Postgame Quotes: Utah at USC
Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
Opening Statement...
"I'm extremely proud of our football team. Players played with a great competitive spirit tonight, passion, energy, you name it, we had it. Great job by our assistant coaches with game planning and getting things set, but again the players are the ones who executed and deserve all the credit. It's been a long time since we won here. It's a great feeling to come out of here with a win and it puts us in a good position in the conference still. We were very balanced tonight. That was probably
one of the biggest keys to winning, was being able to run the football and throw it effectively. We had over 300 yards passing and about 180 rushing. They had some terrific receivers, terrific mature quarterback, so they're going to get their yards. We've got to play better pass defense than that. Cam had an outstanding night, I think he's close to 80% completion percentage and 11 yards per attempt, which is outstanding. The offensive line played much better. They played how we expected them to play. They played up to their potential tonight. It was great to see that happen. Again credit to our players for their preparation overcoming adversity."
On when he knew the team was emotionally ready...
"I had a feeling through the week of practice this week. Last week we had a bye. We had some practices and it was very low key and you could see that we were struggling. Then they got back on the field this week. Aaron Lowe's mom came and talked to the team last week and said hey, you guys got to carry on, you got a season to play. And so this week's practices were very good. I had an inclination going into the game that they would play well and they exceeded even what I was expecting."
On quarterback Cameron Rising...
"He is an alpha dog. He's a leader in every sense of the word. He does command the room and he's the the leader of the offense. Between him and Brit Covey, those were two captains elected on offense by their peers. He is exactly what you want in the quarterback when you talk about the "it" factor and the field general that you want leading the troops."
On going with Tavion Thomas at running back...
"Well Tavion is a talent. We all know that. He's had a little bit of a struggle with ball security earlier in the season. He's worked hard on it throughout the bye week and in this past practice week extensively. We put him in there and his ball security was great. He didn't seem to be loose with the football, so we kept feeding it to him, and he ended up with over 100 yards. Hopefully he's got some traction now and he can pick up where he left off next week."
On how the team deals with the emotions of the next week...
"It's another challenge. We're going to the funeral on Monday. There was no way we would miss that. It'll be challenging, but it's something we have to deal with and will."
On Clark Phillips III going up against Drake London...
"We were a little bit too soft in the secondary. We gave up a few too many yards, but we seemed to keep things in front of us. It wasn't a ton of big plays. Some chunk plays up the field, but nothing that was over the top of us. Clark is just a true freshman, and that Drake London kid I think is maybe the best receiver in the country, so it's a big challenge. Clark drew that coverage most of the night with no help, we didn't do anything really special, other than say, "Clark, match up with him." Drake still had a heck of a game, but we had other good things to counteract that."
#7 Cameron Rising, QB
On what it was like to get this win...
"It's always a good feeling, especially just being from this area, and they didn't really recruit me. So it was a special one to get, especially after 1916 was the last win here. So that's pretty amazing."
On staying ahead in the Pac-12 South race...
"Knowing that we're ahead in the south right now and just got to make sure that we play each and every game like it's a championship game, because that's pretty much what it is at this point. We have to stay with what we're doing."
#9 Tavion Thomas, RB
On how this win felt...
"It's super special. I feel like the guys played with a lot of passion. With the recent events that took place, it was just good to get a victory. It was special to us and I'm just glad that we came out of here victorious."
On dealing with the emotions of the last week...
"We just have to play it day by day. Use this to make us stronger as a team. I feel like that's what got us this win today. We said in the beginning of the week when things happened, it's either gonna divide us or it's gonna bring us closer together as a family and we're choosing to let this bring us closer."
#42 Mika Tafua, DE
On what the last couple weeks were like...
"I feel like there were a lot of ups and downs, with the emotions, but I felt like we were able to come together as a team. Really, we lean on each other, so that really helped and we saw the results tonight."