Notable quotes from Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham ahead of Saturday's showdown with Oregon

Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham met with reporters on Monday to discuss the No. 10-ranked Utes’ Week 12 showdown with No. 13 Oregon in Eugene.

Here’s a transcript of select quotes provided by the Utah athletic department, along with a video of his full press conference.

Opening Statement

“To start off, we want to send our condolences from our program to Virginia. A tragic, horrific situation that they’re going through. Thoughts and prayers are with them and their program. It’s awful. I don’t know what more you can say. We are thinking about them.

“Also, we lost a fan at our game on Saturday. Had a heart attack at the game and passed away. Things that you hate to hear about. But thoughts and prayers to the family of our fan that passed away.

“Getting into less important things, football. Good game by our players on Saturday night. Slow start, but doesn’t really matter; you judge everything in its entirety as I’ve said over and over. We ended up scoring touchdowns on six of our last seven drives offensively. I don’t count the last drive, which was two plays and the end of the game. But the seven drives previous to that, we scored six times. Defense start to finish was lights out. Played terrific. We did give up one score early in the game, but that was it. We held them under 200 yards and less than 10 first downs, 20 yards or so rushing. A dominating performance by our defense. They’ve really strung together some good stuff in the last four, eight, 10 quarters or so, maybe more. It’s been good. Special teams, we did some good things there. It wasn’t a fake punt, but the built-in keep by our punter, when he saw the look that warranted that, did a nice job making that decision. Fourth down in general was good to us, particularly in the first half. We didn’t have any fourth downs in the second half; didn’t get to fourth down. In the first half, we had six fourth downs and converted on four of them, the other two we punted. That was a big positive as well allowing us to keep the football and keep drives alive. That was another very big positive from the game.

“Obviously, the game this week has conference implications, as does every game. You say this is a big game, they’re all big. If you lose one prior to this, then this game doesn’t matter. Every game is important. It’s going to be a tough environment in Autzen Stadium. That’s just a difficult place to play, one of the loudest places in the country. We’ve got to handle the crucible that is Autzen Stadium. That’s just what it is. (Oregon) has played good football this year. Lost their first game to Georgia and their last game. But in between, they’ve been playing lights out. They didn’t play poorly against Washington, either. Washington just played exceptionally well and won the game. Oregon’s terrific on offense, leading the league in total offense; first or second in points; first or second in first downs. They’re doing a lot of really good things…we’ve got our work cut out for us and our hands full on defense to try and slow that down. We’ll work hard this week, hopefully have a great Monday through Friday preparation and then let it rip on Saturday. We’ll see what happens.”

On what this team has learned from “big game” moments up to this point…

“I think that for the players that experienced that last year, certainly it’s a benefit for them. Of course, the new guys it’s neither here nor there. But we’ve had our backs to the wall ever since UCLA. Every single game has been a pressure game. That’s what you want to play in. If you’re not playing in pressure games, that means you’re irrelevant. You don’t want to be irrelevant; you want your backs to be against the wall or each game being critical, which is the situation we’re in. We welcome that. Our guys have handled that very well since UCLA, four or five games. So that’s something we don’t look at as anything but a big positive. There’s a reason it’s a pressure game and a big game, because you’ve earned that right to have it be that. That’s something that we welcome.”

On getting the Utes to a point being in the Pac-12 race deep into November the last several years…

“It’s extremely gratifying, and it speaks to the talent and competitiveness of our players. You go back and look at why we have those types of players, because our assistant coaches do such a great job bringing the right type of player into this program…from a talent standpoint, attitude standpoint and a character standpoint. We’ve been in the hunt for a lot of years deep into the season. When you have good players, good things typically happen. Very gratifying in that respect.”

On how Tavion Thomas can factor into the rotation at Oregon…
“We’ll see how the week goes and what the plan is. But I can’t see him not being a big part of what we do. You’re right, he came off of one of his best performances (vs. Stanford) and was very productive for us to say the least. That’s an understatement. Hopefully we get more of the same this week.”

On Jim Harding’s work with the offensive line…

“Jim Harding, as I’ve said many times, is one of the best offensive line coaches in the country at any level. He gets his guys ready. To be on our third center, Kolinu’u Faaiu came in and didn’t miss a beat. Graded out exceptionally well, answered the bell and was ready to play. That just tells you about (Harding’s) ability to prepare a group, have depth in that group and be able to put a good product out there, regardless of the circumstances.”

On what differences stand out most between this Oregon team and last season…

“QB, without a doubt. Bo Nix is a tremendous player. I believe he’s second or third in QBR in the country. We have five Pac-12 quarterbacks in the top 12 of QBR, which speaks to the level of the quarterback in this conference and how many good players there are. But that is absolutely the single biggest difference between last year and this year.”

On prepping for a Dan Lanning-coached team for the first time…

“(We’ll prep) just like we’ve done every week. You watch the film, the film doesn’t lie. That’s what tells you what you need to know, what you have to defend, what you have to attack and how they’re going to attack you. That really is no different than any other week of preparation for the season. You’ve got to digest the film, study it for hours and hours and then make your decisions on how you’re going to approach the game. They’ve done a really good job there. They’ve got good players and they’ve got good schemes. He’s off to a really good start.”

On how offensive efficiency can impact decision-making on fourth down…

“On fourth downs, there’s a lot of analytics information that goes into that. We’re not completely ruled by analytics; it’s a guideline and a reference…you’ve got to have a feel for the game, what’s going on at the line of scrimmage, how is your back running…I would say right now our confidence level is very high, our percentage on fourth down is very good this season, both ways. Our defense is outstanding defending fourth down and our offense doing a great job on fourth down. So it’s more a feel thing than anything, but the analytics do play a big part in it. I don’t know anyone in the country that wouldn’t have the same answer. Analytics is a part of everybody’s preparation and approach. That helps determine a lot of the thought process. But it goes down to the gut feel in the final analysis.”

On the quarterback room in light of Cameron Rising’s future…

“We’ve got to put together the best room we possibly can, whether that’s through the addition of young talent or proven commodities out of the portal. We’re in that process right now. The portal really doesn’t crystalize until December 5. There’s going to be a huge influx of portal entries (then). We’ll do what’s best for the room. That being said, we have a lot of confidence in Bryson Barnes and the two freshmen. You saw a little dose of Nate Johnson and what he can provide. Brandon Rose, our other freshman quarterback, is doing a great job developing and running the scout team. You can see him growing every single week. Don’t have an answer for you other than that we’ve got to restock the room. That’s pretty much a yearly event at the quarterback position. It’s more of a transitional group of guys.”

On the benefit of Nate Johnson having game reps at this point…

“Big benefit to see that at least at this point, the stage is not too big for him. The lights are not too bright. He handled (the Stanford game) with a lot of poise and confidence and executed his plays exactly how we envisioned. I think we got a taste of his speed. That guy is lightning quick and probably could be a running back if that was his desire. He doesn’t have any interest in that, and that’s not our plan, but he runs the football like a running back. That’s how good he is in that regard.”

On what tangible improvements are in display with the defense…

“The way we’re tackling, the amount of unforced errors. The amount of mental mistakes are way down. Fundamentals and techniques are getting better. Just the overall way we’re functioning as a defense. We’ve played some really good offenses; Washington State’s a really good offense. Does the level of offense you’re playing play into it? No question…we had a lot of inexperienced players on defense that hadn’t played a lot of football for us that have gotten better through the course of the season. If you’d have said what’s the one biggest thing, it’s the way that our guys that have come of age through the course of the season.”