Photo by: Davis Kuhn/Utah Athletics
Postgame Quotes: No. 11 Utah at Colorado
10/18/2026 1:24 AM | Football
Postgame Quotes
No. 11 Utah 27, (at) Colorado 24
Boulder, Colo. (Folsom Field)
Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026
Kick: 8:30 p.m. MT | End: 12:13 a.m. MT
Attendance: 52,489 (sellout)
Â
Utah QuotesÂ
Head Coach Morgan Scalley
Opening Statement…
"Credit to Coach Sanders and Colorado for the way they competed and fought. I knew going into this game I thought this was going to be a battle, particularly on defense and how stout they were. Looking at this game, I think you look at really all metrics that matter and I don't know that we should've won this game outside of the score. Some big plays made in this game down the stretch, James Chenault with the interception, Creed Whittemore with a huge catch, Brock Fonoimoana on the recovery on the onside kick, Dillon Curtis being 100 percent on his field goals. That was huge come to find out, but you find a way to get a win. You look across college football today like I said, every week, winning is hard and we're fortunate enough to be on the winning side. I'm proud of the way our guys fought to the end and we came away with a win. There's a lot to correct on film and we have to be able score touchdowns in the red zone when we get there. Turning the ball over was not good enough. There at the end, that's on us as coaches, you cannot throw an incompletion, have to keep the clock running. Not good enough on third downs, not good enough passing efficiency, not good enough running the ball. On the defensive side, too many explosive plays, not good enough on third down. We gave up 2-of-3 touchdowns in the red zone. The takeaways were huge, obviously."
Â
 On what prevented the offense from getting into a rhythm…
"I think you saw a rhythm but then ultimately we didn't finish. It's finishing in the red zone with touchdowns. A big part of that is their defensive front is pretty active and they brought quite a bit of pressure all night. Like I said, I knew this was going to be somewhat of a battle there, so we'll have to look at the film and see offensive line-wise, how we need to improve, but without looking at the tape, other than finishing drives when you get down there, I'll have to hold off on that one."
Â
On how important a game like this was for the team…
"I'd rather lead the entire time but it's just not how it is. We've had gut-punches before but there's reasons you win and lose games, but for the most part the key metrics we look at we weren't good at in this game. That's why we end up at the end of it, potentially losing this game. We did have some guys come away and make some big-time plays, but that's what you need in those situations. Credit the defense for getting that takeaway, Creed for capitalizing in that situation, found a way to, again, score when we needed to down at the end."
Â
On the playcalling in the red zone and in the second half…
"I wouldn't say I'd question the playcalling there in the second half. There's some execution stuff that needed to happen, whether we didn't send guys in motion when we needed to. There were a couple of things there, a couple of missed identifications in terms of what Devon was looking for but ultimately it falls on back on us and we have to be able to coach them better and I have all the confidence in the world in Kevin and also the players of getting it fixed."
Senior Quarterback Devon DampierÂ
On what the night was like for the offense…
"I think we didn't click on all cylinders today, but adversity happens. We've seen multiple games before today. A lot of big teams lost to some unranked teams today. Football is hard. As much as we hate to put ourselves in those situations, I thought, at the end of the day, we fought through it and we did what needed to happen to win this game."
Â
On what was and wasn't working for the offense…
"I think Wayshawn ran the ball pretty well today. When teams play man, especially press-man, they have no help behind them and we like our odds against those and we take those deep shots when we think they are there."
Â
Junior Cornerback James Chenault
On what happened in the second half that allowed Colorado to build momentum…
"I would just say lack of communication, not making sure we get one call to another person or making sure this part of communication got to the next person, so just making sure we're hitting on all cylinders, especially communication."
Â
On his interception…
"Just from watching film throughout the week, knowing they like screens and they like the screen-and-go, I knew they needed a big play at that time and I know Isaac was looking down the field to make a play, so reading the quarterback's eyes, I saw him throw it up and made a play on the ball."
Â
Senior Wide Receiver Braden Pegan Â
On Creed Whittemore's third-down conversion in the fourth quarter…
"That was actually the second time Creed did that on those deep balls, so shoutout to him. He's been working so hard in practice every single week. It's really just a testament to the receiver room and I ended up in the end zone but I think its all of us that got us down there."
Â
On how important it was for the team to be tested in a close game…
"I just think it was a little bit of a wakeup call. It was close. There's a lot of work to be done just like any week. If we smoke a team or we barely beat a team or we lose, there's a lot of work to be done each week and it just shows that we have stuff to do and if we want to achieve our goals, we're going to keep getting better every week."
Â
No. 11 Utah 27, (at) Colorado 24
Boulder, Colo. (Folsom Field)
Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026
Kick: 8:30 p.m. MT | End: 12:13 a.m. MT
Attendance: 52,489 (sellout)
Â
Utah QuotesÂ
Head Coach Morgan Scalley
Opening Statement…
"Credit to Coach Sanders and Colorado for the way they competed and fought. I knew going into this game I thought this was going to be a battle, particularly on defense and how stout they were. Looking at this game, I think you look at really all metrics that matter and I don't know that we should've won this game outside of the score. Some big plays made in this game down the stretch, James Chenault with the interception, Creed Whittemore with a huge catch, Brock Fonoimoana on the recovery on the onside kick, Dillon Curtis being 100 percent on his field goals. That was huge come to find out, but you find a way to get a win. You look across college football today like I said, every week, winning is hard and we're fortunate enough to be on the winning side. I'm proud of the way our guys fought to the end and we came away with a win. There's a lot to correct on film and we have to be able score touchdowns in the red zone when we get there. Turning the ball over was not good enough. There at the end, that's on us as coaches, you cannot throw an incompletion, have to keep the clock running. Not good enough on third downs, not good enough passing efficiency, not good enough running the ball. On the defensive side, too many explosive plays, not good enough on third down. We gave up 2-of-3 touchdowns in the red zone. The takeaways were huge, obviously."
Â
 On what prevented the offense from getting into a rhythm…
"I think you saw a rhythm but then ultimately we didn't finish. It's finishing in the red zone with touchdowns. A big part of that is their defensive front is pretty active and they brought quite a bit of pressure all night. Like I said, I knew this was going to be somewhat of a battle there, so we'll have to look at the film and see offensive line-wise, how we need to improve, but without looking at the tape, other than finishing drives when you get down there, I'll have to hold off on that one."
Â
On how important a game like this was for the team…
"I'd rather lead the entire time but it's just not how it is. We've had gut-punches before but there's reasons you win and lose games, but for the most part the key metrics we look at we weren't good at in this game. That's why we end up at the end of it, potentially losing this game. We did have some guys come away and make some big-time plays, but that's what you need in those situations. Credit the defense for getting that takeaway, Creed for capitalizing in that situation, found a way to, again, score when we needed to down at the end."
Â
On the playcalling in the red zone and in the second half…
"I wouldn't say I'd question the playcalling there in the second half. There's some execution stuff that needed to happen, whether we didn't send guys in motion when we needed to. There were a couple of things there, a couple of missed identifications in terms of what Devon was looking for but ultimately it falls on back on us and we have to be able to coach them better and I have all the confidence in the world in Kevin and also the players of getting it fixed."
Senior Quarterback Devon DampierÂ
On what the night was like for the offense…
"I think we didn't click on all cylinders today, but adversity happens. We've seen multiple games before today. A lot of big teams lost to some unranked teams today. Football is hard. As much as we hate to put ourselves in those situations, I thought, at the end of the day, we fought through it and we did what needed to happen to win this game."
Â
On what was and wasn't working for the offense…
"I think Wayshawn ran the ball pretty well today. When teams play man, especially press-man, they have no help behind them and we like our odds against those and we take those deep shots when we think they are there."
Â
Junior Cornerback James Chenault
On what happened in the second half that allowed Colorado to build momentum…
"I would just say lack of communication, not making sure we get one call to another person or making sure this part of communication got to the next person, so just making sure we're hitting on all cylinders, especially communication."
Â
On his interception…
"Just from watching film throughout the week, knowing they like screens and they like the screen-and-go, I knew they needed a big play at that time and I know Isaac was looking down the field to make a play, so reading the quarterback's eyes, I saw him throw it up and made a play on the ball."
Â
Senior Wide Receiver Braden Pegan Â
On Creed Whittemore's third-down conversion in the fourth quarter…
"That was actually the second time Creed did that on those deep balls, so shoutout to him. He's been working so hard in practice every single week. It's really just a testament to the receiver room and I ended up in the end zone but I think its all of us that got us down there."
Â
On how important it was for the team to be tested in a close game…
"I just think it was a little bit of a wakeup call. It was close. There's a lot of work to be done just like any week. If we smoke a team or we barely beat a team or we lose, there's a lot of work to be done each week and it just shows that we have stuff to do and if we want to achieve our goals, we're going to keep getting better every week."
Â
Players Mentioned
K
/ Football
QB
/ Football
LB
/ Football
WR
/ Football
WR
/ Football No videos available.
