Dan Lanning impressed by Kyle Whittingham overcoming injuries at Utah

Throughout the season, Utah has been dealing with several notable injuries that, seemingly, haven’t slowed down the Utes. For Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, it’s been incredibly impressive to see what Utah’s Kyle Whittingham has been able to do.

Ahead of their meeting, Lanning emphasized how impressive it is for Utah to seamlessly be able to shuffle players around the field due to injuries.

“The amount of injuries that they’ve dealt with,” Dan Lanning said. “And for him to be able to utilize defensive personnel on offense and shuffle positions and utilize offensive linemen at tight end and I think it’s just really impressive.”

Ultimately, Dan Lanning pointed out that it’s a credit to both Kyle Whittingham and his coaching staff that the Utes have been able to adjust to their rapidly changing personnel all season long.

“You know, everyone’s always known that he’s a great coach, but the way that he’s been able and his staff has been able to utilize the people they have, you know, I know the beginning the year he spoke about the depth of his team, it’s starting to really show up. He has good depth, but they’re utilizing people in different ways than they anticipated when the year started and he’s done a great job coaching that group.”

The most notable injury for Utah is still the injury to Cam Rising, the team’s starting quarterback. He went down in last year’s Rose Bowl with a knee injury that he still hasn’t been able to return from. That culminated with Kyle Whittingham announcing Rising won’t play in 2023.

Picking the point spread between Oregon and Utah

The game between Oregon and Duke on Saturday is shaping up to be one of the best games of the weekend. With that, On3‘s Andy Staples and Clark Brooks broke down the game, looking at the point spread, which according to FanDuel has Oregon as a 7-point road favorite.

“I think it’s gonna come down to who can tackle better in space. Bo Nix has been a little bit of a conservative quarterback. He’s throwing passes really close to the line of scrimmage. His average depth of target this year is under seven yards,” Brooks said.

“So, clearly below the national mean and that’s put a lot of heavy lifting into their receivers. Troy Franklin, Tez Johnson, they’re obviously very great pass catchers in their own right. But the way Utah is playing, they are easily a home dog that I cannot ignore at 5.5. …I think because of how Utah tackles better and gets off the field better, they’re gonna be able to come away not only with a cover, but a money line win straight up.”