SALT LAKE CITY — Utah coach Kyle Whittingham didn’t come right out and say it, but you could tell he isn’t overly excited about the prospect of playing an FCS school this week, a week before the Utes’ big games the next two weeks against ranked Pac-12 opponents USC and Washington State.
Whittingham hardly said a word about Idaho State during his 19-minute press conference Monday and hemmed and hawed when asked about playing FCS schools in general.
“There are arguments whether you should do that,” he said. “I don’t know, there needs to be some uniformity on that with the Power Five schools, but right now there’s no guidelines or mandates. You can do whatever you want with scheduling those three nonconference games, so I don’t have a great answer. I’d like to see them uniform with the number of conference games. There’s a few things that need to be standardized in the Power Five conferences.”
“There are arguments whether you should do that. I don’t know, there needs to be some uniformity on that with the Power Five schools, but right now there’s no guidelines or mandates. You can do whatever you want with scheduling those three nonconference games, so I don’t have a great answer.” — Kyle Whittingham on scheduling FCS opponents.
Whittingham didn’t say how FCS games benefitted his team, but said the main benefit may be to the FCS schools, who pick up a big payday (in most cases between $500,000 and $1 million) to come and play against a major school like Utah.
“It certainly benefits the FCS school financially — it’s a good payday for them,” he said.
Whittingham also reflected back to when he was an assistant coach at an FCS school, which just happened to be Idaho State, where he coached from 1988 to 1993. He talked about the “excellent experience” he received and how it was a big deal for his team to come to a big stadium like Utah to play and how ISU “hung around for a quarter or two” before getting “run out of the stadium.”
That 1988 game ended 41-16 for the Utes, the closest of the last five meetings between the Utes and Bengals. Those games have been 56-0 (1978), 51-16 (1987), 66-0 (1994) and 56-14 (2014).
That’s typically how these games with FCS schools go.
Since the first year of the FCS, which was 1978 when the Football Championship Subdivision was called Division I-AA, Utah has played 18 games against FCS opponents. Half of those games have come the past 13 seasons with nine games in all. Since 2011, the Utes have played an FCS school every year but one — in 2015 when Michigan, Utah State and Fresno State were on the schedule — and won by an average score of 42-9.
Besides his comments about playing FCS opponents, Whittingham covered a variety of subjects in his weekly presser.
— On the health of his team after having at least three starters sit out last week: “We’re OK health-wise right now. We’re in a good spot relative to where we are in the season and what’s ahead of us.”
— On his postgame comments about the empty seats at Rice-Eccles Stadium: “It’s nice to see all the seats filled that’s all. I know the timing of the game wasn’t ideal for our fans ... there was a lot going on with little league football. Selfishly we’d like to play in the morning, but it’s probably not the best for all fans.”
— On his quarterback Tyler Huntley ranking No. 10 in the nation in QBR (total quarterback rating): “That’s the best evaluation of how your quarterback is helping your team out. He’s making good decisions, not trying to force the ball and being judicious with his running.”
— On why Drew Lisk played backup minutes at quarterback instead of last year’s late-season starter Jason Shelley: “Andy (Ludwig) felt Drew had had the better week of preparation. It was close, but he had an excellent week, so he got the nod.”
— Evaluating the Utes’ depth at running back — “Jordan Wilmore is very dynamic, has exceptional vision and is powerful. Devin Brumfield is tough as nails, an exceptional pass protector. Devonta’e Henry-Cole has lot of quickness and speed, a low center of gravity. T.J. Green just barely got healthy and got one carry, but is not 100 percent.”
— On USC freshman quarterback Kedon Slovis, who completed 28 of 33 passes for 377 yards in a win over No. 23 Stanford, he called the performance “very impressive” but quickly added, “we’ll worry about that next week.”
UTE NOTES: Saturday’s home game will begin at 2:15 p.m. ... The Utes are the only team in the FBS with two games played to have zero turnovers and no sacks allowed. ... The Utes lead the Pac-12 in rushing defense at 79.5 yards per game and are 21st in the nation. ... Utah is 25-1 in non-conference games since joining the Pac-12 in 2011. ... The Utes are 7-0 all-time against Idaho State. ... Utah’s No. 11 ranking in the AP poll is its highest ranking since Nov. 13, 2016.
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Utes on the air
No. 11 Utah (2-0) vs.
Idaho State (1-0)
Saturday, 2:15 p.m.
Rice-Eccles Stadium
TV: Pac-12 Networks
Radio: 700 AM