There are eight people on the Oregon State coaching staff who have had previous ties to the Utah football program. Most notably, Kalani Sitake and Ilaisa Tuiaki, both of whom left to join the Beavers after last season. Also, their head coach Gary Andersen was a part of the Utah coaching staff when the Utes won the Sugar Bowl back in the Urban Meyer era.
Jason Whittingham thinks of Sitake, Utah’s former defensive coordinator, as a good friend, and although the two have not spoken since the last time Sitake gave him a phone call to let him know he was leaving, Whittingham is looking forward to talking to him Saturday night. However, the Utes still need to finish their job and play hard.
“It’s a game I’ve been looking forward to because he was my coach,” Whittingham said. “When it comes down to it, we’re trying to win a game, so we can’t let that get into our heads too much that we’re going to see a bunch of old faces.”
Although he has respect for his former coach, he has a great bond with his current coach, Justin Ena, and knows everything is exactly how it is supposed to be.
“I’ll always know [Sitake] as coach because he was here when I first got here, and he kind of raised me in the first few years,” Whittingham said. “But I have a different coach now, and I love my coach right now. [Ena] motivates me and pushes me.”
Head coach Kyle Whittingham has maintained a relationship with Andersen for nearly 30 years now, and they speak almost every week. He also speaks to Sitake but does not try to bother him too much during the season.
When game time comes around, the Utah head coach is going to be completely focused on what his team will be able to accomplish.
“It’ll be business as usual,” he said.
Defensive struggles
Jason Whittingham knows as a defense that the Utes did not play to their typical standards in the matchup with USC, one consequence being that they caused no turnovers.
“We’re a no-excuse defense,” Whittingham said. “We didn’t get any turnovers, and you’re not going to win many games being down four turnovers.”
That said, he does think they did a nice job defending the run, but against USC’s star wideout JuJu Smith-Schuster, the defense had a lot of trouble containing him. Some of that can be attributed to the lack of pressure on the quarterback, and because of this, they were unable to do their job of relieving pressure off of Travis Wilson and the offense.
Whittingham knows if Utah is going to perform better this weekend against Oregon State, the Utes will need to be more aggressive in forcing OSU’s quarterback to make poor decisions.
“We need to get back into our groove,” Whittingham said. “We need a win to get back on track and get that feeling that we had before of winning six straight games. I think the leaders are really going to step up this week.”
Patrick done for season
Although Kyle Whittingham was hopeful Tim Patrick would be ready to go against USC this last weekend, Patrick was not confident in himself to step onto the field. Since he has missed seven games now, the team feels it is best he sits out the rest of the season to fully recover for next year, forcing him off of this year’s depth chart.
“We’re going to try and get him a medical hardship,” Whittingham said. “We thought he was going to be ready last week, he had a couple good weeks in practice, then he had a setback. We think he’d be best served this way.”
@kbrenneisen