Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham opened up his weekly press conference by heaping praise upon the Utah fan base. The sellout, blackout crowd of 47,619 on hand to watch the Utes defeat USC Saturday night set the new Rice-Eccles Stadium attendance record.
“The atmosphere in Rice-Eccles on Saturday night was unbelievable,” Whittingham said. “The way the fans supported our team, and the MUSS and really the whole environment was really what college football is all about. It was great for our players to be in that environment. A lot of thanks goes out to our fans from our program.”
It wasn’t just the coaches who noticed the fan performance. Tight end Westlee Tonga said he has always played in front of great crowds in Salt Lake, but Saturday was special.
“It helps out so much, having that stadium packed,” Tonga said. “That stadium is electric when it wants to be, and it was on Saturday night.”
The Utes won’t have the friendly confines of their home stadium in their next contest against Arizona State, but so far this season Utah has performed quite well away from Salt Lake. The Utes are 3-0 on the road this season, including wins in two of college football’s most revered venues — the Big House and the Rose Bowl.
“When you’re on the road you block it out,” Whittingham said. “It probably helped us more than it hindered USC.”
The late show
It was announced Monday that Utah’s contest against Oregon on Nov. 8 will kick off at 8 p.m. The Utes and their fans have gotten used to the late starts this season. The game against the Ducks will be the fourth straight game that will start at 8 or later.
Some fans might not like the late starts — not to mention every reporter despising them — but the players don’t mind the late night football.
“It’s been nice to have all day Saturday to lock in what we’re trying to do that night and just few extra hours of film study,” said safety Brian Blechen. “We like it.”
USC stealing signs?
As Saturday’s contest against USC went on, Ute coaches were seen shielding their mouths with towels more and more. On Monday, quarterback Travis Wilson gave some insight on what was going on. Wilson said the team sensed the Trojan defense might have been picking up what play calls were coming in.
“We thought there might have been a little bit of an issue, so that’s why we tried to change it up a little bit in the second half,” Wilson said. “On our side as an offense, we still have to execute what is called, but definitely in the future I feel like we’ll have other alternatives to make sure the defenses aren’t picking up what we are doing.”
Even if USC knew what the Utes were doing, it didn’t stop Utah from a game-winning drive in the closing minutes.
“Even if the defense knows what the play is we still have to execute,” Wilson said.
 
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