Kyle Whittingham shares how he prepares for first-year coach Dan Lanning

Utah and Oregon face off this weekend in a Pac-12 matchup between two top teams ranked in the top 15 of the CFP rankings. There are tons of conference championship implications, as the Utes and Ducks are currently tied a the No. 2 spot in the Pac-12 standings. This will be the first meeting between head coaches Kyle Whittingham and Dan Lanning, and Whittingham spoke on how he’s preparing for the first year Ducks coach.

“Just like we’ve done every week, you watch the film, the film doesn’t lie,” Whittingham said. “That’s what tells you what you need to know, and what you have to defend, or what you have to attack, and how they’re going to attack you.”

Whittingham seems like he won’t be reinventing the wheel against Lanning despite this being their first meeting, as he’s currently in his 18th season at the helm for the Utes and will evaluate the Ducks the same way he always has.

“That really is no different than any other week of preparation for the season, you gotta digest the film and study it for hours and hours and then make your decisions on how you’re gonna approach the game. And they’ve done a really good job there, they’ve got good players and they’ve got good schemes, so he’s new and he’s off to a really good start,” Whittingham.

Both teams enter this matchup 8-2 with just just one conference loss apiece, as the Utes look to build on their four-game winning streak and the Ducks look to bounce back from their first loss since week one as they fell to Washington at home last weekend.

Whittingham pulled back the curtain a little bit and dissected specifically what film he will be watching and what he’ll be honing in on as he prepares for his matchup with Oregon.

“Well a few things, number one obviously the most recent is usually the most relevant, not always but mostly. Scheme that they’ve faced either defensively or offensively, similar schemes, like schemes, are attacked fairly similar from week to week as far as that goes,” Whittingham said. “Injuries obviously, who’s available for him, who’s out. So there’s a lot of things that go into it but like I said, teams seem to evolve during the course of the year and find out who they are and by this time you know exactly who they are.”

This exciting matchup kicks off at 10:30 p.m. in Eugene, Oregon and will air on ESPN this Saturday.