The Utes jumped up five spots in the AP Poll this week to No. 5, Utah’s highest ranking this season. The team is 4-0 through its first four games of the season and faces Cal after its bye week.
Although Coach Kyle Whittingham thinks it is too early to tell where exactly this team stands up compared to other teams in the country, he thinks the overall leadership and gameplay of this year’s players reminds him of some of the former great teams he has coached. Without this type of leadership, Whittingham is positive the team would not be where it currently sits.
“This team has a maturity about that reminds me of the ‘08 and ‘04 teams with the players and the same type of maturity of players,” Whittingham said.
With eight games left to play, there is still plenty of time for improvement and Whittingham is more than aware of this. He hopes his team can continue to live up to his standards and keep proving to the rest of the country that they are a force to be reckoned with.
The national attention is there like other years, which makes this season feel special, but it is not quite at the level of a team from 10 years ago.
“Momentum yes, similar feel, sort of, but we’re still really early,” Whittingham said. “There’s so much football left so it’s hard to make a comparison to either of those teams.”
Defense not taking it easy
Despite coming off the bye week, defensive coordinator John Pease is not expecting anything less from his players. The schedule is the same, and even though it may take the his guys a practice or two to really get back into the swing of things, his players know they better be in the right mindset.
They had their week off, now it’s back to business.
“It’s going to take them a day to get back into the routine, hitting each other because it’s not normal to bang on someone,” Pease said. “They gave them a nice week off and they’ve been with their girlfriends, and they’ve been watching movies and having some popcorn, not exactly like scrimmaging.”
With this week’s game drawing a lot of national attention, Pease does not have to remind his team of why it is important to come out on top. He knows other students on campus remind them of it so that job is essentially already done. Pease is preparing his team for its main task, taking on Cal.
“Big games take care of themselves,” Pease said.
Wide receivers stepping their game up
Taylor Stubblefield, wide receivers coach, has been hammering in one motto into his group of guys — CKG, which means consistency is key to greatness.
“If we’re consistent with our landmarks and with our assignments and consistent catching the ball, something’s going to break,” Stubblefield said.
Another aspect of this motto is that Stubblefield expects his players to give it their best, no matter the play. Noteworthy or not, every single snap matters in the end and this is where he really needs his receivers to be consistent.
“If you don’t take care of small things then (bad) things are going to happen,” Stubblefield said. “On the positive side if you do take care of small things like catching the ball on the hitch route, or catching the ball on the bubble, which is a very small play, it can lead to a big play.”
@kbrenneisen