Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham talks Utes - Trojans ahead of matchup against USC

Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham took part in his weekly Monday press conference ahead of the Utes’ trip to Los Angeles to take on the No. 18 USC Trojans this weekend.

Whittingham opening statement

“Really good to get back on track and win the football game on Saturday. Having had to sit on the (Oregon State) loss for two weeks, it’s not ideal to go into a bye week like that. But we came out of the bye week very strong and I’m proud of our players. It was great to see the offense put up their best numbers of the season. I thought Bryson Barnes played well. His numbers weren’t overwhelming, but they were very efficient; over 70% completions and zero turnovers. So that was a big positive. What Sione Vaki gave us was also a big positive, 158 yards rushing on 15 carries; he was over 10 yards per carry. So that was a good addition for us offensively. Ja’Quinden Jackson ran hard as well. He was a big plus for us, (as was) the offensive line. It all starts there; none of that stuff happens without good things going on up front. Offensively overall, zero turnovers. Bryson took good care of the football…defensively, our usual effort, came out and played outstanding. We had a couple takeaways and gave our offense a couple short fields. Played the run exceptionally well. Anytime you rush for over 300 yards and hold your opponent to 60 or 70 yards rushing, that’s usually a good thing and you’ll win a ton of those games. The offense was also good on third down. I think that was our best third-down production of the season. A lot of good things coming out of that game. We needed that win and we went out and got it.
 
USC coming up at the Coliseum. Tough place to play. Historically, the wins have been hard to come by there. They’re playing exceptionally well on offense; nearly 50 points and 500 yards every week. That’s what you’d expect when they have a Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback running the show. Tons of talent all over the field, speed, athleticism. (Zachariah Branch) is tremendous and an outstanding punt returner, as well as taking a kickoff to the house. We’ve got our hands full; we’ve got to try to keep up with them athletically and do a good job offensively of continuing to take care of the football. Even though we haven’t been prolific on offense, we’ve done a good job of not putting the defense in bad situations.

Special teams in the Cal game was not much of a factor. We didn’t have our best game with our specialists. Jack [Bouwmeester] didn’t punt as well as he has been punting. We missed an easy field goal and didn’t kick off as well as we needed to. But those guys will bounce back and they’ve been solid for us this year.”

On Sione Vaki and two-way players

Safety Sione Vaki played running back as well against Cal this past weekend. He finished with four tackles on defense to go along with 15 carries for 158 yards and two touchdowns on offense.

“”I don’t think it’s a trend, but it’s something that you see from time to time. You’re seeing Colorado do it. I’m sure there’s some other schools in the country that will spot play a defender on offense or vice-versa…But you want to get the ball in the hands of your playmakers and get your best players involved as much as you can. We did that with Eric Weddle several years ago and Matt Asiata; Matt didn’t play both ways but he doubled as a wildcat quarterback. Any way you can manufacture production, you’ve got to take a look at it. We’ve got a lot of good players on the team, but it’s a tall order to play both ways…Sione sure gave us a big spark on Saturday.”

On the USC – Utah rivalry

“It’s been a great back-and-forth series. Championship implications almost every year…it’s turned out to be very a competitive and very intense football game. I’m sure this year will be no different.”

On the Utah cornerbacks

“We like those guys and we’re leading the conference in pass efficiency defense, which is the No. 1 barometer you look at for your pass defense. It’s not overall yards. It’s the efficiency. There are some big challenges on the horizon, we’ll see how we hold up, but I think we’ve done good things in the secondary. Zemaiah [Vaughn], JT (JaTravis Broughton), and Miles [Battle] holding down the fort at the corner spots. Tao Johnson at the slot corner and then those safeties. I really like our secondary and think we got some good players back there, we will be tested, no doubt, so we’ll see.” 

On Cole Bishop’s targeting appeal

Utah safety Cole Bishop was ejected for targeting during the second half of the win against Cal. Utah appealed the penalty, which would require Bishop to sit out the first half of this game against USC.

“It got denied. I don’t want to whine about it, but it was, I still don’t see how it happened or how it was called and got denied. It’s baffling, just don’t know how to coach it if that’s a penalty. Nate Ritchie will be up. Played some good football for us on Saturday and has played some really good football for us in the past, so ton of confidence in him.”

On getting Vaki involved on offense

“At one time, Ja’Quinden Jackson was down; of course Micah Bernard is down and Chris Curry is down. We had lost three of our top-four running backs. So it was out of necessity that we find a way to supplement the running game, particularly to have a guy as ready as we could get him in the event that we lost another back…A guy like Sione is very explosive and fast. You saw him get out there on that 72-yard run. (Having him on offense is) partly out of necessity, but partly out of trying to find a way to maximize the best players on the field.”

On the Utah offensive line

“Kolinu’u Faaiu had outstanding practices during the bye week and earned the (center) job. He deserved the opportunity to play and really played well. We had good surge in the middle of the line last week. He’s a physical kid…exceptionally strong, maybe the strongest kid on the team. At left tackle, Spencer Fano got dinged up a bit so Tanoa Togiai came in and played well in Spencer’s absence. We’ll see what Spencer’s availability will be this week.”

On Bryson Barnes’ development

“Bryson’s been in the program a long time and knows the offense inside and out. He does a great job of running the offense and managing the game. I would say, before (the Cal) game he was a little bit inaccurate; completion percentage was around 50%. This past game, he was 70% plus. I would say just being a little more confident in his ability to get the chunk yards up the field.”

On Munir McClain’s involvement in the Utah offense

“Munir [McClain] is a great athlete, made a great play. That was the only rep, the deep ball. That was his opportunity and he took advantage of it. We’d love to get him more involved. What his issue has been has been health. He’s just had nagging injuries that have kept him out.” 

On if it’s harder to get Cam Rising and Brant Kuithe back late in the season

“It’s just a situation where we’re waiting week after week for a thumbs up. Here we are at the mid-point, so I don’t want to say the clock is ticking. But we would love to get either or both those guys back as soon as possible. But again, it’s just a waiting game and we’re for them to get the go-ahead.”

On whether the possibility of a redshirt for Rising and Kuithe has been discussed

“Not yet. But with medical redshirts now…it used to be if you voluntarily redshirted and then had an injury, you didn’t get a year back. But now you can get a medical year back no matter why you redshirted in the past. I shouldn’t say no matter why. But if it was, they call it a coach’s decision, which every redshirt is really a coach’s decision. So, it is a possiblity. It hasn’t really been discussed in detail or at length, but it is certainly one way this thing could break, and so we’ll see what happens.” 

On Bishop’s absence impacting Vaki on offense 

“We’ve got good depth at safety. That won’t impact Sione’s play on offense at all. We talked about Nate Ritchie being the guy that will step in for Cole. Tao Johnson is also a guy that can step in play free safety, we saw that a few weeks ago. Johnathan Hall is a very good player. So we think that it’s not going to impact other facets of the game, we just cover up for him while we’re in the first half.” 

On (Defenisve end) Connor O’Toole’s return for Utah

“Connor [O’Toole] played exceptionally well. Didn’t play a ton of snaps, but he gave us about 25 or 30 really good snaps. He was in on a sack. He is disruptive, a big, fast, athletic kid…We’ve been anxiously awaiting his return. Van Fillinger played well too. If we can keep Jonah [Elliss], Van and Connor in a rotation, that really makes us dangerous off the edge.”