What Utah’s Kyle Whittingham said following big win over Baylor

It’s unclear whether Kyle Whittingham’s been part of a game quite like Saturday’s in his head coaching career, though it’s safe to assume it’s up there with some of the more unique outcomes he’s experienced in his 24 seasons at the helm of the Utah football team.

Whittingham most likely wouldn’t have believed it if he had been told prior to Saturday’s Big 12 bout against Baylor that his team would go on to win by double-digits while giving up over 500 total yards, running 30 fewer plays and losing the time of possession battle by a difference of roughly 6 minutes to the Bears.

Then again, he probably wasn’t accounting for three 60-plus yard scores from his offense, as well as an interception for a touchdown out of his defense, during his preparation process throughout the week.

Explosive plays and another dominant performance on the ground offset what was an abnormal night defensively from the Utes, who pulled away from the Bears in the second half to leave McLane Stadium with a 55-28 victory, despite getting gashed for 563 total yards of offense, 430 of which were through the air.

Utah answered Sawyer Robertson’s resilient effort with unrelenting physicality in the trenches, totaling 380 rushing yards and five touchdowns behind an impressive outing from Byrd Ficklin, who ripped off scores of 67 and 74 yards to finish with 166 rush yards on just six carries.

The true freshman quarterback stepped up while Devon Dampier battled an injury that forced him to take a brief locker room visit early in the second quarter. The dual-threat signal-caller returned but wasn’t featured heavily in the second half, allowing Ficklin an opportunity to gain more valuable reps as the Utes closed out the Bears with 21 unanswered points in the second half.

Here’s what Whittingham had to say about the team’s defensive struggles, Dampier’s health and Ficklin’s impact after the game.

“Our offense has done pretty good this year, and we’re first or second the league in a lot of categories. When you consider how much we struggled last year; I mean, the turnaround has been remarkable. Very proud of those guys.”

“Devon’s a little bit beat up, there’s no secret about that. But he’s a competitor, he’s a warrior. He goes out unless he absolutely can’t function at all.”

“He’s gonna want to play, and he wasn’t his normal self tonight, but good enough to go out and do some good things.”

“He’s maturing and becoming more seasoned every single week. He has not had a game that he was inserted in, where the stage was too big. He’s responded well every single time he’s been in the game, and so, like I said, the moment is not too big for for Byrd, and he’s, he’s going to be a really good one.”

“Well, just the fade balls … you throw up those 50-50 balls, and and we didn’t make enough of a percentage of them for our liking. They’re going to connect on some — like I said that receiving core is outstanding, and the tight end, you’ll be seeing him play on Sunday for a long time. But we got to do a little better job of winning more of the 50-50 balls.”

“Scooby lost his cool a little bit, and obviously the other guy had some something to do with it as well or he wouldn’t have got flagged.”

“You got to keep it cool. I’m not making excuses for Scooby. I don’t know enough about the situation right now to tell you a definitive course of action for us, but we’ll find out.”

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