Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. Utah (Oct. 8, 2022)
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 42, Utah 32
Pasadena, Calif. (Rose Bowl)
October 8, 2022
UCLA head coach Chip Kelly
on his reaction to the win over Utah
“I think they had a great week of training. They understand that how you train during the week is how you play on Saturday. These guys have really started to figure that out. We had confidence going into the game. Our confidence was based on demonstrated ability. They trained at a really high level this week, and when you are playing six games into the season and it’s your best week of training, those are the results. The tough thing is that you can’t replicate that every week, or at least, that’s the challenge. So those guys have got to understand that. I told them that if you fall in love with the process, the process will love you back. And that is what was on display tonight.”
on this being a complete win on offense and defense
“And special teams. Our return game did a really, really nice job. I think in all phases, and to be a good football team, you are going to need all phases. And I think they’ve handled it – we have always talked about three things happen during a game. Momentum swings, adversity, and just random acts. And in losing Blay [Stephen Blaylock] early, our guys didn’t miss a beat. He is the leader for us on the back end, but he’s out, he’s out. So he is out for the rest of the game, so who is the next man up? Credit to that group on the back end. I thought they did a really nice job against an outstanding quarterback. I’ve got all the respect in the world for Cam Rising.”
on how happy he is for the players to experience this type of success
“Yeah, and that’s what it is about. How much work you put in. The great thing about football is that you can’t fake it. Once you get across the white line, pretenders get exposed. You have to put the work in. And it’s hard. The best thing this team does, and I got this from Buzz Williams at Texas A&M, a good friend of mine, but the best thing this team does is every day. And the hardest things they do is every day. They come to work every single day. And it is paying off for them on Saturdays. It’s really cool to watch that. You see it kind of morph in front of your face. It’s really cool.”
on UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson
“It’s pretty cool for what Dorian has done. The work that he has put in, I think that people don’t realize if you don’t see him on a daily basis. How important being good is, it just takes a lot for quarterback. There is way more than just films and meetings and all those other things. There is so much work that you have to do. He has invested a ton in himself and he’s reaping the rewards of that. Really happy for him, seeing how he has grown as a person and grown as a leader. It’s cool to watch. It is well-deserved. When you start to think about the quarterbacks and the history of UCLA – that is pretty cool just to be on. So I’m really happy for Dorian and it is well-deserved.”
on if he believes this team is markedly different from the first three games
“I think that we have gotten better each week. The cool part about this group is that our goal is to be the most prepared team and the least distracted team. I don’t think that any of us are governed by the fear of what other people say. It is a tough society now-a-days, with likes and everybody, do they like this or do they like that? Just go play football and that’s the fun part. The best part about football is football. And our kids really enjoy playing football and that is what you saw on display today. Marked improvement? No. I’m telling you. I don’t see a marked improvement. I saw a really good football team last spring. I saw a really good football team in week one, and I see a really good football team in week six. I think that we have gotten better, incrementally, from week one to week two to week three to week four because we are all a byproduct of our experiences. But markedly, that would not be a word that is in my vocabulary.”
on if this is the best stretch that Dorian Thompson-Robinson has had at UCLA
“Did you see him play in the Coliseum last year? When he threw for four [touchdowns] and ran for two? Or the year before, where he was 30 for 35 against them? He has had a lot of really good games. But I think that some of us have a selective memory when it comes to Dorian, but I don’t. I appreciate every day that he plays here and every day that I get a chance to coach him.”
on UCLA running back Zach Charbonnet and the stability he provides
“Zach is our workhorse. With the amount of work that he puts in, and I could say that about everybody when you ask a question about a player, but the work ethic and dedication. The physicality that he plays with. You feel really confident in handing him the ball because you know that it’s going to be a positive result when you give him the football. Again, he is another guy that, what you see on Saturday is what we see every day with him. He has done a tremendous job and we are very fortunate to have him. I think that he has taken a new step every game that he has played here, and that is the great thing about Zach. He strives to get better on a daily basis and I think that we see that all the time.”
on how he keeps the momentum going during an off week
“Well, we have an improvement week coming up. We are not playing next Saturday. And it’s one of the toughest things to do with any team is to kind of replicate what you are doing. I think that it goes back to us personally just embracing the process and coming back to work. I know that these guys will do that. They have been great for six [games]. We have got challenges coming up. There are some really good teams coming up on our schedule. We’ll have to go on the road – with six games left, we have three on the road and three at home. But we’ll enjoy this one. They have tomorrow off, and we’ll be back at it on Monday.”
on if they saw anything to help set up a 70-yard pass route from Dorian to Logan Loya
“Yeah, we just made that slant adjustment at halftime and talked about putting that route in. It wasn’t in the gameplan but we added it at halftime. Dorian and Logan and the whole group executed it perfectly. But those are the types of kids that we have. We can put things in that we hadn’t run all week, and they can execute it, so the credit goes to those guys.”
on the national perception of Dorian Thompson-Robinson and how much attention he should get
“Bill, that’s a great question, but I am the wrong guy to answer. I don’t pay attention to any of that stuff. I don’t know what he gets or what he doesn’t get. I apologize, because I know that you are on a lot of those shows and I just don’t watch them. So I don’t know, but I do think that he should be in the talk as far as one of the better players in the country. I agree with that. But I don’t pay attention to that, so I apologize.”
on how this feels for him to see this team get some more attention, based off the success
“It’s not about attention. But the thing that makes me so happy is that our players have embraced the process and what they’re seeing is what they are getting out of it. That is the joy that you gain from it. So when I watch our players have success, I see the smiles on their faces, I watch that celebration in the locker room, those are the things that really get us going as people and are the reasons that we get up in the morning and go to work. But for accolades and what is written in the newspaper, that is what you guys do and I’m not slighting that, but I’m not paying any attention to that. And if I preach to our players that we should be the most prepared and the least distracted, then I cannot get caught up with that stuff. I am really good at selective ignorance and there are just a lot of things that I don’t pay attention to.”
UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson
opening remarks
"I definitely wanted this one. We all know the history between UCLA and Utah, haven’t beat time since 2016, the point differential has been crazy. So we knew the beast at hand coming in here, and I think my boys went out there and went to work, baby. It was a proud moment for me to see, for sure.”
on taking over the No. 1 spot for UCLA passing touchdowns
"It’s a really good question. It’s great to have my name there, but I think the thing that’s made me the most emotional right now is seeing how happy my guys in my locker room were for me. The coaching staff, everybody that’s been here since I was a freshman, just re-thinking all the hard times I went through. All the bickering back-and-forth, the transitioning going on throughout the program, again I just can’t say how thankful I am and how grateful I am to be on this team right now.”
UCLA wide receiver Jake Bobo
on what being 6-0 means to him
“Bowl eligible.”
on maintaining the connection with DTR
“Right place, right time. I think in the red zone, windows are condensed. Bullets are flying, especially when you get in there tight. I take pride in being a guy he looks for. I hope he continues to do so. Definitely a connection there, happy that he trusts me to make a play down there.”
UCLA running back Zach Charbonnet
On what being 6-0 means to him
“To be honest with you, it doesn’t mean [anything]. We’ve got to just keep coming in every week, I feel like. We’ve got Oregon up next, so we’ve got a little improvement week coming up. We’ve got to improve during that week and then go into Oregon and be ready. That’s what this team is focused on.”
on his big performance
“We got a look of the looks we wanted, and the O-line obviously played outstanding. It always helps being able to have Dorian also, we feed off each other.”
on his yards past the line of scrimmage
“That’s something we really emphasize, being able to make the first guy miss. So I’m just thankful for the line getting me up to the next level and being able to go one-on-one and make someone miss.”
UCLA defensive back Mo Osling III
on what the team can improve on in the bye week
“For me, I just feel like going back to the basics. Linemen assignments and technique and just getting back to what we know like not making it much more than we do. We’re going to have (good) plays and have bad plays, but we go to the film room and correct them. If we just stay together, we’re going to be alright.”
on what it says about the secondary to play well after losing Stephen Blaylock to ejection
“I feel like everybody prepares to play in the secondary. We lost Blay on the field, but he was still vocal on the sidelines. He was still out there coaching us. A big shoutout to (William Nimmo Jr.). He stepped up in a big game and came out to play and a (shoutout) to all the (defensive backs) out there: Kirkwood, Humphrey, Churchwell, Azizi.”
on what it’s like watching Zach Charbonnet break out those big runs
“That boy is a workhorse, man. We’re like, ‘Dang.’ Coach Foster always says you’ve got make the first guy miss and he does that pretty often.”
On what it means to come in and stop Utah
“We just came out there and executed our game plan. We didn’t try to make the game too much bigger than what it was. Every week is a big game for us. We just went out there, we played together. We did nothing more, nothing less. Just came out there as one. Control our one of 11 and just tried to execute our game plan.
On what it feels to go through ups and downs to be here 6-0
“I just feel like it was part of the process. You can never be too high, be too low. So we had to go through that to get to where we are right now. We just keep moving forward, take it in day by day, game by game, week by week. Don’t look too far ahead. We’ve got to focus on Oregon right now with the bye week coming up. So just get healthy and come out there next week ready to play.”
UCLA linebacker Darius Muasau
on what the team can improve on in the bye week
“Something we can improve on is the run defense. We’ve got to be able to stop the run. Although, Utah is known for their physical (running), downhill (running). But we gave up a little too much yards. More than we thought we could hold them to. So, in this improvement week we are going to fix up our front seven, our D-Line, inside linebacker and outside linebackers. We are going to make sure we’re tacking well and (filling) gaps.”
on celebrating the win
“Like the other guys said, we’re going to enjoy this for a good 24 hours. A short stint. Then we’re back to work. This is improvement week. We’re focused on Oregon after today.”
on what it’s like watching Zach Charbonnet break out those big runs
“It’s nothing new. We se eit every day at practice, spring ball, fall camp. You can do whatever you want to try to stop him, but he’s going to get those yards no matter what.”
on what the locker room was like after the win
“We were turnt up. … Winning is not easy, so when we get a big win like this, we’ve got to celebrate. Only for 24 hours and we’re onto the next.”
On interception and forced fumble
“My interception we ran a little cover two. I dropped back in coverage, reading the quarterback. Watching film this week, they wanted to attack the middle of the field; that’s where most of his charted throws were at. I just read the quarterback and was able to make a play on the seam. He threw a seam ball from the boundary, and I was able to read that and just take that away. The forced fumble was a fourth and one, short play. Watching film this week, we knew what they wanted to do, just downhill runs. That’s all they wanted to do the whole game. A little counter action. I saw that on film and knew I had to just come down and make a play for the boys. I was able to put my helmet on the ball, that thing popped out, and Jaylin Davies was Johnny on the Spot and picked up the ball. Unfortunately he didn’t get it to the crib, but Charb was able to punch it in the next play.”
Utah head coach Kyle Wittingham
Opening remarks
“That’s a really good football team we played today. They deserve a ton of credit. They’re athletic, fast, they have a lot of length, so, they were as advertised. I thought we did some good things particularly on offense. I thought Cam played well. He threw for nearly 300 [yards] and gave us another 70 rushing, 60 if you take away a couple of the sacks. Devaughn Vele had had another big day with nearly 100 yards. The whole problem really in the second half was that we couldn’t get any stops. The stop we did have we got roughing the passer, so that was really our chance to get right back in it and take the lead. We made that mistake and didn’t seem to recover from that. We couldn’t get a stop the rest of the way. Again, they’re a good team, 6-0 for a reason, and we got to now bounce back. Very eerily similar situation to last year at about this time. I can’t remember exactly what the situation was record wise but very similar at 4-2. I would be willing to bet a lot of money that no one goes through this conference undefeated, there are too many good teams. By no means are we out of contention and the key now is for us to pick ourselves up and go back to work on Monday.”
On breakdowns with run defense
“Our run defense was pretty good for the most part, it was the big plays that killed us. Lose a gap and whenever we lost a gap, they exploited that. We missed too many tackles and we had a few breakdowns. They had a bunch of big plays both in the receiving game and the rushing game. That really is what did us in was their big play capability.”
On the roughing the passer call in the 3rd that would’ve given them the ball with a chance for the lead
“Who knows how it would have turned out. That play didn’t cost us the game, I don’t want to paint that picture, but we had complete momentum there and had we got the stop we would have got the ball back coming off a touchdown drive and you never know. Did that one play cost us the game, no. It never comes down to one play. At that point in the game that was a critical play because we had momentum and we lost it just like that.”
On Tavion [Thomas] getting back on track
“Tavion played his best game of the year. We were leaning on him quite heavily for a while there. We got to the point where we needed to start throwing it but proud of the way he played. He caught the ball well out of the backfield. Hopefully he can stay in a positive direction and be a force for us. It was around this time last year that he started to get some traction and really started to become a major player for us.”
On defensive performance resembling that of the Florida game
“A little different today. The quarterback run game of Florida was damaging, that wasn’t so damaging today. It wasn’t a ton of yards, 17 net, it wasn’t a big deal like the [Anthony] Richardson kid from Florida. Like I said the big plays of over 30 yards it was more than we usually give up. Credit them they got really good athletes. Chip has done a good job of putting everything together, he’s got a 5th year quarterback, and this is a year that they can really flourish.”
On preparation for road games opposed to home games
“I think our process is good it’s the same process we have always used, and it works. We do things that we believe in. You don’t panic and try to pull out some gimmicks, that usually works in the reverse direction.”
On where you go from here
“We talked about that in the locker room. This is very reminiscent of last year and we picked ourselves up off the mat last year and regrouped. It’s about how you respond; everyone would love to go undefeated but at the end of the day there’s probably one undefeated team in the country so you’ve got to respond. Everyone’s got to respond from losses at one point or another, you just hope it’s not too often.”
Utah cornerback Clark Phillips III
on the Utes’ defensive struggles
“Man, we just made a lot of mistakes today. Made a lot of mistakes and they capitalized. They made more plays than we did. That’s why the score was the score.”
on if there is a vibe missing from last year and how to revive it
“Personally, I have all the confidence in the world in my guys. I haven’t lost any confidence in them from day one. That is the same group of guys I go to war with every single day. I feel good about the vibe, personally. I feel good about it. We just have to make more plays and play our assignment and when plays come to us we’ve got to make them.”
Utah quarterback Cameron Rising
on what was different from Florida and UCLA’s defenses
“I think a little bit of that. But more so us making mistakes. We didn’t make plays that we should have made.”
on how disappointing the result was
“It was just bad ball. We put bad ball on tape and it’s really not something we’re looking to do. There’s a lot of stuff that I need to clean up to make sure that we’re rolling as an offense to be better.”
UCLA 42, Utah 32
Pasadena, Calif. (Rose Bowl)
October 8, 2022
UCLA head coach Chip Kelly
on his reaction to the win over Utah
“I think they had a great week of training. They understand that how you train during the week is how you play on Saturday. These guys have really started to figure that out. We had confidence going into the game. Our confidence was based on demonstrated ability. They trained at a really high level this week, and when you are playing six games into the season and it’s your best week of training, those are the results. The tough thing is that you can’t replicate that every week, or at least, that’s the challenge. So those guys have got to understand that. I told them that if you fall in love with the process, the process will love you back. And that is what was on display tonight.”
on this being a complete win on offense and defense
“And special teams. Our return game did a really, really nice job. I think in all phases, and to be a good football team, you are going to need all phases. And I think they’ve handled it – we have always talked about three things happen during a game. Momentum swings, adversity, and just random acts. And in losing Blay [Stephen Blaylock] early, our guys didn’t miss a beat. He is the leader for us on the back end, but he’s out, he’s out. So he is out for the rest of the game, so who is the next man up? Credit to that group on the back end. I thought they did a really nice job against an outstanding quarterback. I’ve got all the respect in the world for Cam Rising.”
on how happy he is for the players to experience this type of success
“Yeah, and that’s what it is about. How much work you put in. The great thing about football is that you can’t fake it. Once you get across the white line, pretenders get exposed. You have to put the work in. And it’s hard. The best thing this team does, and I got this from Buzz Williams at Texas A&M, a good friend of mine, but the best thing this team does is every day. And the hardest things they do is every day. They come to work every single day. And it is paying off for them on Saturdays. It’s really cool to watch that. You see it kind of morph in front of your face. It’s really cool.”
on UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson
“It’s pretty cool for what Dorian has done. The work that he has put in, I think that people don’t realize if you don’t see him on a daily basis. How important being good is, it just takes a lot for quarterback. There is way more than just films and meetings and all those other things. There is so much work that you have to do. He has invested a ton in himself and he’s reaping the rewards of that. Really happy for him, seeing how he has grown as a person and grown as a leader. It’s cool to watch. It is well-deserved. When you start to think about the quarterbacks and the history of UCLA – that is pretty cool just to be on. So I’m really happy for Dorian and it is well-deserved.”
on if he believes this team is markedly different from the first three games
“I think that we have gotten better each week. The cool part about this group is that our goal is to be the most prepared team and the least distracted team. I don’t think that any of us are governed by the fear of what other people say. It is a tough society now-a-days, with likes and everybody, do they like this or do they like that? Just go play football and that’s the fun part. The best part about football is football. And our kids really enjoy playing football and that is what you saw on display today. Marked improvement? No. I’m telling you. I don’t see a marked improvement. I saw a really good football team last spring. I saw a really good football team in week one, and I see a really good football team in week six. I think that we have gotten better, incrementally, from week one to week two to week three to week four because we are all a byproduct of our experiences. But markedly, that would not be a word that is in my vocabulary.”
on if this is the best stretch that Dorian Thompson-Robinson has had at UCLA
“Did you see him play in the Coliseum last year? When he threw for four [touchdowns] and ran for two? Or the year before, where he was 30 for 35 against them? He has had a lot of really good games. But I think that some of us have a selective memory when it comes to Dorian, but I don’t. I appreciate every day that he plays here and every day that I get a chance to coach him.”
on UCLA running back Zach Charbonnet and the stability he provides
“Zach is our workhorse. With the amount of work that he puts in, and I could say that about everybody when you ask a question about a player, but the work ethic and dedication. The physicality that he plays with. You feel really confident in handing him the ball because you know that it’s going to be a positive result when you give him the football. Again, he is another guy that, what you see on Saturday is what we see every day with him. He has done a tremendous job and we are very fortunate to have him. I think that he has taken a new step every game that he has played here, and that is the great thing about Zach. He strives to get better on a daily basis and I think that we see that all the time.”
on how he keeps the momentum going during an off week
“Well, we have an improvement week coming up. We are not playing next Saturday. And it’s one of the toughest things to do with any team is to kind of replicate what you are doing. I think that it goes back to us personally just embracing the process and coming back to work. I know that these guys will do that. They have been great for six [games]. We have got challenges coming up. There are some really good teams coming up on our schedule. We’ll have to go on the road – with six games left, we have three on the road and three at home. But we’ll enjoy this one. They have tomorrow off, and we’ll be back at it on Monday.”
on if they saw anything to help set up a 70-yard pass route from Dorian to Logan Loya
“Yeah, we just made that slant adjustment at halftime and talked about putting that route in. It wasn’t in the gameplan but we added it at halftime. Dorian and Logan and the whole group executed it perfectly. But those are the types of kids that we have. We can put things in that we hadn’t run all week, and they can execute it, so the credit goes to those guys.”
on the national perception of Dorian Thompson-Robinson and how much attention he should get
“Bill, that’s a great question, but I am the wrong guy to answer. I don’t pay attention to any of that stuff. I don’t know what he gets or what he doesn’t get. I apologize, because I know that you are on a lot of those shows and I just don’t watch them. So I don’t know, but I do think that he should be in the talk as far as one of the better players in the country. I agree with that. But I don’t pay attention to that, so I apologize.”
on how this feels for him to see this team get some more attention, based off the success
“It’s not about attention. But the thing that makes me so happy is that our players have embraced the process and what they’re seeing is what they are getting out of it. That is the joy that you gain from it. So when I watch our players have success, I see the smiles on their faces, I watch that celebration in the locker room, those are the things that really get us going as people and are the reasons that we get up in the morning and go to work. But for accolades and what is written in the newspaper, that is what you guys do and I’m not slighting that, but I’m not paying any attention to that. And if I preach to our players that we should be the most prepared and the least distracted, then I cannot get caught up with that stuff. I am really good at selective ignorance and there are just a lot of things that I don’t pay attention to.”
UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson
opening remarks
"I definitely wanted this one. We all know the history between UCLA and Utah, haven’t beat time since 2016, the point differential has been crazy. So we knew the beast at hand coming in here, and I think my boys went out there and went to work, baby. It was a proud moment for me to see, for sure.”
on taking over the No. 1 spot for UCLA passing touchdowns
"It’s a really good question. It’s great to have my name there, but I think the thing that’s made me the most emotional right now is seeing how happy my guys in my locker room were for me. The coaching staff, everybody that’s been here since I was a freshman, just re-thinking all the hard times I went through. All the bickering back-and-forth, the transitioning going on throughout the program, again I just can’t say how thankful I am and how grateful I am to be on this team right now.”
UCLA wide receiver Jake Bobo
on what being 6-0 means to him
“Bowl eligible.”
on maintaining the connection with DTR
“Right place, right time. I think in the red zone, windows are condensed. Bullets are flying, especially when you get in there tight. I take pride in being a guy he looks for. I hope he continues to do so. Definitely a connection there, happy that he trusts me to make a play down there.”
UCLA running back Zach Charbonnet
On what being 6-0 means to him
“To be honest with you, it doesn’t mean [anything]. We’ve got to just keep coming in every week, I feel like. We’ve got Oregon up next, so we’ve got a little improvement week coming up. We’ve got to improve during that week and then go into Oregon and be ready. That’s what this team is focused on.”
on his big performance
“We got a look of the looks we wanted, and the O-line obviously played outstanding. It always helps being able to have Dorian also, we feed off each other.”
on his yards past the line of scrimmage
“That’s something we really emphasize, being able to make the first guy miss. So I’m just thankful for the line getting me up to the next level and being able to go one-on-one and make someone miss.”
UCLA defensive back Mo Osling III
on what the team can improve on in the bye week
“For me, I just feel like going back to the basics. Linemen assignments and technique and just getting back to what we know like not making it much more than we do. We’re going to have (good) plays and have bad plays, but we go to the film room and correct them. If we just stay together, we’re going to be alright.”
on what it says about the secondary to play well after losing Stephen Blaylock to ejection
“I feel like everybody prepares to play in the secondary. We lost Blay on the field, but he was still vocal on the sidelines. He was still out there coaching us. A big shoutout to (William Nimmo Jr.). He stepped up in a big game and came out to play and a (shoutout) to all the (defensive backs) out there: Kirkwood, Humphrey, Churchwell, Azizi.”
on what it’s like watching Zach Charbonnet break out those big runs
“That boy is a workhorse, man. We’re like, ‘Dang.’ Coach Foster always says you’ve got make the first guy miss and he does that pretty often.”
On what it means to come in and stop Utah
“We just came out there and executed our game plan. We didn’t try to make the game too much bigger than what it was. Every week is a big game for us. We just went out there, we played together. We did nothing more, nothing less. Just came out there as one. Control our one of 11 and just tried to execute our game plan.
On what it feels to go through ups and downs to be here 6-0
“I just feel like it was part of the process. You can never be too high, be too low. So we had to go through that to get to where we are right now. We just keep moving forward, take it in day by day, game by game, week by week. Don’t look too far ahead. We’ve got to focus on Oregon right now with the bye week coming up. So just get healthy and come out there next week ready to play.”
UCLA linebacker Darius Muasau
on what the team can improve on in the bye week
“Something we can improve on is the run defense. We’ve got to be able to stop the run. Although, Utah is known for their physical (running), downhill (running). But we gave up a little too much yards. More than we thought we could hold them to. So, in this improvement week we are going to fix up our front seven, our D-Line, inside linebacker and outside linebackers. We are going to make sure we’re tacking well and (filling) gaps.”
on celebrating the win
“Like the other guys said, we’re going to enjoy this for a good 24 hours. A short stint. Then we’re back to work. This is improvement week. We’re focused on Oregon after today.”
on what it’s like watching Zach Charbonnet break out those big runs
“It’s nothing new. We se eit every day at practice, spring ball, fall camp. You can do whatever you want to try to stop him, but he’s going to get those yards no matter what.”
on what the locker room was like after the win
“We were turnt up. … Winning is not easy, so when we get a big win like this, we’ve got to celebrate. Only for 24 hours and we’re onto the next.”
On interception and forced fumble
“My interception we ran a little cover two. I dropped back in coverage, reading the quarterback. Watching film this week, they wanted to attack the middle of the field; that’s where most of his charted throws were at. I just read the quarterback and was able to make a play on the seam. He threw a seam ball from the boundary, and I was able to read that and just take that away. The forced fumble was a fourth and one, short play. Watching film this week, we knew what they wanted to do, just downhill runs. That’s all they wanted to do the whole game. A little counter action. I saw that on film and knew I had to just come down and make a play for the boys. I was able to put my helmet on the ball, that thing popped out, and Jaylin Davies was Johnny on the Spot and picked up the ball. Unfortunately he didn’t get it to the crib, but Charb was able to punch it in the next play.”
Utah head coach Kyle Wittingham
Opening remarks
“That’s a really good football team we played today. They deserve a ton of credit. They’re athletic, fast, they have a lot of length, so, they were as advertised. I thought we did some good things particularly on offense. I thought Cam played well. He threw for nearly 300 [yards] and gave us another 70 rushing, 60 if you take away a couple of the sacks. Devaughn Vele had had another big day with nearly 100 yards. The whole problem really in the second half was that we couldn’t get any stops. The stop we did have we got roughing the passer, so that was really our chance to get right back in it and take the lead. We made that mistake and didn’t seem to recover from that. We couldn’t get a stop the rest of the way. Again, they’re a good team, 6-0 for a reason, and we got to now bounce back. Very eerily similar situation to last year at about this time. I can’t remember exactly what the situation was record wise but very similar at 4-2. I would be willing to bet a lot of money that no one goes through this conference undefeated, there are too many good teams. By no means are we out of contention and the key now is for us to pick ourselves up and go back to work on Monday.”
On breakdowns with run defense
“Our run defense was pretty good for the most part, it was the big plays that killed us. Lose a gap and whenever we lost a gap, they exploited that. We missed too many tackles and we had a few breakdowns. They had a bunch of big plays both in the receiving game and the rushing game. That really is what did us in was their big play capability.”
On the roughing the passer call in the 3rd that would’ve given them the ball with a chance for the lead
“Who knows how it would have turned out. That play didn’t cost us the game, I don’t want to paint that picture, but we had complete momentum there and had we got the stop we would have got the ball back coming off a touchdown drive and you never know. Did that one play cost us the game, no. It never comes down to one play. At that point in the game that was a critical play because we had momentum and we lost it just like that.”
On Tavion [Thomas] getting back on track
“Tavion played his best game of the year. We were leaning on him quite heavily for a while there. We got to the point where we needed to start throwing it but proud of the way he played. He caught the ball well out of the backfield. Hopefully he can stay in a positive direction and be a force for us. It was around this time last year that he started to get some traction and really started to become a major player for us.”
On defensive performance resembling that of the Florida game
“A little different today. The quarterback run game of Florida was damaging, that wasn’t so damaging today. It wasn’t a ton of yards, 17 net, it wasn’t a big deal like the [Anthony] Richardson kid from Florida. Like I said the big plays of over 30 yards it was more than we usually give up. Credit them they got really good athletes. Chip has done a good job of putting everything together, he’s got a 5th year quarterback, and this is a year that they can really flourish.”
On preparation for road games opposed to home games
“I think our process is good it’s the same process we have always used, and it works. We do things that we believe in. You don’t panic and try to pull out some gimmicks, that usually works in the reverse direction.”
On where you go from here
“We talked about that in the locker room. This is very reminiscent of last year and we picked ourselves up off the mat last year and regrouped. It’s about how you respond; everyone would love to go undefeated but at the end of the day there’s probably one undefeated team in the country so you’ve got to respond. Everyone’s got to respond from losses at one point or another, you just hope it’s not too often.”
Utah cornerback Clark Phillips III
on the Utes’ defensive struggles
“Man, we just made a lot of mistakes today. Made a lot of mistakes and they capitalized. They made more plays than we did. That’s why the score was the score.”
on if there is a vibe missing from last year and how to revive it
“Personally, I have all the confidence in the world in my guys. I haven’t lost any confidence in them from day one. That is the same group of guys I go to war with every single day. I feel good about the vibe, personally. I feel good about it. We just have to make more plays and play our assignment and when plays come to us we’ve got to make them.”
Utah quarterback Cameron Rising
on what was different from Florida and UCLA’s defenses
“I think a little bit of that. But more so us making mistakes. We didn’t make plays that we should have made.”
on how disappointing the result was
“It was just bad ball. We put bad ball on tape and it’s really not something we’re looking to do. There’s a lot of stuff that I need to clean up to make sure that we’re rolling as an offense to be better.”