All season long, head coach Kyle Whittingham has preached the importance of winning the turnover battle.
The reasoning behind his logic is that the turnover margin in football is often what decides games.
Utah has won this ratio in almost every game this year, which has resulted in a successful season. The team is plus-11 on the year in terms of takeaways to giveaways.
“The turnover margin is probably, other than the score, the most critical stat in football,” Whittingham said. “Our offense did a great job of possessing the ball. That’s the name of the game, other than scores, is the turnover margin.”
The team practices stress ball security and that has helped Utah running backs and wideouts to not have one fumble all season long.
There were no fumbles from tailbacks Matt Asiata, Darrell Mack or Eddie Wide. The same goes for wide receivers Bradon Godfrey, Freddie Brown, Brent Casteel8212;the list could go on and on.
This stat alone helped Utah win every game so far and will help the Utes head to New Orleans, La., confident in their ability to carry the ball8212;regardless of how many Alabama players are looking to create turnovers.
In every practice, turnovers are a point of emphasis, whether it’s the offense working for better ball security or the defense looking to strip the ball.
Senior running back Mack said every day in warm-ups, the coaches try to strip the ball from him so he can practice safe carrying.
“We just practice holding onto the ball,” Mack said. “We make it a priority to hold onto the ball during the game and at all times.”
Whittingham knows the importance of playing clean offensive games, so he emphasizes what he calls, “Lock, load and finish.” Lock the ball up in order to secure it, load it up on contact and finish out the play.
On defense, it is just the opposite. He calls it, “Rip and run.” This means they are always looking to strip the ball.
“It’s job one for the offense to take care of the football,” Whittingham said.
In close games this season, namely against Oregon State and TCU, turnovers were crucial. In come-from-behind victories, the game can be won or lost on every play down the stretch. At the time of the TCU game, Utah was No. 57 in the turnover margin while TCU was No. 3. In that game, it was vital for Utah to be able to hang onto the ball and create turnovers8212;which proved to be the Horned Frogs’ ultimate undoing.
Since then, Utah has moved up in this statistic, which has been a large part of its success.
Against Alabama, in the biggest game of the season for the Utes, they will need to remember their point of emphasis and just hold onto that ball.
Lucas IsleyUtah running back Darrell Mack is one of many Utes that have not fumbled the ball all season.