Postgame Quotes vs. #7 USC

Postgame Quotes
No. 20 Utah 42, No. 7 USC 42
Salt Lake City, Utah (Rice-Eccles Stadium)
Sat., Oct. 15, 2022
Kick: 6:05 p.m. MT | End: 10:01 p.m. MT
Attendance: 53,609 (Sold Out)

Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
Opening Statement…
"That has to go down as one of the most exciting games in Rice-Eccles Stadium history. What a performance by our football team, and that's a good football team that we beat. They are a really good team, talented and well-coached. Caleb Williams is tremendous, and the receiving core is as good as there is in the country. We had our hands full and had a tough time getting stops on defense, particularly early in the game, but we made the one we needed most at the end. Our offense, from start to finish, was outstanding. Cameron Rising, competitor, warrior, you name it, he's a champion. Dalton Kincaid, I don't know what the record is for catches or yards by a tight end, but he has to be at that doorstep. He has to be one of the tight ends in the country. Our football team's sheer grit and determination to continue to hang in there were outstanding, and it's a joy to coach those guys. I love coaching this team, and I am proud to be associated with them. This keeps us in the race, and we have a lot of football left. We have to take it one game at a time and continue to get better as a team."
 
Any doubt about going for the two-point conversion…
"I talked to Coach Ludwig when the drive started and said if we score here and the clock isn't in our favor, we are going for two. If there are a couple of minutes left, we will kick the PAT. So it played out exactly to our benefit. When there were 35 seconds left, it was already predetermined; we knew the play call. We had talked about it at the onset of the drive.'
 
Does this feel like more than one win…
"Well, they all count as one, but this seems like a pretty big win on a national stage, on Fox, and against a top 10-ranked team. This is great for our brand, program, university, and community. There are a lot of positives."
 
Was it rewarding to see Cameron Rising make the play at the end of the game…
"Absolutely. We called a play where the ball would be in his hands to either find an open receiver or tuck it and get in the end zone, and he did just that. He has been so incredible for us ever since he took over for us. It's a great feeling to have him at the control of the offense."
 
Do you think there was a turning point in the game…
"I don't think there was in this game. I think it was a matter of us continuing to fight and scratch and claw our way into the game. It was a scoring contest there, and you know field goals would not be in the equation for this game. In fact, when we drove the football, I told Coach Ludwig you're in four-down territory once we reached midfield. Field goals were going to get you off the pace and off schedule. The offense responded and made a bunch of first downs again. I don't think there was a pivotal turning point. It was just a matter of staying after it, and a never say die attitude. It was great to get that win with Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe's mothers here at the game. Internally we had dedicated this game to our fallen teammates, and how rewarding to be able to give those mothers the game ball in the locker room after the game."
 
Did you feel a boost after the parents received the game helmets…
"Absolutely, and between the third and fourth quarters, the tribute we put up., that gives me a boost every game, and I think our players feel the same way, and it's a great way to continue to remember those two young men."
 
On Dalton stepping up after losing Kuithe…
"I was very confident he could, but it wasn't just Dalton [Kincaid] who needed to step up. It was a few other guys as well. The tight end room has some talented young men in Munir McClain, Thomas Yassmin, and Logan Kendall, so three or four guys needed to be a concerted effort to pick up the slack for Brant. Those guys certainly did. Money Parks has been more of a contributor since Brant went down, and so has Jaylen Dixon. Brant was a big part of our offensive production, but I think our players have done a good job of picking up the slack in his absence."
 
What was made at halftime to get more pressure in the second half…
"We first challenged the d-line to up the pressure and became more of a pass rush mindset and getting better off the ball, and that helped. We also dialed up a little more pressure in the second half and brought more five, six, seven-man pressures, and I think it was a combination of those things."
#7 Cameron Rising, Quarterback
On feelings after Taka and Donna were awarded helmets…
"Anytime you see them, such strong people and are so resilient. Whenever they come out they bring an energy with them that just radiates throughout the whole entire building, or room or whatever and we just build off that and do everything we can to start executing."
 
On sense of responsibility in tight moments and thing falling on his shoulders…
"No. At the end of the day its still football and you just have to go out there and execute and do your job."
 
On relationship with Dalton Kincaid tonight…
"Just a relationship that we've been developing ever since he stepped on campus in 2020, and just taking off. He's an easy guy to throw the ball. You see what he did tonight, when he touches the ball, he makes plays and he extends them. He's a rack player so he can do it all so we just have to make sure we're getting him the ball."
 
On what it was like to go against USC knowing the type of competition…
"We just wanted to come out here and battle. We're going to give it our all and we just wanted to make sure we represented 22 well while having that on our helmet."
 
On thoughts being down 14-0…
"Like I said, un-waivered belief. We have to believe in what we have going and that it's going to work eventually, to just keep going and no matter how it's going we're going to just believe in each other."
 
#86 Dalton Kincaid, Tight End
On a 215-yard game…
"It was pretty fun. Just knowing what the game meant to us, the environment was awesome, the fans brought it. Coming out with the win was the biggest thing."
 
On keeping focus during extended play reviews…
"Every time we go into a huddle, this dude (points to Cam) just takes over, says a few things and we just kind of roll from there."
 
#17 Devaughn Vele, Wide Receiver
On how Cam Rising played today…
"Shoot, I don't play quarterback but I think it looked good from where I was standing. I just love his leadership, he's always the one that's bringing the group together and that's what we need on the team especially when we're going through adversity. Having that guy that can vocal and bringing up the guys is what we need in tough situations."
 
On mentality going forward after this win…
"It's great, especially coming into this bye week to recuperate our bodies and make sure we gather ourselves. We're going to watch the film and correct some mistakes but I love these games because it shows who's more knit as a team, who stays together in tough situations. I felt like that's the difference today, having Ty and Aaron on the side of our helmets is another reminder of why we had to stay resilient because that game was for them. I'm just grateful all the guys were able to get together and we were able to get the dub."
 
#21 Karene Reid, Linebacker
On how defense worked out in the second half…
"You guys can see that their team is full of explosive players, we knew that was going to be a challenge for us but they got to play us for four quarters so that just shows the resilience of our defense and our team and our culture. We just played until the clock said zero and it fell in our favor."
 
On what this win means to the defense…
"I think it just shows our character. If you look at the numbers, I'm sure it's not pretty, but we played 'till the end. I'm proud of our guys."
USC Head Coach Lincoln Riley
Opening Statement…
"Obviously a tough, tough way to take a loss. I thought out guys really battled tonight. It was a great environment, it was a really fun environment to play in. We didn't play as clean on all three sides as we wanted to and it came down to it is they made one more play than us or we made more mistake, however, you want to look at it, but you can't question the fight and the resolve of this football team. We had to overcome a lot tonight and we got damn close to doing it. We'll rally. I have been in this position a couple of times and I told those guys I have an idea of what it looks like when you can really make a run off of one of these and this team has the inner fortitude, the culture, the desire to win, the desire to overcome anything that goes your way, even things that are out of your control. We got enough of that right now to get it done. We got to improve, we got to get better and can't wait to go back to work with these guys."
 
How do you bounce back? A lot of penalties kept drives alive. How do you deal with that...
"I feel two ways about it. The officiating was really poor tonight, but we still should've won the game. That's part of winning football and that's part of football in general. You're going to have some nights where the calls don't go your way and they certainly did not tonight, but you still find a way and I thought we continued to keep our composure and fight and we still should've won the game. I'm not going to be the guy up here saying we lost the game because of the officiating because we didn't and we're not going to be excuse makers. It was just another thing that we had to overcome tonight and we were close to getting it done, but just not quite enough."
 
Do you think it had an effect on the defense and tired them out because they had to stay on the field so long…
"Yeah, I mean several of them were, there were several third downs, some of the key ones where we felt like we had stops. One of them was on an interception. Again, does it make the job harder? Sure, it does. Yeah, you'd love to get every call every time. That's not football, though. We get that just like sometimes we're going to mess up, they're going to mess up, too. We've got to be able to overcome it and at the end of the day, there's going to be a bottom line and there's not going to be excuses about the way we play. We're a no excuse program. Wish we wouldn't have had to overcome it, but it is what it is, right? It's still out there to go get and we were one inch away on a lot of different occasions from winning this game and, honestly, several times very close to running away with this game. We're not going to use it as an excuse. We got to get better, we can't control the officiating.
 
On that final drive by Utah, as their driving, was there any thought to using the timeouts earlier…
"We thought about it. It was close right there at the end. We definitely considered using it before. We used one, which ended up saving a lot of clock after the third down stop. We did consider it. It's close at that point because if you stop them, you potentially don't have to do anything. You don't have to run for a first down, potentially have to punt it from your own end zone, like it was right there on the edge and I almost used one on the second down call. Obviously in hindsight if you know they're going to score, sure you would love to use it. It was really close. I made a gut call to go one more down and then we stuffed them and used it and we got the ball back with plenty of time. The benefit to it is we get the ball back with still a chunk of time and two timeouts. We started moving it a little bit. We didn't operate as good as we would like to there on the two-minute drill."
 
Could you update us on the status of Jordan Addison and Eric Gentry…
"No, I don't know. The couldn't finish the game, so we'll see. We're fortunate, we have a bye week ahead of us.
 
Dalton Kincaid had over 200 yards. Did you guys try to make any adjustments…
"We did. We switched coverage up on him a few times. The biggest thing that we didn't do a good job of with him was just tackle. Cameron [Rising] made some really nice throws to him. He made some really phenomenal catches. Two good players, that's going to happen some. We could've been better in coverage at times, but I think the biggest thing coming out of that is we didn't do a good job tackling. We tried to hit him a lot instead of wrapping him up and the yards after the catch he had really hurt us."
 
This game everybody on the outside had circled on the calendar. This was a team that had their back against the wall. What do you feel like you learned about the team tonight…
"I don't know that I learned anything. We fought like I would expect. I wish we would've played a little bit cleaner, but we fought like I expected we would. We knew we were going to get everything tonight. This lined up for a million reasons. You're going to get a really good football team and coach and players over there, they deserve a ton of credit. You're going to get their every shot here on the road, all the emotion behind this game and I felt like we would be right there and we were and that wasn't even close to our best. Like I said before, these guys all haven't yet. A lot of our staff, we've been there. We know what it looks like to make a run and this team has got a real shot. We got to go do it. It isn't just going to happen, but if we handle this like I think we will, we got a real shot. I'm pissed right now because we lost and disappointed for the guys, they fought their guts out, but its balanced like that between I'm so excited for the back half of this year and so excited to keep coaching these guys"
 

#13 Caleb Williams, Quarterback
Walking off the field, what was going through your mind…
"A loss. We lost. It was a lot of fight. This team, we put in a lot of work for so long and, I'll be honest, I hate losing. I hate it, simply. I had a little emotion. That was one of the things that me and coach Riley talked about last week is just control it because I love this game. I love playing with these guys over here I get to play with. So, when we lost, after that, a hard loss versus a good team, had a little emotion, but the only thing that we can promise you is that we aren't going to go undefeated, but that's not the end-all, be-all of this season and of this team."
 
#47 Stanley Ta'ufo'ou, Nose Tackle
You've got a look like you want to take somebody's head off. What's going through your mind…
"We're just going to try use this to fuel us to go get better. That's it."
 
#99 Nick Figueroa, Defensive End
What was it like in the locker room postgame…
"Coach Riley really led the conversation, but guys just picking each other's heads up letting them know the season's still on the table, the season we want to have is still on the table and to just take this as a lesson and move forward and understand this has to be a point that we move on from and get better from."
 
Do you feel like that first roughing the passer call that wiped out that interception changed the dynamics of the game…
"I don't know, just got to respond from that. I think we responded well to things throughout the game, but just didn't make the plays we needed to make."
  
What was it about their offense that was giving you guys trouble…
"I couldn't really tell you right now. I think it's just about execution whenever something like that happens. Just got to get off the field. Gave up a lot of third down conversions, got to be better on third down and can't leave it up to the referee's hands. Had some big penalties. Can't leave it in the ref's hands."
 
What did you see on the two-point conversion?
"Right there, just got to finish. I had a few of those today. Just go to work this next week and figure out what that little difference is going to be."
 
You've been around the program for a long time and experience losses. Is this one maybe the toughest…
"It's tough to say. We fought. It's one of them for sure. We still control our own destiny. We can't sulk on this moment. We got to fix what need's to be fixed and move forward and get better from it."
 
#26 Travis Dye, Running Back
On the final play, what was going through your mind after the final incompletion…
"You know, just we lost. It's very hard, especially on that field. Personally, I've never beaten this team on this field and so there's a personal factor to it, but at the end of the day we lost."
 
What's the most frustrating part tonight…
"Just not getting it done. We preach throughout all adversity we're supposed to get it done no matter what and we've been working our tails off for a long time and it's not a single guy that this loss is on. It's not a single call. It's a hard pill to swallow."
 
What's this mean for the rest of the season…
"1-0 mentality. We got to keep going. If we'd won, it'd be the same thing. We lost, we just got to keep going. Everything, all of our needs are in front of us. College football is always a coin toss. It always will be, so we just got keep chugging."
 
#72 Andrew Voorhees, Left Guard
Early on, you guys seemed to be in control of the game. What do you feel was the turning point or what changed as the game went on…
"Offensively, I just feel like we played a good game. Respect to Utah for coming back and answering when we came out swinging. I think we just need to play a more complete game regardless of any outside influence. The game was definitely in our control just as I think every game is in our control. We just need to go back, make the corrections that need to be made, go back, trust our technique, fundamentals, each other, our culture because at the end of the day that's what's going to allow us to win."
 
Do you feel like the pass protection was better early on than it was later in the game if so, what do you chalk that up to…
"Hard to say. Coming off the field and watching it from the eagle eye is a lot different. Definitely there will be corrections that need to be made and addressed. That's definitely something that will be handled tomorrow so we look forward to making them and being better next time when we come back up again."
 
What does this mean for the rest of the season…
"Everything's out there. The only thing it means now is just no undefeated season. That's the only thing we lost. You talk about a team and who you can just see cares. It was pretty emotional in the locker room after. I was emotional as well. It meant a lot seeing some dudes cry. It revealed a lot about this team, our character, competitive spirit. I think there's a lot to look forward to for the rest of the season for us. Like I said, just getting back home an fixing what needs to be fixed."