Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham Post-Game Quotes
On his thoughts about the game…
”Credit Oregon for playing a very good game. The rushing attack was what did us in, 300-plus yards rushing, we have almost no chance to win a game when that happens. That was the storyline of the game, the throwing game didn’t hurt us, 80 or 90 yards throwing, very minimal. The perimeter run game in particular, our inability to stop the perimeter run game was the difference in this football game. We threw the ball around a little bit, got some decent production, but rushing yards are far more damaging then throwing yards. That’s just how it is, statistically that’s a fact. We couldn’t run the ball effective enough, I think we had 80 or 90 yards rushing, and like I said they were well over 300 so that was really the difference in the game. It’s still Oregon, still a tough place to play. They still have very good athletes, they’ve got a lot of speed. That crowd is tough to deal with, a great atmosphere. Again credit them, I’m not going to say it was all us, it was a lot them. What they did right more so then what we did wrong.”
On how Utah played…
“The guys played hard, that’s a give in, we expect that. It’s nothing to brag about, but there’s no quit in those guys. We’re 4-4, a little bit of a crossroads right now and we still have a lot of football left, fully one-third of the season left. I love our senior class, they’re great leaders. I know we are 4-4 and things aren’t how we wanted them to be, but those guys have shown great leadership all the way through so I appreciate the senior class. The goal is to get them to a bowl game. We’ve got four games left, you do the math we have to split them to get these guys to a bowl game. That is what we are aiming for now.”
On Amadi’s fumble recovery for a touchdown…
“It was huge. That’s the type of play that we usually make. Typically we are the ones making those plays, so that was a big play of the game. Credit them for making it, they stripped it, they scooped it, they scored. It was a big change in momentum.”
On pulling within four points in the third quarter…
“We got a few things going, cut the gap to four points. We did some decent things, but again it comes back to running the football and defending the run. That’s what football almost always comes back to, assuming the turnover margin is equal, which it was tonight, the next biggest factor is the ability or inability to run the football.”
On the fan response to Darren Carrington…
“It’s too bad. He’s an athlete trying hard, playing hard but that’s the nature of the world I guess. That’s how we operate. It’s too bad, but he’s a good kid and he played hard.”
