your poise and keep doing the things you were doing in the first three-and-a-half quarters. You can't let things get away from us like that in the fourth quarter. We have to continue to look hard at that. Looking for positives, I thought our punter punted the ball very well. He did a good job. We came up with a couple takeaways on defense, Bennee with an exceptional interception in the end zone and then we had the other one on the tipped ball, but we didn't play the run exceptionally well either. Â And for us to lose the line of scrimmage, it doesn't happen very often, but it certainly happened today. We've got to regroup now. We've got a tough road trip to West Virginia. They're playing well. Rich Rodriguez is a great football coach and they'll be ready for us. There's no doubt about that. East Coast trip, so we have to leave a day early next week and it'll be a little different schedule, but that's neither here nor there. But like I said, the bottom line, we lost the turnover margin, four of two and didn't convert on a fourth down and short. We battled field position all game. We could never tilt the field back our way because we couldn't make enough first downs on offense. We couldn't move the chains enough to give our defensive some breathing room, so it seems like they had their back to the wall a good portion of the game. They won the game. We have to review the film, fix our deficiencies and get back at it come Monday. You can't sit around and feel sorry for yourself, you just got to get back at it and go to work and try to figure out how to beat the next team.
On the struggles of the offense…
I think it was a combination of things, certainly the turnovers. You only get about 10 or 11 possessions a game on average, which is about two or three or four a quarter, max. If you turn it over [four times] and turn it over a third time on downs, that doesn't help your cause. We'll have to take a look at the film and see why we didn't win the line of scrimmage. I just don't know, I don't have a great answer right now. We just didn't play up to our usual standards up front.
On considering going up-tempo on offense more…
That's up to Jason, it's his offense. You're right in the respect that we did have success in doing that on those two drives and maybe in hindsight we should've. That's a good thought.
On the team getting off to slow starts…
No, I don't have a good answer on that either, but you obviously judge the game in its entirety, but you're right. We have seemed to come out of the gates with not a lot of a lot of production.
Quarterback Devon Dampier
On the performance of the offense…
I think we just didn't execute too well today.
On Texas Tech's defense…
We knew they were a very good defense coming in. I thought they very much played like it. Just a well-coached team.
Defensive Back Tao Johnson
On the breakdowns defensively…
Yes, just like you said, breakdowns, a lot of things that we can control, missed tackles, missed assignments, everything that we can control. They didn't do anything that was special. That's just on us.
Â
Utah vs. Texas Tech | POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE
Thursday, September 18
Crimson Corner with Bill Riley - Urban Meyer
Wednesday, September 17
Head Coach Kyle Whittingham weekly press conference - 9.15.25
Monday, September 15
Utah: 31, Wyoming: 6 | POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE
Sunday, September 14