Idaho State Postgame Quotes

Thursday, August 28

Salt Lake City

5:30 PM

University of Utah

1-0

Idaho State

0-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

IDAHO STATE

UTAH

8/28/2014 12:00 AM | Football

Box Score

Aug. 28, 2014

Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham

Opening statement:

"There were a lot of positives in the football game, but I'll start with the negatives. We gave up too much at the line of scrimmage and allowed too many rushing yards. We were too soft against the run.

We did `out-athlete' them a bunch and were able to make some plays up the field. Our offensive tempo was very good and we only put the ball on the ground once.

We played solid special teams as you saw with the play of Kaelin Clay tonight. He had a great game and gave the team a lot of energy.

I am not sure how much more we know about our team after tonight. We were well-coached and we played all 60 minutes. We still have a few things to take a look at that we can get better in."

Kaelin Clay

On picking up a pair of touchdown returns tonight, a punt return and kickoff return:

"It felt great. I pride myself on special teams. It's one of those things that usually go unnoticed, but I take a lot of pride in it."

Travis Wilson

On getting back on the field:

"It was great. I feel really blessed to have the opportunity to come back and play. It is great to be back with this team and these coaches. It was a great start to the season, but there are still some things we need to improve."

On the offense having more weapons, compared to the past few seasons:

"It's nice to have Kenneth Scott back and to have Tim Patrick as well. There are definitely a lot of weapons that will allow us to spread the ball around. We seem to be getting better and all of us are getting on the same page. It is just nice to have everyone healthy."

Nate Orchard

On the overall effort of the defense tonight:

"We were very average. We gave away a ton of big plays to the offense, especially in the rushing game. In the end we came out victorious, but we will have to go back and look at the film and see what corrections we can make."

Idaho State Head Coach Mike Kramer

On the differences in the game -

"We had a fracture in the kicking game. I'd say more than a fracture, more like a compound fracture in the kicking game. That really gave us no chance. Any time you give a team as talented as Utah an opportunity to make plays in the kicking game, they're going to make you pay for it. Really, the kicking game is where this fell apart. We got a field goal blocked, and from then on we reverted back to something that was pretty ugly."

On evaluating his team's play -

"We found some spots in the second half that I liked. I liked our character. Again, we're better defensively. We're a long ways from where we want to be. We're pretty good on offense, our quarterback's pretty good. Our receivers played like a bunch of young guys and they didn't make as many catches as they need to make against a quality team like Utah. But, our running backs and our offensive front met the challenge after some early problems. We rebounded and I thought our offensive staff did a great job of running their game plan. Defensively, we never really were a factor. But, if you've seen us play in the last three years, we were more of a factor tonight than we had been.

"The kicking game evaded us. Some of that has to do with personnel. We had to make some changes late because of a personnel thing that happened inside of our team, and that inexperience at those spots really showed up."

On running back Xavier Finney and the offensive line -

"'X' is really good. He was really good last year, so that's not a surprise to me. Our offensive line is much improved, and they showed it tonight. The got a little nervous early, and when we watch the video tape they'll be hiding because we'll be barking at them because they can play better than they did tonight." On where his team goes -

"We have a chance to improve and play again against a team of this caliber in 10 days. Our guys will be competitive. There are some things that, as our guys get on the bus and ride 150 miles back to Pocatello, they will start feeling really, really good about."