Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Morgan Scalley Weekly Press Conference - Week 8 vs No. 14 Houston

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Morgan Scalley Weekly Press Conference - Week 8 vs No. 14 Houston · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Tournament that will be in Georgia in November. So congrats
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to Sarah. Obviously, it's a big weekend for all of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the University of Utah as College Game Day is coming
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to host. I believe this is the seventh time they
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: will be coming to campus. Present Circle is going to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: be hopping. We know that our fans and our students
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: are going to be great in representing. And you know
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: when the first time was that they hosted College Game
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Day here in Salt Lake City? 2004, brother. My senior year.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: And if you want to know who the first Rhino was,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: it was Steve Fafita. He scored a touchdown in that
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: game as they hand the ball off to him. So
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: that was a pretty cool experience. But excited. Saturday's game
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: obviously would mark the 100th sellout at Rice-Eccles Stadium. So
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: that's pretty cool. In terms of the game... that we
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: just played at Colorado. Again, can't say enough great things
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: about what that staff did there with Colorado. They had defense,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: played lights out. Very physical game. We obviously did enough
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: to stub our toe and make it a game. Thought
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: with two minutes, 30-something seconds left in the first half,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: that could have been a 17-0 game and then another opportunity.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Three chances in the red zone. come up with six
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: points as opposed to 24-0 going into halftime, really allowed
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: them to stay in it. First possession, second half, we
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: give up a long touchdown coming off coverage. Start off
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: on offense with a penalty. So again, self-inflicted stuff that
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: really didn't allow us to get things going. I thought
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: the defense did a really nice job on Devin's turnover
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: of keeping that to a field goal. And that stemmed
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: the tide, and defense from then on out, you know, stop, stop.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Offense started to click, and we were able to finish
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: the game. You know, I mentioned the performances of Creed
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Widmore and Bobo Chenault. Also, I think Hunter Andrews, I
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: was really pleased with the reps that he got, not
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: only running the football but blocking. That guy is a
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: consistent player for us. So some really good things from
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: that game. Also some, obviously, things that we need to
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: clean up. But a win is a win, and we'll
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: take it. With that, a little bit more of a
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: preview on Houston. Coach Fritz, so much respect for him.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: And he's had success wherever he's been. And you see
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  Speaker 1: what they're doing. Very veteran group, 6-1 right now on
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the season. top 25 team that we're going to be hosting,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: very good offense, and a defense that ranks, I believe,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: second in the top 10 in the country in rush defense.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: So 10th in total offense, 12th in scoring offense. They're
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: putting up 39 points a game. Sixth in pass efficiency,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: which you know is a big stat of mine. And
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: then their first and third down conversions. So they're sustaining
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: drives by converting on third down. and sixth in the country,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: sixth in the country in rush defense. So doing it
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: on both sides of the ball, this would be a
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: great challenge for us, and we are excited for this opportunity. So, Justin,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: who's got your question for me right now?
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Hey, over here. What does it say to have college
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: game day highlight the state of Utah twice in the
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: last two weeks, and how do you prepare for the
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: most prolific passing offense you will face all year?
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: You're calling it already. The most prolific offense we'll face
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: all year. Passing offense. All right. You're calling it out.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: I think it's awesome that game day is coming. How
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: many teams are left undefeated in the country? Six. And
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: two of them are sitting right here within 30 minutes
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: of each other. That's pretty awesome. So, yeah, any time
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  Speaker 1: we get to show off our campus and our student
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: body and everything that's great about Salt Lake City and
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: the University of Utah, I think it's fantastic for the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: nation to see. In terms of how are we preparing
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: for this offense, the same way we prepare every week,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and that is what are they great at? Obviously, they're
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: moving the ball. They're sustaining drives. They've got playmakers both
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: at the wide receiver spot, at the running back spot
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: as well, good speed. The quarterback, He does not make
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: a living running the ball, but man is he effective
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  Speaker 1: when he does. He's a competitor. We've got our hands
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  Speaker 1: full for sure, but I also believe in our coaching
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: staff and we'll put a good game plan together.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: You talked about how games like Saturday can help your
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: team develop and do that.
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: Speaking to you specifically and the coaching staff, how does
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: that help you as a coach, especially in your first
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: year as a.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Head coach trying to call all the shots and games
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: like that? Well, I think first and foremost, you just
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: need to know with the communication that goes on, okay,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: what are the issues? Legitimately, what are the issues? How
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: do we fix them? Can we fix them? Is it
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: just an athleticism issue, which it wasn't in this game.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: It was simply some of it was assignments. Some of
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: it was them scheming a little bit of what we
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: were doing and and us being able to respond. I
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: think Colton did a really nice job responding to the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: defensive side. You know, offensively, going back and looking at
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: that film, I'm, you know, the saying goes it's never
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: as good as it seems, never as bad as it seems.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: It was definitely not as bad as it seemed. There
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: were definitely options there that we just missed on. And so,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: you know, the– End of the game, third down, clock's
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: got to be running, don't throw that ball. That is
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: completely on us as a coaching staff, making sure that's clear.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: And so that's one of those as well. But, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it's definitely important that the communication is such that, okay,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: you know what the problem is and you know how
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: to fix it and we can go forward.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: Morgan, Colorado seemed to load up on Wayshon Parker, a
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  Speaker 3: lot of heavy man boxes. How do you counter against that?
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  Speaker 3: It seemed like Hunter Andrews was a good option. Why
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: go away from that Hunter Andrews triple option stuff?
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Oh, I don't know that we went away from it necessarily.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Usually when teams load up like that, you have your
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: quick RPO hits, which I think Devin did a nice
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: job of. you can escape the pocket, which I think
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: he did a nice job of, and some sprint outs
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that. And those were a couple where
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: we thought we may have missed some options that were
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: open in those situations. And then we got some completed
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: on those as well. So, you know, the triple comes
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: in different ways, and you can see sometimes it's hunters
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: that pitch man, sometimes it's bray, sometimes it's bird. So,
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  Speaker 1: I don't think we went away from the triple. It
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: may not have been the one that you saw with Hunter,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: but a lot of the plays that really stifled us
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: were more interior stunts than anything. Like I said, I
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: was very pleased. The offensive line, Kelvin goes down, Toa
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: comes up. I thought he did a nice job. Then
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Roger Alderman comes in. I thought he did a nice job.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: There were some really good things on the offensive line
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: that I saw. Definitely things have to be cleaned up,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: but a lot of promise in the film that I saw.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: Morgan, I'm curious about the pass coverage. You said after
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: the game there were some breakdowns that you saw that
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: you wanted to look at the tape.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: What did you see?
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  Speaker 4: Is it more of just man coverage being man coverage
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: or the quarterback having too much time in the pocket
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  Speaker 4: or a little bit of both of those factors?
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  Speaker 1: A lot of times in man coverage when your coverage
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: may stop running their route. And you may lose eyes
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: and think, oh, okay, what's going on? And, oh, potentially
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: there's a sack there. But then he escapes and you've
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: already lost eyes on your coverage. That's kind of what happened. Yeah, twice,
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  Speaker 1: twice in a row.
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  Speaker 2: Gordon, you said you've dealt with game day here many
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: times before. A lot of these players have, at least
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: in the last year. How do you kind of deal
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: with the distractions that it could bring, but also embrace...
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: what it means to this university and have fun with
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: it and actually.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Use it as motivation? Well, I think the biggest recruiting
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: tool you have is winning games. It's the biggest recruiting
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: tool you have. And so our players understand that it's
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: all about game day and what they do on the field.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: And the best thing they can do to maximize the
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: college game day experience is to win. And so we're
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: putting all our efforts into that. And, yes, we're going
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: to put our best foot forward and make sure that
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: they understand what's important to us and hope the country
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: understands what's important to us. And, yes, it can be
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun. But ultimately, at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the day, it's only fun if you win that game.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: And so our guys are prepared for that. And ESPN
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: College Game does a great job of making sure that
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: they don't interfere with the week's preparation. They want to
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: be there to highlight us, highlight our university and what's
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: great about us, but also prep the entire country for
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: all of game day, right, and all the different games
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  Speaker 1: that are going on.
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  Speaker 4: Last week you were talking about there were different issues
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: in the past defense, and one of them was somebody
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: being misaligned at the snap, and then you had it
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: happen in the end zone in this game. What do
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: you do to clean that up? What is the process?
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  Speaker 1: Oh, man. Well, in that particular instance, it was simply
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: a matter of him not getting the signal, and that's
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: on us. Whereas the previous game, signals were being received.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: We didn't have enough urgency to get lined up.
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: You talked a lot about Weishan and his play on
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: the field. What has he meant to this team as
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: a leader and a locker room presence this season?
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, Wayshon's been fantastic. And what you don't see is
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: the stuff in practice, right? His energy in practice, his
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: work ethic in practice. And he's not the only one. But, man,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: he brings so much energy. And, you know, he's willing
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: to have uncomfortable conversations with people, letting them know, hey,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: what you're giving is not enough and we need more
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: out of you. He's definitely compelling. The more you have
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: of those guys, the better your team's going to be.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: With college game day coming to town, Nick Saban, is
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: there anything from him you've ever taken as a head
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: coach yourself now to try to implement with your team
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: and your program now as success like he did?
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Yes. He's one of the best to ever do it.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: I had the opportunity to visit Alabama. I can't remember
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: when that was. It would have been... Maybe it was 2018.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: But anyway, they were... We did some development. Alabama then
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: went to Georgia. But the number one thing that I think...
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: He always understood that it was about the player, and
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: he was so good at recruiting. That guy recruited every day.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: And I read one of his books, and just... He
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: was all about the player. I think... Also, with the
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: game evolving and recruiting evolving, he was able to evolve
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: with the times. And, you know, so much respect for him.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: And he was here last year, came to one of
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: our walkthroughs, and just all class and all business. So,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, he did it the right way, but it
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: was all about recruiting and recruiting the right people.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Morgan, when a team like Houston is so proficient in
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: converting third downs and moving the chance on that down,
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: What does your team have to do as a defense
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: to kind of make that down more uncomfortable and more challenging?
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Well, I think we're doing a pretty good job on
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the defensive side at third downs as well. I think
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: we're top 20 in the country at third down stop rate.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: And so it'll be good versus good. And, you know,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: situational football shows up in a lot of different areas.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Third down is just one of them. And so it's
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: just understanding who an offense is and how to attack it.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: I think Coach Swan and that crew is doing a
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: really good job of identifying throughout the week how they
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: think that teams are going to attack us.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: Coach, Connor Wegman has been great against the Blitz this year.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: What does it take to make.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: A guy like that uncomfortable?
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Oh. What does it take to make him uncomfortable? You
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: may not make him uncomfortable. Just you may just need
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: to force him into bad things, bad throws, throws that
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: he doesn't want to make. And a lot of that
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: comes with pre-snap disguises and stuff like that. But he's
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: a veteran that's seen a lot and been through a lot.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: So I have a lot of respect for that young man,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: how competitive he is.
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: Morgan, after the game on Saturday, Devin made it clear
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: that it was a win, but they were not happy
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: and they were not pleased as a unit, as players.
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: Just early in the week, how have you seen maybe
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: the morale of this team? Has there been a newfound
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: determination to kind of get the ship back on track
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: for this week?
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they'll watch the film today with the coaching staff.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: I'm sure they've already watched it themselves. But there was
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: a lot that we left out there and a lot
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: to clean up. And if you're a competitor, that's exactly
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: how you should feel. And do you celebrate the wins?
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: You bet, because they're hard to come by. But we
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: understand that that type of performance is probably not going
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: to be good enough going forward.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: Coach, what can be done to develop a pass rush
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: on an individual basis? What can be done over the
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: course of a season to develop a pass rush?
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Oh, man, if that hadn't been developed... you're going to
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: have a tough time. So the good thing, I think
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: we have good pass rushers. I mean, take a look
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: at the last three games, and I know you don't
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: get the film that we get, but so how long
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: does it take on average to get a sack? Two
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: and a half, three seconds. 2.7 to 3.4, okay?
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: And so.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: the majority of passes that we have faced in the
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: last three games are under 2.7. I mean, the quarterback's
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: getting it out, and maybe because they know that we pressure, right?
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: And so either that or RPOs, right? RPOs are going
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: to be a lot quicker, right? And so what you're
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: looking for as a defense is are we being disruptive?
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Are we causing, you know, are we batting balls down? Yes.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: We have a number of pass breakups at the line
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: of scrimmage And you saw some at Colorado with Benny
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: being one of them coming off the edge on a pressure.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: And then the other thing is, are you forcing the
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: quarterback to throw the ball before he wants to throw it? Yes,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: we're getting hurries. Now, if there was a large bulk
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: of plays where we've got a four-man rush and he's
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: got longer than 3.4 seconds to throw the ball, those
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: are the plays we need to identify and say what
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: is the issue why are we not getting home and
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: the good thing is there's just not a lot of
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: those so with the pressure that we are creating we're
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: forcing them to throw the ball sooner than they'd like
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: and we're batting down balls we're getting interceptions so again
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I believe in the country we're still in the top
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: 10 in pass efficiency defense which is where we want
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: to be jason.
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: Orton you talked a lot about just getting the ball
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: out quick from devin's hands he took a few sacks
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: against colorado just is there anything offensively that you guys
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: can do from a route perspective or just an efficiency
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: perspective to get the ball quicker out of his hands.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Uh no it's a decision making deal it's just see
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: it get rid of it yeah and then there are
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: those options there and Like I said, we need to
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: do a better job of making that easier for him.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Maybe we're giving him too much of a progression when
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: with the pressure that they're bringing, two's enough. We just
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: need to maybe be a little bit quicker. Devin is fantastic.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: That guy, for him to lead this team and own
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: up to mistakes, I can't say enough about him. He's
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: just done. He's our guy.