If the Utah Utes have rally caps, now would be a good time to jam them on tight.
As emotionally and physically drained as the Utes were following their 23-14 loss at USC, they must regroup and prepare for one of their biggest games of the season with a trip to BYU next on the schedule.
The Utes pinpointed this part of the schedule several months ago, knowing it would be a challenge to play USC and BYU back-to-back.
Their outlook hasn’t changed since then, just their undefeated record. Hopes of going into the rivalry week undefeated were dashed when USC blocked a last-second field goal by the Utes and returned it for a touchdown.
“As a team, we’ve got to forget about this one as quickly as possible,” quarterback Jordan Wynn said. “Obviously there are frustrations over the weekend, but the worst thing we can do is let this carry over. That is something the leaders and the captains of the teams have to make sure doesn’t happen. We’ll watch the tape, learn from it and I know it will just keep us going.”
The last time the Utes were in a similar situation, things didn’t go so well. The Utes followed a 40-7 loss to TCU with a 28-3 loss at Notre Dame, a game that players later admitted they had trouble preparing for after the loss to the Horned Frogs.
Yet these are just the kinds of situations the Utes know they must handle if they are going to make a successful adjustment to the Pac-12, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham reminded his team Saturday.
“You lose a football game and it hurts, but you have to recover quickly,” Whittingham said. “We’ve got a week of preparation ahead to get ready for the next game so we’ll put this one behind us and on Monday get started.”
No comments:
Post a Comment