LOS ANGELES — Over the past year, everywhere Utah safety Cole Bishop has gone, people have wanted to talk to him about the Rose Bowl, where the Utes fell 48-45 to Ohio State in a memorable game on New Year’s Day.
“We kind of have a chip on our shoulder with wanting to establish our identity as a tough football team. That’s what we’re looking forward to.” — Utah safety R.J. Hubert
“Everyone’s always saying, ‘That was such a good game.’ But on the defensive side, we played terrible,” Bishop said Thursday. “We gave up all those points, yards. ... That’s all I’ve been thinking about — that we can’t do that again.”
Against the Buckeyes, Utah allowed an unseemly 683 yards and 48 points. Quarterback C.J. Stroud threw for 573 yards and six touchdowns and wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught 15 passes for 347 yards and three TDs against the Utes’ depleted secondary.
No. 8 Utah’s defense is looking for a much better performance, and a measure of redemption, Monday (3 p.m. MST, ESPN), when it faces No. 11 Penn State in the Rose Bowl.
Certainly, the Utes are motivated.
“We have something to prove from last year. Our secondary didn’t do as well as we wanted to,” said safety R.J. Hubert. “Of course, we played against a really good receiving corps last year. This year, we have something to prove. We kind of have a chip on our shoulder with wanting to establish our identity as a tough football team. That’s what we’re looking forward to.”
Bishop noted that the defense is closer to full strength compared to last year — running back Micah Bernard had to play cornerback due to injuries to so many secondary players.
“Having our secondary, pretty much everybody for the most part, will help us succeed, I think,” he said.
Of course, Utah will be without its All-America cornerback, Clark Phillips, who opted out of the game as he is preparing for the upcoming NFL draft.
“He’s an All-American corner. He’s definitely going to be a big loss,” Bishop said. “But we’ve got JaTravis Broughton and Zemaiah Vaughn. We’ve got two guys that will still get the job done.”
Defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley said the defense has the depth to do the job, even without Phillips. Still, he expects that Penn State will try to attack the cornerbacks.
“Zemaiah Vaughn has done a great job. JaTravis Broughton, we’ve got Caine Savage, who has got some reps this season at the nickel spot, Sione Vaki who’s proven to be a fantastic nickel for us,” he said. “So we’ve got more depth obviously this year at this point than we did last year, but yeah, I mean, if you’ve got — if a strength of a defense is no longer there, you bet you should exploit it or try to exploit it.”
Another thing to keep in mind is that Penn State’s offense is not as prolific through the air as Ohio State’s was last season.
That aside, the Nittany Lions pose significant challenges for the Utes.
Senior quarterback Sean Clifford has completed 210 of 330 passes for 2,543 yards with 22 touchdowns and seven interceptions this season. For his career, he’s thrown for 10,382 yards with 84 touchdowns and 31 interceptions.
“He’s good, obviously,” Bishop said. “You see him make plays all over the field, whether he’s running it or throwing it. He can scramble if he needs to.”
“He’s got an element that I have. I’m one of the older guys,” Hubert said about Clifford. “He’s just a guy that understands the program, he understands what coach (James) Franklin wants from him. He’s just a leader. He makes the right decisions for the team to put them in good positions.”
The Penn State offense has received a big boost this season from a pair of freshmen running backs — Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen.
Singleton has rushed for 941 yards and 10 touchdowns while Allen has run for 830 yards and nine TDs.
“They’re tough. They’re very impressive backs, especially considering that they are freshmen,” said defensive lineman Gabe Reid. “They run hard, they break tackles. It’s going to be a group effort for us as a defense to getting to the ball and bringing them down.”
Not surprisingly, Scalley has watched, and studied, a lot of film featuring Singleton and Allen.
“I would say (Singleton) flashes a little bit more in terms of the — just dipping the shoulder, getting those extra yards,” he said. “(Allen) is more of the slasher. Both of them are very effective, and you can tell they have all the confidence in the world in both of them, and they’ve been productive for a reason. Great offensive line, and like I said, they do a great job with not only zone, outside zone, their counter, they run everything at you.”
The Nittany Lions also boast three effective tight ends — Brenton Strange (32 catches, 362 yards, five touchdowns), Theo Johnson (18 receptions, 300 yards, four touchdowns); and Tyler Warren (nine catches, 108 yards, three touchdowns).
This week, Strange declared for the NFL draft, meaning the Rose Bowl will be his final game in a Penn State uniform.
Those tight ends have been instrumental in the Nittany Lions’ success running the ball this season.
“They’re an integral part of their offense. It’s similar to our offense, both in the run game with blocking and the passing game in terms of play-action and route combos,” Reid said. “They’re a good group of guys that work well together with the O-line and the running backs. We’re definitely going to have our hands full.”
For the Utes, particularly the secondary, the goal against Penn State is to show the nation what Utah defense is all about — at least a much better display than last season against Ohio State.
Rose Bowl at a glance
No. 8 Utah (10-3) vs. No. 11 Penn State (10-2)
Jan. 2, 3 p.m. MST
Rose Bowl
Pasadena, California
TV: ESPN
Radio: ESPN 700