The Utah football team has really come together this year, more so than in other years, according to the coaching staff and players. This only helps the team perform better and makes the workload easier to manage.
Safety Marcus Williams thinks of this team as his second family. All the Utes are here to help the team win, and if that means sacrificing their own play, then they do just that.
“We just have great team unity,” Williams said. “We’re brothers in here, and we all want to be around the ball. We all want to make a tackle. We all want to be together. There’s not one time where someone’s trying to do their own thing.”
This is also something head coach Kyle Whittingham has continued to notice. He can rely on any one of his players to step it up, but more importantly, they all take ownership of what they do.
If a player makes a mistake, they will do whatever is necessary to correct it. If a player is improving, he will reward them with more playing time, and nobody will take offense if their own playing time is cut.
“This is a very mature football team, and they handle their business,” Whittingham said. “The way they love each other, you can tell that there’s a genuine love for each other. They care about each other. We’re all family, and we all take care of each other.”
Not getting ahead of themselves
Although the Utes are ranked No.10 this week, even receiving a first-place vote in the AP Poll, the players and coaches do not want to get ahead of themselves.
Whittingham views this bye week as a crucial period to remind his team they are not even close to being done yet.
“First of all, can’t think you have all the answers, thinking that you’ve arrived,” Whittingham said. “Stupid to get ahead of yourself. As soon as you back off the least little bit and think you got all the answers, then someone’s going to smack you.”
Letting up in practice also won’t cut it. Despite the win on Saturday night, it was not just the way the team played in Eugene, it was the hours and hours of work they put in leading up to the kickoff that really fueled them in Whittingham’s eyes.
“The game wasn’t won Saturday — it was won Monday through Friday,” Whittingham said.
Although the Cal matchup is more than a week out, the Utes are going to need this same focus and work ethic if they want any chance of continuing their so-far unbeaten season. Anything else, like the playoffs, is not even in their thought process.
“All we’re concerned with is getting ready for Cal,” Whittingham said.
This is something Gionni Paul could not agree with any more. Despite Whittingham’s favorable opinion towards the entire game in Eugene, Paul knows there is more to be done.
“We’re not perfect yet,” Paul said. “We still got a lot of work to do.”
Scott making an impact
Leading up to the Oregon game, Kenneth Scott was ready to go. Despite not being thrown to a whole lot in the first three games of the season, Whittingham stressed that whoever was at quarterback was going to have to find a way to get the ball to him and that’s exactly what happened.
Scott knew things were not only going to go his way in Autzen Stadium, but the entire team’s way as soon as they stepped onto the field.
“It was a good feeling, but all week we knew that we could beat them,” Scott said. “We had the confidence in ourselves that we had the firepower to match up with them, and we just got the job done.”
@kbrenneisen