Utah travels to Stanford to try to stop 2-game losing skid
Utah's hopes of winning the Pac-12 South have all but disappeared over the last two weeks thanks to losses to Arizona State and Oregon. But the Utes go to Stanford for the first time since 1996 knowing that snapping the two-game losing streak would keep the chances of finishing second in the south intact.
Against Oregon on Saturday night, Utah was in a position to take a potential 14-0 lead when Kaelin Clay crossed the goal-line. But as you all know by now, he broke the plane without the ball in his hand. Oregon picked up the ball and eventually returned it for a touchdown, tying the game at 7-7 en route to a 51-27 win.
"He made a mistake," Utah coach Kyle Wittingham said. "Like I said Saturday night, that's a coaching error. We have to do a better job of instilling that in our players, and like I said Saturday night, you haven't coached until they've learned. If he hadn't learned yet, then that's our fault as coaches to have not coached him up or imparted the knowledge the right way to him. He's a playmaker for us, he did a lot of good things on Saturday night, he's done a lot of great things all season long. Made a mistake, we move on, and hopefully it never shows up again, and we as coaches need to make sure of that."
While Travis Wilson has received the majority of snaps at quarterback for Utah this season, Kendal Thompson is the Utes' second-leading rusher. However, he's out for the season because of a knee injury suffered against Oregon. Whittingham said Wednesday that Conner Manning is now the No. 2 quarterback.
The matchup with Stanford will be Utah's strength vs. the Cardinal defense's strength. Stanford is allowing just over 3 yards per carry while Utah running back Devontae Booker just went over the 1,000-yard mark against Oregon.
Meanwhile, Stanford, at 5-4, hasn't run the ball as well as it has been able to in previous years. To help boost the offense, the Cardinal have introduced some no-huddle into the attack. While Utah needs to win to avoid a three-game slide, Stanford needs to win for any hope of an eight-win season. A loss puts the Cardinal in danger of finishing the year 6-6.
"I think the biggest realization midseason for us was we honestly probably glossed over too much having four new starters on the offensive line and all new running backs and all new tight ends," Stanford coach David Shaw said via Cardinal Sports Report. "That's a lot. That's the running game. Four news starters on the offensive line, all new running backs and all new tight ends, Especially for a team that has been a strong side running team. We've gone through what Austin Hooper does well, what Eric Cotton does well, what our center does well and what he doesn't do well, what our left guard does well and what our right guard does well and what they don't do well. It's been finding out more about our guys than we thought we needed to during the course of the year."
"I do think our offensive production in the last (few) games has been better because I think we know our guys better. We've been able to not stop the mistakes but limit the mistakes."
For more Stanford news, visit CardinalSportsReport.com
For more Utah news, visit UteZone.com
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
