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Kyle Whittingham quotes from weekly press conference

By JazzyUte

Coach Whittingham held his weekly press conference early this week where he discussed the NAU game and the Utes upcoming game against instate rival USU.

"It was good to get a win. We started slowly. Offensively and defensively, we didn't play very sharp early on. We had three personal fouls in the first quarter, which can't happen. It's tough to recover when you do things like that against an opponent that's going to be a more competitive situation. We've got to clean that up. Once we got that out of our system, I thought we played very well."

A good win against a poor D1-AA team. Still haven't learned much from this game and whether the Utes will improve greatly from their UCLA performance. I will say I was impressed with the way the offense rolled after a shaky start. Let's just hope it can continue this week.

"Defensively, we gave up the touchdown early, primarily due to a roughing the passer. Again, it was an undisciplined mistake that we've got to correct. We settled down after that and proceeded to pitch a shutout the rest of the way. Tackling was better after we settled down. We had some poor tackling early in the game. But it seemed like after we got down 7-0, we settled down and played pretty good football the rest of the way."

I believe these mistakes early were emotions of playing the home opener. It was in front of a near capacity crowd and clearly the Utes were trying to put the UCLA game behind them. As the game went on, the penalties began to disappear.

"On special teams, Louie Sakoda was good for a second week in a row. He only punted twice, but had a 62-yard average. He was 1-of-1 on field goals and 6-of-6 on PATs, so he was perfect for the day."

I wish the Utes averaged only two punts a game, but that isn't a realistic expectation. I will say this, Utah's special teams play has been fantastic in both the UCLA and NAU games. This was a big concern of mine when Meyer left for Florida because Meyer perfected it while at Utah. And I'm sure most Utah fans remember the special team woes under former head coach Ron McBride. Ugly memories, I'll tell you that much.

Whittingham then had this to say about Utah State.

"It is a long rivalry and is steeped in tradition. They're 0-2, but very solid against Arkansas. It was a close ballgame throughout and I thought they played well. They didn't fare so well against Wyoming the week before. It kind of got away from them a little bit late. I think they're very well-coached. We've had some great battles up in Logan over the years. We seem to get their best game every time. More times than not, it's a very competitive situation."

When has a coach ever come out and said a team wasn't well coached? Of course they're well coached in your eyes, coach, you've owned them over the years. The fact is, this game shouldn't be taken lightly, but it's still Utah State. Whittingham is turning into Lou Holtz with the way he talks up opposing teams.

It's a new rule that coaches will not discuss injuries until the Thursday prior to the game. However Shaun Harper suffered a broken arm in last week's win and will be out at least 6 weeks, outside of that it's unclear whether the Utes will miss any players for this week's contest.

Utah should roll into Logan and dominate, though I guess it could turn into a close game. If it does, however, I will have some major doubts about the Utes' chances this year.

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