Despite losing to Washington, Utah moved up one spot in the AP rankings to No. 16.
The Utes lost a close 31-24 match with the No. 4 Huskies, but the Utes were ultimately unable to make enough plays to come out with a win. Head coach Kyle Whittingham is grateful that his team is getting the credit it deserves from voters, however, especially considering the fact that the Utes went toe-to-toe with one of the top teams in the nation.
“It’s a sign of respect and that was a positive thing to see,” Whittingham said.
Overall, Utah is happy with its performance and feels like it wasn’t caught off guard at any point in the game. The team is eager to get another shot at the Huskies if the two teams end up making it to the Pac-12 Championship game, but the Utes will need to clean up a few things on offense if they want to make it that far.
“It was two heavyweights going at it and we stuck it out with them,” Whittingham said. “We’re still not throwing the ball as effectively as we need to, but I still like the position we’re in.”
Bye week mentality
The Utes have a much needed bye week to rest up before it faces ASU — the Sun Devils also have a week off before next Thursday night’s matchup. Although Whittingham thinks that the bye week could have come a bit sooner with the amount of injuries the team has had to deal with this season, he is looking forward to getting some guys rested and prepared for the final stretch of the season.
“We’ll get rejuvenated and healed up as best we can in that time frame and then come back and be ready to play Thursday night,” Whittingham said.
Whittingham is hopeful that Marcus Williams, Harrison Handley and Sam Tevi will be ready to get back out on the field against ASU, but nothing is set in stone quite yet.
The Utes will a few days off this week. Monday will be the typical film and weight room session, but the players will get Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off. They’ll get back to the grind on Friday and start game planning for the ASU Sun Devils.
Williams picking up steam
Heading into the 2016 football season, the Utes were expected to run their offense through their quarterback, but the tides have turned over since Joe Williams came out of retirement to help the Utes at the running back position.
Against Washington, Williams finished with 172 rushing yards on 35 carries and had one rushing touchdown. Whittingham did not expect the senior to receive the same amount of carries former running back Devontae Booker had last season, but Williams has proved him wrong, and Whittingham isn’t afraid to put Williams in any high pressure situations on the field.
“I was clearly wrong [about the workload Williams can handle], he’s a different guy,” Whittingham said. “Since he’s come back, he has been a warrior and I cannot say enough positive things about Joe.”
@kbrenneisen