The Utes are back to work this week to improve all the weaknesses found in their loss against Arizona last Saturday. This especially includes the defense, who had trouble keeping the Wildcat’s offense at bay. Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham discussed his frustrations about the deficiencies, especially with pass coverage.
“Our pass coverage wasn’t good enough,” said Whittingham. “Credit goes to [Arizona’s] quarterback for making a lot of plays. He put the ball where it needed to be, the receivers made plays, and we weren’t quite on our game.”
Though the Utes had many chances, including two interceptions on the night, to stop the Wildcats from gaining yards, Arizona quarterback Anu Solomon made sure his offense kept rolling, providing numerous chances for his receivers to act with the time he had with the ball. This resulted in the Utes leaving Tucson with a bitter taste in their mouths after the overtime loss.
But even though Arizona handed Utah its second loss of the season, Whittingham believes the team and defense showed great effort. They just missed opportunities to shut the game down.
“Effort and focus were good,” said Whittingham. “[Arizona] just made plays. In our coverage we were a split-second too early, a split-second too late and they found a way to get in. It’s just how it is.”
Another test against Bruins recievers
With Whittingham and his defense knowing what they have to improve during practice, they will have to do extra work watching UCLA’s receiving contingent. Though the Bruins haven’t been doing as well this season, they’re still a dangerous team that can expose Utah’s defense out wide with their receivers like the Wildcats did.
The Bruins are doing very well statistically in their receiving core and are currently ranked third in the Pac-12 and 20th in the nation in passing offense. It has also been a great year for some Bruin wide receivers, including junior Thomas Duarte, who is ranked fifth in the Pac-12 in receiving touchdowns, and senior Jordan Payton, who tied a school-record 14 catches last weekend in UCLA’s loss to Washington State.
Whittingham knows covering the Bruins’ receivers will be a challenge and is making sure his defensive players are prepared for the task of denying them catches and runs.
“They have a great wide receiving core,” said Whittingham. “Their receivers are one of the top, if not the top in the league. They got big physical guys, they can run, and it’ll be a challenge to take them on.”
Freshman class proves its worth
One highlight from Utah’s loss to Arizona was how its true freshman class represented the team. Due to injuries and absences, six freshmen played that night, with three earning significant minutes in Britain Covey, Tyrone Smith and Caleb Repp.
Not only have these players taken the chances they’ve earned to gain minutes under their belts, they’ve been proving their worth to the team. Utah fans see this in Covey, who has been a bright spot in Utah’s offense since week one. But there have also been great moments with fellow wide receiver Smith, who has started all 10 games this season. He also agrees the freshman class is crucial to the team’s success.
“We have been very important to this team,” Smith said. “An example is with Covey. He’s done a lot of our offense this year. I feel that, overall, the freshman class has done a lot to help the offense this year.”
But with success also comes improvement for the new players, and even though his fellow classmates are doing well on the field, Smith knows they are still young and can make mistakes. This is especially the case against UCLA.
“We have to watch a lot of film” he said. “We’re young, so I feel that watching film is the biggest thing. We have to learn new techniques for each defensive back we play each week. This is a big week, so we have to study [UCLA’s] corners and understand what type of defense they’re going to run. We have to do whatever we can do get the win.”
@chad_marquez