Postgame Quotes: Utah at Florida

Postgame Quotes
(at) Florida 29, No. 7 Utah 26
Gainesville, Fla. (Ben Hill Griffin Stadium)
Sat., Sept. 3, 2022
Kick: 7:11 p.m. ET | End: 10:38 p.m. ET
Attendance: 90,799 (sellout)
 
Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham 
Opening statement…
"Tough loss but I am extremely proud of our football team, but there are no moral victories so I am not trying to paint that picture. We are going to work past that. We have guys that are going to compete until the bitter end. They showed toughness, grit and determination. You name it they showed it, we just didn't do enough and came up short. A big takeaway in the first quarter, when we stripped that ball and returned it 40, 50, 60 yards and the offense punched it in and that was huge. Conversely, we gave up a big quarterback run in the first and that was damaging. We didn't run the ball effectively in the first half and then we came back in the second half and did exactly what we needed to do. Second half being stopped on the one-yard life was a tough deal and it hurt our chances to win. Then we scored and a couple possessions later botched the two-point conversion and that would have been big. A lot of shoulda, coulda, wouldas. Bottom line I couldn't be prouder of Cameron Rising and Tavion Thomas and the defenders that played their hearts out. Give credit to Florida, they are a great football team. They have some terrific athletes starting with their quarterback. But I am proud of our guys. We have to regroup and can't feel sorry for ourselves."

On Cam Rising's interception…
"It wasn't one of his best throws of the night and I am sure he will wish he had it back but he played really well tonight. Ran the ball effectively and threw the ball effectively. He is our guy and that is not going to change."

On the Anthony Richardson's running ability…
"He ran for over 100 yards and there were some damaging runs in the first half and the touchdown run in the second. He is going to get his. The guy is like 6'4" and 240 and runs like a 4.3 so there is no way to keep him bottled up. He did the damage at key points and times in the game and he is a terrific player."

On the successful adjustments in the second half…
"We didn't have a lot of possessions in the first half. In the second quarter we only had a few. So that was a big thing. In the second half our offense got in a rhythm and we started to run the football which is what we are all about. You start running the football and everything else opens up."

On Brant Kuithe…
"What a stud, that dude is one of the best tight ends in the country if you can call him a tight end. Between him and Dalton Kincaid there are not a lot of teams that have that good of a one-two punch. I think Georgia has a few good tight ends. We are probably top 2 or 3 in the country with those guys."

#11, RJ Hubert, Safety
On what it was like trying to contain Anthony Richardson…
"There was a couple things where we would bring me down into the box to kind of; you know we're down a man if the quarterback runs and that's kind of what the free safety's job is to mirror the quarterback and so they brought me down in the box a couple times."

On handling the passing game well…
"It's hard. I'm very critical on myself. Not so much my teammates, but I think there was definitely things we could have done better. I thought we did an alright job. I mean we didn't get gashed deep so you know that's always a big thing."

On if there was any difference in the locker room at halftime…
"In the first half we had seen everything we had practiced for. The scouts did a great job this week leading up. Just giving us a really good look of what Anthony Richardson would do. So, it wasn't anything that took us by surprise, but there was you know missed tackles, missed assignments that were really horrendous."
 
#80 Brant Kuithe, Tight End
On overall emotions after that ending…
"Yeah it's hard. Just a lot of missed opportunities. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot, but give them credit because they made stops when needed and they are good team, but we just got to bounce back from this one and go on to next week and try to go 1-0."

On how being one of those leaders can help Cameron Rising…
"We have been playing this game forever, people make mistakes but at the end of the day things happen and we are all here playing the game and I had a lot of opportunities I could have made, but I didn't. So, at the end of the day, we don't really look too harsh on it cause you can't go back and change that. The only thing you can do is improve. So, just trying to get back Monday and look at film and see what we can do and go onto the next."
Florida Head Coach Billy Napier
Opening statement…
"I just want to thank our fans for coming out. I think that was the tenth largest crowd in the history of the school. We said in the very beginning that it was going to take a team effort to get this done, to build, to create moment, positive energy on the outside. They made a difference tonight. There's no question they effected the game. The University of Florida is a special place and these people coming back because of the way it impacted them. The memories they had here influenced their lives and some of those memories are football games at the Swamp. We are very thankful for our fans showing up. They contributed to our team."

On Utah…
"Hat's off to Utah. I told Coach Whittingham, 'I know we got to play you next year, but at some point, here when we get done competing against each other I want to come see you.' They played great football. They played complementary football. They are physical. They get a lot out of what they have. I've got so much respect for them. We knew those tight ends were going to be a matchup issue and they certainly were."

#2 Amari Burney, Linebacker
On covering Brant Kuithe all game…
"Number 80 and number 86 are great tight ends. They're probably the best tight ends we are going to play all season. Just guarding him tonight, great coverage. Just got to get my head around for the ball. Those boys are very outstanding athletes so I'm going to give them that for this one."