Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham has reiterated once or twice that he genuinely trusts his players to make good decisions — whether that be on the field or off. While he expects dedication and consistency from his team, he values the substantial amount of time they put into the football program.
The results of this effort are beginning to resonate as the 2015 football season unfolds, especially for the offensive line — it’s a been a sigh of relief for Ute fans to see the progress the unit has made since the beginning of fall camp. One person who is especially happy is quarterback Travis Wilson, who sees the effect of good offensive line play trickle down to the rest of the team.
“I’m really happy with our performance. We still have some things to fix, and we have some challenges ahead of us,” Wilson said. “I made some smart decisions, that’s the biggest thing. I made accurate throws, and our wide receivers made sure to be open. I’m happy with how our O-line did.”
Each week, the offensive unit sets goals to accomplish and makes preparations to stay on course during a difficult conference schedule. At Oregon, Utah walked into Autzen Stadium with the goal to establish a passing game to ease the pressure on running back Devontae Booker and form a balance on the offensive side of the ball.
According to Wilson, the Utes did just that.
“We are just really happy with our consistency on offense,” he said.
As Whittingham continues to instill confidence in his players, they are able to develop a pattern of success that is becoming habitual. Even without a few of their main guys on defense on Saturday — Hunter Dimick and Kylie Fitts later in the contest — the defensive coordinators have been doing an excellent job at making things work for their unit.
Whittingham and Utah’s defensive coordinators hold themselves accountable for what the team worked on during the last three weeks. The coaching staff hopes that translates into ammunition for the future.
“We weren’t our usual aggressive self on defense this week,” Whittingham said. “We need to get back to our higher-pressure play. A lot of our sacks weren’t cover sacks. We decided that we want to up the dose of pressure. We want a lot of pressure in the [backfield].”
With the next week and a half to prepare, the Utes are playing it smart by utilizing their time off to make evaluations and get a head start on the Golden Bears. With all of the national attention surrounding Utah, Whittingham hopes his players can stay focused on the upcoming game, and not dwell on the last one.
“You can’t think that you have all the answers, win a big game and think that you’ve arrived, because you haven’t,” Whittingham said. “We played a good football game, we build off it … but our guys understand that you need to get back to work. As soon as you back off, even the least little bit someone’s going to smack you. So you gotta keep your focus and your work ethic and attack it one step at a time.”
l.spencer@dailyutahchronicle.com
@laurenrose324
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