Postgame Quotes: Utah vs. Weber State
Utah 40, Weber State 17
Salt Lake City, Utah (Rice-Eccles Stadium)
Thu., Sept. 2, 2021
Kick: 5:31 p.m. MT | End: 10:10 p.m. MT
Attendance: 51,544 (sellout)
Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
On quarterback Charlie Brewer's play …
"I thought he did a good job. His numbers were good, not great. He did throw a pick but that's not on him because we were just trying throw one up at the end of the half and he did what he was coached up to do. I thought he had some great poise in pocket, did a nice job of keeping his eyes down the field. He was accurate and close to 70 percent. He did a good job of running the offense."
On what his team can do about dropped passes and other mistakes …
"Get better and catch them. We had a bunch of stuff and I got tired of writing it down in the first quarter. We gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown. We dropped a touchdown pass. We had to burn a timeout before a field goal because we only had 10 guys out there. We dropped two more balls. We missed a PAT after a delay of game. We have a whole laundry list of stuff to work on this week. It will keep us busy. As coaches and players we have to be better next week."
On the running backs and whether Tavion Thomas established himself as the top guy …
"We'll see. You can't put the ball on the ground so that was the big downside of it. But he did show a taste and a little bit of a glimpse of what he is capable of. We will look at the film and grade it hard and come up with a pecking order. It won't be a bunch of 'or, or, or, or' this week on the depth chart. We're going to have a 1-2-3-4 order this week and we'll see what the film says."
On the offensive line play …
"I don't think we played well enough up front. Just my first impression. That's not to pick on those guys because I don't think we played well enough at a lot of positions."
On the play of the secondary …
"They made some plays. Their quarterback completed too many balls though. He was nearly 65 percent, but we did come away with the interception on the tipped ball. Devin [Lloyd] made a great play there. We have to get better in the secondary. It's not just them it's the under coverage as well. I thought Clark Phillips showed up and made some nice plays. JaTravis Broughton was beat by a couple of steps, recovered and made a big play on that deep ball."
On the defense's goal line stand …
"It was a great goal line stand, but it was ridiculous that we allowed a 20-play drive, or what seemed like a 20-play drive. They ate up seven or eight minutes on the clock but it had a good ending. That was encouraging."
On getting more touchdowns in the Red Zone …
"We just have to keep working on it. It's not for a lack of work. We just have to execute better. We dropped one that was going to be a touchdown. Just need to get better."
On why his team threw the ball as often as it did …
"We think Charlie [Brewer] is going to be a really good quarterback. I thought Cam [Rising] threw the ball well too. We know we need to throw the football better. We need to throw it more productively and more efficiently than we did last year. If you want to be an elite team, you have to be able to throw the ball with a lot of those big chunk yardage plays."
#8 Clark Phillips III, Cornerback
On his first game with a crowd…
"This is my first time actually being in a packed house and it was special. It was special, the energy was contagious tonight."
On the rain delay after going down 7-3 in the game…
"I just love my team because we're super competitive. They jumped out on us and we looked at each other and knew we had been in worse situations. I felt like we came back from it. I was just astounded by how we were excited to attack."
#12 Charlie Brewer, Quarterback
On how comfortable he was in the offense…
"I felt really good, just kind of like I said, it starts with me. I feel like I can play a little bit better. But, you know, I thought it was good. I thought it was a good start, you know kind of the starting point and now we can kind of figure out exactly what we need to do."
On the offensive performance…
"I feel like we can be really good in the running game as well as the passing game. We have a naturally explosive offense, one of the top offenses in the Pac-12 and in the country, but we have to keep improving."
#0 Devin Lloyd, Linebacker
On how Weber State played…
"They are definitely a tough team, a little close at the end. They were very disciplined as far as their schematic plays and stuff."
On if he still gets butterflies for season openers…
"It happens really before every game but it's not anything too crazy, it's just little butterflies like right before. Like as soon as the ball is kicked off. But you know that your preparation will speak volumes to play and so it's nothing to be scared of anything just, some anxiety."
Weber State Head Coach Jay Hill
On Weber State's game today…
"Very tough, disciplined, physical team which we played against. Not real happy with the clumsiness on our side, did not handle the noise well. We had a bunch of yardage called back that could've helped us. Kudos to them, we've got to clean a lot of stuff up and I do like the resilience and toughness of our team."
On team strength…
"I didn't get any indications during the game that we let down or quit playing hard. I did not see any let down, I didn't see any backing down at all so that's good."
On shortcomings because of season opener…
"Well, yeah, there's some of that…Didn't handle the noise very well…Majority of the stuff that happened is usually stuff that does get cleaned up during the first couple games."
On Utah's defense…
"I think coach Kyle did a great job of putting the players in good positions to make plays, I thought they were physical, tough. We needed to hit the perimeter a few more times."
On Bronson's play…
"Overall good, but I think Bronson's got an opportunity to be a really great player. We didn't help him out tonight. I think overall Bronson did a pretty good job."
#22 Rashid Shaheed, Wide Receiver
On kickoff…
"Everybody was doing their job. I was able to find the crease because everyone was doing their job."
On Weber State's offense…
"It's football, it happens, we just have to execute the next one."
#7 Preston Smith, Safety
On takeaways from today's game…
"We won't face a better team than that. They're a really good team. I think we can take away that we're a physical team, we were very physical, we stood there, nose to nose and fought. We're not going to back down, we're not going to quit."
On Weber State's offense…
"It's football, it happens, we just have to execute the next one."