Utes on roll headed into USC game
A Friday night win over Arizona allowed Utah coach Kyle Whittingham to give his team rare consecutive days off during the season.
He said he rewarded the Utes the mini break after they defeated Stanford and Arizona by a combined score of 84-31 the last two weeks after the Utes entered those games with an 0-2 record in the Pac-12.
“They deserve it. They’ve earned it,” Whittingham said. “A day of rest is often times as good as a day of work, especially at the midpoint of the season. They could really use the down time, in our estimation.”
Utah is 4-2 overall and 2-2 in the Pac-12 at the midway point with an important Pac-12 South showdown against USC (4-2, 3-1) this Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.
“We were able to take another step forward,” Whittingham said about the Utes’ dominating 42-10 win over Arizona. “And we’ve got to be real good next week because there’s a really good team coming in here.”
The Trojans are coming off a 31-20 win over Colorado, giving the Buffaloes their first loss of the season. USC is in first place in the Pac-12 South with the Utes currently in third place, just one game out of the lead with five to play.
Utah’s remaining schedule includes home games against USC and Oregon, as well as road dates with UCLA, Arizona State and Colorado.
The Utes started conference play with consecutive losses to formidable Pac-12 North teams Washington (21-7 at home) and Washington State (28-24 on the road).
“I don’t think we ever really lost confidence. We just felt like we lost some games that maybe we should have won. I mean, you can say that a lot,” senior linebacker Chase Hansen told the Deseret News. “But ultimately we just felt like we had to really show people what we were capable of. We kind of felt like we didn’t play our best football yet and I still don’t think we have. But we’ll keep getting better.”
More good news for Utah: Whittingham expects to have starting center Lo Falemaka back this week. The senior captain has missed the past two games with a leg injury.