The Utah Utes are staying on the road this weekend as they face the UCLA Bruins in Pasadena, Calif., on Saturday.
On their last outing, the Utes were not able to get anything going in the pass game. Troy Williams was just 4-of-13, and he only threw for 42 yards — this was the first time Williams finished a game with less than 200 passing yards, and he also the fumbled the ball a couple of times. However, the starting quarterback thinks the passing game is just fine, and that low production was more because of the weather, and the team still has complete confidence in it.
“I wasn’t able to complete a lot of passes, but it’s all right” Williams said. “I’m not really a stats guy — I’m just worried about winning.”
But if worse comes to worse, the Utes have no problem relying on their running game. Joe Williams came out of retirement to help Utah in the running back position. The Utes had multiple players go down because of injuries, one being Armand Shyne who suffered a season-ending injury against Arizona. In his first game back for the Utes, Joe rushed for 179 yards, but more importantly, he didn’t let go of the ball.
In the first two games of the season, Joe turned the ball over a couple of times, and as a result he was benched. Ball security didn’t seem to be his strong suit last season either as he fumbled the ball on numerous occasions. However, Joe looks rejuvenated after taking 27 days off of football, and he is working adamantly to get back into football shape.
“I could give a lot more effort,” Joe said. “I’m going to work harder in conditioning, because we got a long five week stretch.”
Over on the other side of the field, UCLA has one lone win in Pac-12 play.
The Bruins have a 3-4 record, but head coach Kyle Whittingham knows the Bruins are a better team than that.
“[They have] lot of speed, a lot of athleticism, so our guys can’t be fooled by the record,” Whittingham said. “They’re a good football team, and they have a lot of good players, so that’s our challenge this week.”
UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen is questionable for this upcoming game, but whether or not he plays, it looks like throw game may be the key for the Bruins. UCLA is ranked 126th in the FBS in yards per carry, however, this does not mean that the Utes won’t be paying attention to all the small details. Time and time again, Whittingham has praised Chase Hansen for his efforts at safety, and he is expecting him to have the same sort of effort he had against Oregon State.
Against the Beavers last weekend, Hansen had one interception, two tackles-for-loss and one sack.
One area of concern for Utah is its red zone efficiency — the Utes have had a difficult time finding ways to score touchdowns, and they often settle for three points instead. The team has been devoting extra practice time to its red zone offense this week, and Whittingham hopes it pays off against UCLA.
“We don’t want to settle for field goals,” Whittingham said. “Field goals are better than nothing, but touchdowns are what you’re striving for in the red zone. It’s on us as coaches — we’ve got to do a better job of putting our players in better positions to be successful in the red zone.”
Game time at the Rose Bowl is set for 1:00 p.m. PT.
@kbrenneisen