Forget about the hype, the heated rivalry and the intensity of the Holy War. The Utes are treating Saturday’s matchup against BYU as just another game.
That’s not to say that they are taking it lightly — Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham says he and the team are preparing the same way they always do. Despite this being the last contest between the cross-town foes until 2016, Whittingham says that doesn’t change a thing about Saturday.
“Just business as usual — same ol’ same ol’, ” Whittingham said. “We try to approach each week the same. We have a preparation process that we adhere to and this week is no different.”
Whittingham pointed out that what the Utes have done to prepare for the Cougars in the past has been successful.
“I’m not trying to sit here and hide something. We treat it the same. It’s worked for us,” Whittingham said. “We’ve won the last three in a row and five out of eight, eight out of 11 or whatever the case may be, so we are going to just try and do the same thing.”
Utah comes into this weekend’s contest reeling from a heartbreaking overtime loss to Oregon State last Saturday. Beavers quarterback Sean Mannion was “dropping dimes” on the Utes in that game according to Whittingham. Mannion amassed 443 yards as he picked apart the Utah secondary.
OSU’s quarterback got the best of the Utes in the end, but BYU’s offense hasn’t been so pass-heavy and Whittingham is looking forward to the matchup.
“There definitely is contrasting styles in the offenses that we’ve faced from last week to this week,” Whittingham said. “BYU this week with their heavy-duty run attack, which is what they’ve shown at least in the first two ball games. We’ve got our challenges and if you look at what we’ve done pretty good this year, that’s stop the run. So maybe that presents an intriguing matchup.”
The Cougars will be fresh off a bye week. Their last contest was a 40-21 pummeling of then-No. 15 Texas in which they blasted the Longhorn defense on the ground for a school-record 550 yards. Quarterback Taysom Hill garnered national recognition as Player of the Week with 259 rushing yards of his own.
As Whittingham said, the Utes are focused on shutting down the BYU run game and have shown they will be able to do so. They only allowed 48 yards rushing and effectively lopsided Oregon State’s offense. In the season opener, Utah contained one of the country’s best dual-threat quarterbacks, Chuckie Keeton, well enough to pick up a victory.
“I think they are going to stick to what they do well and I’m sure they’re gonna mix some throws in there and play-action pass and that type of thing,” Whittingham said of the Cougars. “But they have a quarterback who is an exceptional runner and I don’t think they are going to deviate too far from that.”
The Utes proved last week that they have exceptional runners of their own. Quarterback Travis Wilson scrambled for 142 rushing yards and three touchdowns on the ground against OSU, but even more surprising was Bubba Poole’s performance out of the backfield. After unseating Kelvin York as the Utes’ feature back, he put 117 yards behind him on the ground and tacked on an additional 70 yards receiving.
Poole was happy with his performance and doesn’t plan on relinquishing his spot anytime soon.
“It’s a testament to my hard work that I’ve put in and dedication,” Poole said. “I’m not satisfied at all. I’m gonna just keep actin’ as if I was just the guy sittin’ back and keep doin’ my part as if I’m still fightin’ for a spot.”
Poole is expected to start as Utah’s feature back once again this week and he echoes Whittingham’s sentiments on the Holy War.
“Of course the rivalry is always there. A lot of the guys though are just lookin’ at it as another game,” Poole said. “Me personally, I feel like it’s another game that we need to win. Yeah it’s BYU, but I feel like we need to win this game no matter who it was.”