Salt Lake City was saturated in red at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday night. Led by a strong run game, Utah came out of the gate ready to take on an undefeated team in No. 23 Cal. Running back Devontae Booker was expected to be a main component of the Utah offense, which proved to be true with his impactful performance.
Escaping tackles, Booker arrived in the game in the first quarter with his first touchdown when he broke one down the right sideline. By the time Cal defenders caught up to him, he was already in the end zone, bringing Utah up 10-7 on Cal early on.
“I played like a small back in between the linemen. When I broke out, they didn’t see me,” Booker said.
Booker was one of the lone bright spots in the offense on Saturday, but he only got as many yards as he did because of his teammates on the other side of the ball. Utah’s defense was all over Cal quarterback Jared Goff from the beginning, forcing five interceptions from the probable future NFL draft pick.
“I’m proud of our coaching staff and the defensive plan they put together for [Jared] Goff. It wasn’t our best night offensively, but we got six takeaways and scored 30 points,” Whittingham said.
Though he may not seem like it, wide receiver Kenneth Scott plays a strong role in the team’s run game. If it wasn’t for Scott, Booker might not be able to get to the outside as often as he does. The wide receiver is valuable to the offense in a number of ways, but Scott wants to see the offense continue to make improvements.
“I think we just need to remain humble and keep working hard,” Scott said. “You know there are a lot of things we need to correct, so we need to make sure we get on top of those things.”
Scott thinks Booker is capable of doing just about anything.
“He’s ‘Mr. Do-It-All’ man, and he can pass. It is great to have a guy like him on the team, because he really can do it all,” Scott said.
Giving Booker plenty of times to run the ball, Utah utilized him in effective ways. By the end of the game, he had 38 total touches, 222 yards rushing and two touchdowns on the ground. He now has six rushing touchdowns this season under his belt.
Collectively, Booker credits his efforts and run game to the offensive line and how they worked as a team Saturday night. Through dedicated practice and routine the Utes are executing the way Whittingham wants them to, and they are doing it together.
“They helped us out a lot, really — we just go out there and play like a team,” Booker said. “We do what we need to do out there that we’ve been practicing through the week. Like they say — ‘Practice perfect, you play perfect.” We had a great team win tonight, but we still need to work on some things.”
Whittingham is always reluctant to look too far past the next opponent and wants to take each game one contest at a time. As the Utes begin to prepare for their next opponent in Arizona State, they will work out those kinks in the offense that need improvement.
“The offensive line opened holes, and I just tried to make plays. We didn’t execute well in the red zone,” Booker said. “We got three points, but we wanted to get seven. That comes down to us on offense needing to do a better job.”
Whittingham, Booker and the team are confident in knowing that if they continue to work hard, that hustle will translate onto the field and in their performance.
“We just go out there and have fun and play hard. If something happens [we] are always going to face adversity,” Booker said. “But we just go out there and overcome that adversity and play as team.”
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