Utah Utes College Football Pregame Quote, 11/02/2020

Game week is finally here, and that is a relief for a lot of our guys in a lot of ways. It has been a lot of months without an opponent, just hitting each other, and we are tired of that. It is exciting that the week is here. We definitely need this week of practice and we are going to maximize the time that we have. We will be on the field today in full pads and it will most likely be our last full padded practice before the game. Tomorrow is off as per the Pac-12 mandate, but then we will be back at it Wednesday. The guys are looking forward to it and they are eager to get going. It is going to be a different game day atmosphere obviously with the circumstances that are involved and no fans, so it is all continuing to be uncharted territory. That is the situation we are in, so we just move forward and hopefully we will play well on Saturday.

On having Britain Covey back:

It is huge for our offense and huge for our special teams. He is one of the best returners in the nation, at least he was his freshman year, and we expect him to be very dangerous as a punt returner and kick returner. He is completely healthy as far as the knee injury and we need his quickness and speed. He was not himself last year and that is why we made the decision to sit him out after those first four games, so he was able to get a redshirt last year and then of course with this year, it is like it doesn’t count so he really gets another redshirt year. He means a lot to our offense. He has got a role that is significant. He is one of the best slot receivers in the Pac-12 and we are expecting him to have an impact on our offense this year in a very positive way.

On the left guard position and what he is looking for our of Keaton Bills and Braeden Daniels:

Those two have performed exceptionally well all camp long and so they both earned the opportunity to play, and they are both going to play and rotate. There are a lot of positions like that, where you see the starting lineup but those backups are going to get reps. But we will see who settles in and does the best job in game situations. There are a lot of these ones and twos that are very close, neck-and-neck, so a lot of them are listed as ‘or’, but some of them are listed as one and two with two still getting reps. So we will see how things unfold in the course of a season, and you can play your way into more playing time or less as the case may be depending on how you perform.

On if this game week in particular feels a little different:

It does have a different feel. The other day we went through our pregame routine, and that has had to be changed up because not only are we dealing with the COVID stuff and those restrictions and modifications, but we also don’t have a locker room over at the stadium. So, that has caused us to change our routine quite a bit. We aren’t complaining about it, but the pregame routine dramatically changed because we will do a lot of the pregame stuff over at the facility and then arrive at the stadium much later than we are used to because of the need to get things done over with better facilities to work with.

On what Devin Brumfield and Jordan Wilmore bring to the run game:

Devin is more of an inside runner. He is our biggest back at 215 pounds. He is a physical runner in between the tackles, he is a guy that never makes a mental mistake and he handles his pass protections and blitz pickups exceptionally well. He also catches the ball out of the backfield well. He is very steady and consistent with his play. Jordan Wilmore is a little more elusive, more of an outside guy, although he is pretty tough inside the tackles. Jordan has made a lot of strides since last year. Nobody really got a bunch of work the last couple of years with Zack Moss taking the vast majority of the carries, but they both bring something to the table as do Micah Bernard and Ty Jordan. They will also be on the field, getting their reps in situations, and they have their package plays where we can utilize those guys. It will be a by-committee running back situation early on. If somebody clearly demonstrates through live game work that they are ahead of the other guys, then we will gravitate toward that guy. Right now, we plan on using all four and we feel good about all of them.