After thoroughly dispatching Fresno State 59-27 Saturday, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham and a few of his players spoke on the win, the upcoming bye week for the Utes and their next opponent, the Michigan Wolverines, in a press conference Monday afternoon.
Whittingham said he thought the team took a step forward from the previous week’s win against Idaho State, noting that the defense is what got the Utes off on the right foot Saturday afternoon.
“Defensively we played a lot better, we really started out fast on defense, which really allowed the offense to get on track early,” Whittingham said. “We jumped out on them early and never really looked back.”
The Utes’ defense forced the Bulldog offense into five three-and-outs on their first five possessions, and they didn’t get a single first down in the first quarter. The defense also dominated the line of scrimmage, pushing the Bulldog rushing attack backwards for a negative 10 yards rushing in the first quarter and allowing only four yards of total offense by the end of the quarter.
While Whittingham was pleased with his starting defense, the backups that entered shortly after halftime gave him the biggest reason to worry.
“The only really glaring negative of the game was when we pulled the first team defense,” Whittingham said.
He noted that the second team defense was “sloppy” with their schematics at times and said he was unhappy with the amount of penalties they accumulated in the second half.
Sophomore defensive end Hunter Dimick started for the Utes on defense and accumulated two of Utah’s seven sacks in the game against Fresno State. He talked about the success of the defensive line thanks to their leader and defensive captain, senior defensive end Nate Orchard.
“[Playing with Orchard] makes life a lot easier for me,” Dimick said. “Going in, Nate’s obviously the guy you’ve got to game plan for […] it takes a lot of pressure off of us as a defensive line.”
Dimick also spoke on how the defensive line can aid in the Utes’ takeaway problem.
“We’ve been working on it,” he said. “If we get to the quarterback we need to do a better job of getting the strip obviously, but we’re working on it, we’re improving on it, and I think it’s going to get better.”
Dimick’s teammate on the defensive line, senior defensive tackle Clint Shepard, talked about the change of routine that comes with a bye week like the Utes have this week before they travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan next weekend.
“Usually we get Monday off, but we had a full practice on Monday, and we’ll have the same thing on Tuesday. I think that was good just to get us focused in, and we’ve got extra time to study the Michigan offense,” Shepard said.
Junior quarterback Travis Wilson spoke on the exciting opportunity the Utes will have in traveling to play Michigan in the “Big House” in front of 112,000 raucous fans.
“It’s going to be a great experience. It’s going to be a huge atmosphere and a very exciting stage,” Wilson said. “I know our team will be ready, and it’s great to have a bye week to prepare for Michigan. They have a physical defense and a lot of good playmakers, it’s going to be a tough battle, but I’m really excited with what our offense is doing so far, and I know we’ll be able to make some big plays.”
The Michigan Wolverines are coming off of a brutal shutout loss at the hands of rival Notre Dame in what was their last time playing each other for the foreseeable future. While the Wolverines did not fare well against the Fighting Irish, Whittingham attested to the talent level of Michigan’s roster.
“We know one thing for sure is they’ve got a lot of good players, there’s no doubt about that,” Whittingham said. “They had a rough go against Notre Dame, but we’re sure they’re going to rebound. They have one more game before they play us, so we’ll have a chance to evaluate that film, but they’ve got all of our attention just like Fresno did and just like every team on the schedule will have.”
It was announced Monday that the Utah vs. Michigan game will be nationally televised on ABC. Kickoff has been set for 1:30 p.m. MT on Sept. 20.
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