No update on any specific O-line changes. The most interesting stuff today was about Dorian Singer and why he hasn't been the factor we all expected ...
Is there an update on Max Williams, and what did you learn from preparing for the wildcat against Arizona State?
"Yeah, Max has been limited for us this week, not full go, we’ll see if he’s available, but definitely questionable right now. Yeah, and I think lessons from the wildcat, we certainly prepared for it for Arizona State. We were anticipating it. I think the biggest lesson for us on it was how important it is to tackle good backs. Obviously, Utah has several good backs on the roster, they’ve shown that here through the years, shown it through this year, and our ability to tackle, to get off blocks, to constrict the gaps, not give those guys room to run, I think is the most important thing. We did a good job on the back last week, a bigger guy, obviously tackling for us, like any defense, is paramount to your success and the No. 1 thing is we gotta control gaps so that they don’t come through with a lot of momentum and then obviously we gotta do a great job tackling, gang tackling, getting these guys down, not having yards after the contact."
Do you expect any OL personnel changes and how much can that unit really get better this deep into the season?
"You can definitely – we can definitely still get a lot better. WE have some options, we’ve looked at a couple of different lineups this week. Still got a couple days here to go before game time so we’ll make that decision, but like I said the other day, playing some of the different lineups that we did early in the year, playing different people has its benefits and i think in the second half of the season, we’ll see that. In terms of, we’ve had different guys play, we’ve had different guys rep and feel that we have some options. We went through this a little bit last year too and had some guys out. Had some different lineups. Vorhees was out a little bit during some of that time. Obviously we lost Brett at the end. Dedich was out for some time last year. So Haskins was out some time. So we’re used to it. Yeah, I think, can we get better and play better? Of course we can. We’ve played – we’ve had some stretches this year on the offensive line where we’ve played better than we did at any point last year. We’ve kind of been, kind of like the rest of the offense, we’ve been really close to playing really good. There’s a lot of good, you just don't see it yet because we haven’t put it together all 11 and that’s obviously our challenge and what we gotta do a lot better job of. And we did it pretty well early in the year and played really well in some of those games, played really well in Stanford, played really well against Arizona State, played really well the first half, kind of the first three quarters of Colorado, so we’ve done it, but we gotta go do it, do go it against a good group here this week and we do feel like we’ve got some options in terms of lineup and we’ll make a decision going into the game and if it’s going good, then we’ll stick with it, if not, we feel like we have some different combinations that we feel like we can go to."
Caleb Williams' right pinky finger has been taped up for a couple games, is that affecting his throws?
"Nah, he got it hit, ah, I can’t remember, it’s been a few games ago, it’s just been a little bit sore, kind of tender, but hasn’t affect him, hasn’t affected play, so nah, just more of a, I don’t know, kind of a nagging nuisance, but not a hindrance to play."
What have you seen from Zion Branch's progress and for his role moving forward?
"I think he’s right there. We were obviously disappointed when the two guys got dinged last week, but it was exciting to see Zion get his opportunity. That’s a lot of times how these things happen. Somebody gets hurt, and a young guy gets the opportunity and he’s ready to seize it, and he goes in and plays well. And Zion played very well in the game. He was aggressive. He tackled well. He did a really nice job with communication. He’s really started to gain confidence back physically from the injury, but I would say the biggest jump for him has been the understanding of our defense – calls, checks, alignments. Our safeties are at times responsible for a good amount of that, and give the kid credit, he’s invested. He invested himself last year while he was rehabilitating from the injury. He’s very detail-oriented, very consistent in his work ethic, and it’s been cool to see him come about. He has obvious talent. He’s certainly one of the most talented DB’s we have in the room. So it’s been fun to see the play come along. Gained a lot of confidence from how he played last week, and I foresee him having a big role from here on out."
Have you had to make any changes to practices to account for not playing up to standards recently?
"I think it’s – there’s not a lot of probably changing fully to what we do, like a wholesale change. There’s been a few tweaks to the schedule that we’ve done. We’ve created a few more things in terms of a little more competitive work, even though we’re in the middle of a pretty heavy stretch here. That’s been very positive this week. I feel like the guys have prepared well. We had a good week of practice last week. Guys were excited to play, excited to prepare. I could look back on the Arizona game and say, you know, was it fair to say we were maybe asleep at the wheel a little bit? And practice, it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t exceptional that week. We practiced very well last week. Our guys were ready to play, team was ready to play. Again, you can be as ready as you can to play, but you lose the turnover battle five to nothing, that’s what you’re going to get. I didn’t think that had anything to do with a lack of preparation or our guys being ready. But you’ve got to carry it over. Against good teams – I know we talked about on the road, but against good teams period, you’re gonna get your chances. You’ve got to make your plays. Notre Dame last week, we gave them some opportunities with mistakes and they made us pay for it. They caught the balls. They caught the interceptions. They made the plays when we made mistakes. They also made mistakes, and we had some wide windows open to really hurt them, and we didn’t capitalize on those. And again, when it’s two good teams, going at it, that’s typically what it comes down to. Who can make the least mistakes? And who can make the other team pay for it when they make those mistakes? To answer your question, the team is very, very hungry, very competitive right now. We have practiced our tail off this week. We’ve emphasized a few key points internally that I’ll keep there that I think are really important for us going forward. But yeah, I mean, we’ve got to carry over what we’re doing on the practice field and go turn it loose and go cut it loose and just play. That I think is a bigger issue for us right now than maybe the preparation."
What do you need to see from Caleb this week in terms of being more consistent?
"Just let him be himself. That's that. He's played two games against these guys. He's played two really good games against these guys. They are a tough defense, they're very good at what they do, but so are we. It'll be a fun matchup, I'm excited for him. He in his career, in all the time I've had him, when you play this level you're not going to throw six touchdown passes and zero interceptions every game. It's not going to happen. You're going to have some tough moments that don't go your way. It's more about your response, and throughout his career he's always responded when he wasn't at his best. He'll be very ready to play this game, he needs to play within himself and go do what he does best. We need to play great on the other 10 positions and everywhere else across the field and that's the plan."
Is there an update on Max Williams, and what did you learn from preparing for the wildcat against Arizona State?
"Yeah, Max has been limited for us this week, not full go, we’ll see if he’s available, but definitely questionable right now. Yeah, and I think lessons from the wildcat, we certainly prepared for it for Arizona State. We were anticipating it. I think the biggest lesson for us on it was how important it is to tackle good backs. Obviously, Utah has several good backs on the roster, they’ve shown that here through the years, shown it through this year, and our ability to tackle, to get off blocks, to constrict the gaps, not give those guys room to run, I think is the most important thing. We did a good job on the back last week, a bigger guy, obviously tackling for us, like any defense, is paramount to your success and the No. 1 thing is we gotta control gaps so that they don’t come through with a lot of momentum and then obviously we gotta do a great job tackling, gang tackling, getting these guys down, not having yards after the contact."
Do you expect any OL personnel changes and how much can that unit really get better this deep into the season?
"You can definitely – we can definitely still get a lot better. WE have some options, we’ve looked at a couple of different lineups this week. Still got a couple days here to go before game time so we’ll make that decision, but like I said the other day, playing some of the different lineups that we did early in the year, playing different people has its benefits and i think in the second half of the season, we’ll see that. In terms of, we’ve had different guys play, we’ve had different guys rep and feel that we have some options. We went through this a little bit last year too and had some guys out. Had some different lineups. Vorhees was out a little bit during some of that time. Obviously we lost Brett at the end. Dedich was out for some time last year. So Haskins was out some time. So we’re used to it. Yeah, I think, can we get better and play better? Of course we can. We’ve played – we’ve had some stretches this year on the offensive line where we’ve played better than we did at any point last year. We’ve kind of been, kind of like the rest of the offense, we’ve been really close to playing really good. There’s a lot of good, you just don't see it yet because we haven’t put it together all 11 and that’s obviously our challenge and what we gotta do a lot better job of. And we did it pretty well early in the year and played really well in some of those games, played really well in Stanford, played really well against Arizona State, played really well the first half, kind of the first three quarters of Colorado, so we’ve done it, but we gotta go do it, do go it against a good group here this week and we do feel like we’ve got some options in terms of lineup and we’ll make a decision going into the game and if it’s going good, then we’ll stick with it, if not, we feel like we have some different combinations that we feel like we can go to."
Caleb Williams' right pinky finger has been taped up for a couple games, is that affecting his throws?
"Nah, he got it hit, ah, I can’t remember, it’s been a few games ago, it’s just been a little bit sore, kind of tender, but hasn’t affect him, hasn’t affected play, so nah, just more of a, I don’t know, kind of a nagging nuisance, but not a hindrance to play."
What have you seen from Zion Branch's progress and for his role moving forward?
"I think he’s right there. We were obviously disappointed when the two guys got dinged last week, but it was exciting to see Zion get his opportunity. That’s a lot of times how these things happen. Somebody gets hurt, and a young guy gets the opportunity and he’s ready to seize it, and he goes in and plays well. And Zion played very well in the game. He was aggressive. He tackled well. He did a really nice job with communication. He’s really started to gain confidence back physically from the injury, but I would say the biggest jump for him has been the understanding of our defense – calls, checks, alignments. Our safeties are at times responsible for a good amount of that, and give the kid credit, he’s invested. He invested himself last year while he was rehabilitating from the injury. He’s very detail-oriented, very consistent in his work ethic, and it’s been cool to see him come about. He has obvious talent. He’s certainly one of the most talented DB’s we have in the room. So it’s been fun to see the play come along. Gained a lot of confidence from how he played last week, and I foresee him having a big role from here on out."
Have you had to make any changes to practices to account for not playing up to standards recently?
"I think it’s – there’s not a lot of probably changing fully to what we do, like a wholesale change. There’s been a few tweaks to the schedule that we’ve done. We’ve created a few more things in terms of a little more competitive work, even though we’re in the middle of a pretty heavy stretch here. That’s been very positive this week. I feel like the guys have prepared well. We had a good week of practice last week. Guys were excited to play, excited to prepare. I could look back on the Arizona game and say, you know, was it fair to say we were maybe asleep at the wheel a little bit? And practice, it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t exceptional that week. We practiced very well last week. Our guys were ready to play, team was ready to play. Again, you can be as ready as you can to play, but you lose the turnover battle five to nothing, that’s what you’re going to get. I didn’t think that had anything to do with a lack of preparation or our guys being ready. But you’ve got to carry it over. Against good teams – I know we talked about on the road, but against good teams period, you’re gonna get your chances. You’ve got to make your plays. Notre Dame last week, we gave them some opportunities with mistakes and they made us pay for it. They caught the balls. They caught the interceptions. They made the plays when we made mistakes. They also made mistakes, and we had some wide windows open to really hurt them, and we didn’t capitalize on those. And again, when it’s two good teams, going at it, that’s typically what it comes down to. Who can make the least mistakes? And who can make the other team pay for it when they make those mistakes? To answer your question, the team is very, very hungry, very competitive right now. We have practiced our tail off this week. We’ve emphasized a few key points internally that I’ll keep there that I think are really important for us going forward. But yeah, I mean, we’ve got to carry over what we’re doing on the practice field and go turn it loose and go cut it loose and just play. That I think is a bigger issue for us right now than maybe the preparation."
What do you need to see from Caleb this week in terms of being more consistent?
"Just let him be himself. That's that. He's played two games against these guys. He's played two really good games against these guys. They are a tough defense, they're very good at what they do, but so are we. It'll be a fun matchup, I'm excited for him. He in his career, in all the time I've had him, when you play this level you're not going to throw six touchdown passes and zero interceptions every game. It's not going to happen. You're going to have some tough moments that don't go your way. It's more about your response, and throughout his career he's always responded when he wasn't at his best. He'll be very ready to play this game, he needs to play within himself and go do what he does best. We need to play great on the other 10 positions and everywhere else across the field and that's the plan."
