Upcoming Event: Football at Baylor on November 15, 2025 at 5 p.m.
Football
at Baylor
.png&width=31&height=31&type=webp)
The University of Utah Athletics
Utah vs. Washington Postgame Quotes
11/8/2015 12:00 AM | Football
Nov. 8, 2015
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | USATSI Photo Gallery 
Utah Postgame Quotes
at Washington
Nov. 7, 2015
Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
Are there many players more valuable than Gionni Paul?
"No, he's been great. Gionni Paul's interception was big at the time when it happened. I don't know how many tackles he had tonight, but I'm sure that he had a bunch. He and Jared Norris are great one two punch in there in at linebackers. In my own opinion, they are the best pair in the conference, best set of linebackers."
What happened at safety? Why was Chase Hansen starting?
Because Chase is one heck of a football player, and he earned that job.
You said that takeaways come in bunches?
"Sure did, we've said that before, and after going blank the last two weeks. Did we get four of five tonight? Four, that was big. If you get four takeaways and a score of one of them directly, you're not going to lose many football games."
On Devontae Booker's performance:
"He did a great job, and as I've said before he gets stronger as the game goes on."
On that last drive, almost all runs I believe, is that where you felt like you were getting the advantage?
"The thing that puts the game on ice is when you have the lead in the fourth quarter, and the ability to pass rush you have the ability to cram it down their throat and that's what we did. Cram the run game."
Do you think the offense is at their best when they have Travis Wilson be a threat with his legs?
"Yeah. I think he did a great job with his passing game, I haven't see the stats yet, but I would like to see us get to 225 yards a week throwing, it hasn't happened much this season but that would be ideal.
Jake Browning was pretty nifty in the pocket early, stepping up when you guys had him sort of surrounded, did you do anything to start hitting home?
"No, we brought four or five, sometimes six or seven every snap. He's a quarterback that you can see his progression every week throughout the season. He's getting better and better. He's going to be a good quarterback here in this conference, he already is but we didn't change up much, we just brought a steady dose of mixing up four or five on most snaps."
Quarterback Travis Wilson
How does it feel beating the one school you haven't beat since entering the Pac-12?
"Yeah, I mean it's definitely a huge, huge win for the program. And we're still sitting right where we want to be. So it was definitely good to get a win up here, especially with the conditions."
How did you think the offense played tonight?
"I think we played well. I think we did a lot of good things on the perimeter, I mean getting those bubble screens out there, getting guys in space, did really well. And I think Booker did really well running the ball. O-line did a great job blocking. Wishing we could have made a couple more completions and a couple more throws but it's just how the game goes and we're doing a lot of good things running the ball."
Did the weather make it kind of slick and tough to complete some of those passes?
"Yeah it's tough, but I mean we can't let that be a factor of our game. And it's my job to make the throws and make sure I'm keeping with making those throws. So I mean it's definitely tough with running and everything, but like I said you can't really make that a factor of the game."
Linebacker Gionni Paul
How nice was it to get some takeaways tonight?
"Oh man, it was very nice. It felt awesome. As a defense, we pride ourselves on takeaways. We believe when we take away the ball more than our opponents, we have a high percentage of winning the ballgame. So going in we knew we were facing a good defense, so we just wanted to prove which defense was better."
Why do you think there has been a dry spell the last few weeks getting turnovers?
"The game of football is weird. It's a game of inches. We were so close in the other games of catching a pick, getting a forced fumble. It's just the extra effort. And I believe we corrected that mistake. I believe sometimes we get too lackadaisical on plays and every play you just gotta go hard and good things will happen."
Running Back Devontae Booker
You ran the ball on every play in that last touchdown drive. Did you feel like the ground game was really working?
"Yeah absolutely. I believe it was working all night. We just, some plays we had tagged the route on with the run and we were throwing it. And basically once you start throwing and completing some balls, it opened up some big holes for me. Later on in that drive and in that game, that last drive that we scored on, they just opened up some big holes, my lineman did, and I just executed."
Players Mentioned
RB
/ Football
QB/DB
/ Football
LB
/ Football
LB
/ Football
QB
/ FootballCrimson Corner with Bill Riley - Utah Football's Mana Carvalho & Blake Cotton
Wednesday, November 05
Utah: 45, Cincinnati: 14 | POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE
Saturday, November 01
Head Coach Kyle Whittingham weekly press conference - 10.27.25
Monday, October 27
Utah: 53, Colorado: 7 | POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE
Saturday, October 25