After scoring nine points against UCLA, head coach Kyle Whittingham is disappointed his team was not able to get anything going against what he considers the best secondary in the conference.
There are two reasons he believes the Utes lost on Saturday. First: the Utes’ inability to throw the ball down the field; second: the Utes could never actually cross the plane for a touchdown when the team got into the redzone.
“Can’t win kicking only field goals,” Whittingham said. “We were 0-for-2 in the redzone and had to settle … they were more efficient in the redzone, and that was the difference in the game.”
The Utah defense did hold UCLA to just 17 points, and Whittingham commends those players on their efforts. The defense only let the Bruins get 105 yards rushing and 220 yards passing.
“They held a very good quarterback to 50 percent completion percentage,” Whittingham said. “[Aside from] the first drive of the game, which was not good, the defense settled in and played a good football game.”
Finishing strong in Pac-12
Although the possibility of winning the Pac-12 is out of reach and the chances of making it to a good bowl game are slim, Whittingham is trying to keep his team optimistic about the end of the season.
“If we take care of business we’re co-champs,” Whittingham said. “To finish as co-champions in a 10-game win season — that’s the high water mark, and it’s a big step forward if we can accomplish some things down the road. It’s incremental progress for our program.”
Looking ahead to next season, Whittingham knows there are plenty of areas for improvement, one most notably being depth especially with the amount of injuries the team encountered this season.
Overall, Whittingham considers this a successful season so far and knows the conference was extremely tough to compete in this year. He still hopes the conference champion will make it into the playoffs because of the competitiveness of this year’s teams.
“Who would have thought that three losses would win the right to play in the championship game? And that’s how balanced and competitive this league is,” Whittingham said. “It’s a shame that there’s only four spots because there’s five power conferences, and I think every champion deserves an opportunity to advance.”
Injury update
After suffering an injury against UCLA, Britain Covey will not suit up this weekend against Colorado, and Whittingham is unsure of whether he will be able to play in a bowl game.
Whittingham is also pretty sure defensive back Tevin Carter will sit out this weekend as well.
“Don’t know the full extent of Tevin, yet,” Whittingham said.
With Joe Williams filling in for the injured Devontae Booker, Whittingham thinks he did a fine job taking over the starting role. There was not too much to tweak from the original game plan except the fact that Travis Wilson was given the ball a few extra times.
Williams can expect to be given the same amount of attention this weekend against the Buffs. Kenneth Scott, although thinking his teammates are fully capable of picking up the slack, hopes they can realize they really need to do these guys justice.
“Everybody plays for each other,” Scott said. “Everybody takes account to play for the people who aren’t able to.”
@kbrenneisen