Utes looking for bounce-back win at West Virginia

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Sports) – It was simply uncharacteristic Utah football.

After committing just one turnover in its first three games of the season, the Utes committed four against Texas Tech on Saturday, including Devon Dampier’s first two interceptions, in a demoralizing 34-10 loss at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

“Just being more efficient, throwing the ball and just the decisions I make on the field,” Dampier said when asked how he can be better. “Being efficient is what makes our offense so good. So just me handling and touching the ball every play and doing what’s best for our team. That’s something I can always get better at.”

“Not real good on offense, needless to say,” said head coach Kyle Whittingham Monday.
We didn’t score enough points, didn’t run the ball well, didn’t throw the ball well and turned the ball over four times, which is really the most telling stat.”

Dampier was playing hurt, but never said he considered sitting out against the Red Raiders.

“I mean, I was suited up all week last week [in practice],” he said. “But my availability was never in question.”

“He was doing the best he could,” Whittingham said. “He wasn’t able to practice Tuesday or Wednesday, a little bit Thursday. I’m going to tell you that it definitely impacted Devin, but if you’re out there, you got to get it done.”

Ryan Davis was the only wide receiver to catch a pass in the game. Jackson Bennee did haul in a long touchdown catch that was called back because of a penalty, but the Utes need to find more downfield threats.

“Sometimes things don’t always click,” said wide receiver Tobias Merriweather. “If they’re getting pressure, or things happening within the defense that he’s trying to read. Football is, especially at receiver, a game that you rely on so many different things and it has to be perfect.”

On the defensive side of the ball, there were too many missed tackles, uncharacteristically, as the Utes gave up 24 points in the final 12 minutes of the game.

“We had our worst tackling day with 23 missed tackles, which for us is way too many,” Whittingham said. “Tackling is something that we pride ourselves on. We work on it every week, and this week will be no different. We were very sloppy in that regard.”

Last year after a 4-0 start, the Utes went on a 7-game losing streak. Whittingham isn’t too concerned that this loss will trigger a similar slide.

“Very confident that this team is not going to allow that to happen,” Whittingham said. “We have really good leadership on this team, and just kind of keep people healthy. That was really the situation last year.”

“When things happens, you could definitely use that as a learning curve,” Dampier said. “I think [the loss] brought that fire. I’m not saying we didn’t have it, but it just adds more fuel to that fire.”

Utah will look to bounce back against West Virginia Saturday at 1:30 p.m. MT.

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