California Head Coach Sonny Dykes
On the loss –
“That was a tough one. Boy, our kids played really hard. I'm disappointed for them. It's one of those games we'll look back on and wish we could have it over. Just made too many mistakes to win the football game. We'll learn from it and the next time we won't make as many mistakes. Got to give Utah a lot of credit. That's a good football team and they played really hard. We turned the ball over six times, but they had a lot to do with that as well. So you have to give them credit. That's two football teams that played really hard and it was a very good football game.”
On QB Jared Goff's performance with five interceptions –
“We'll look at the tape and talk to him a little bit. He just struggled a little bit tonight. I think that we all wanted to win really badly, especially Jared, and sometimes when you want to win really badly you might try to do a little too much. Next time, we'll react a little differently.”
On how his team only gave up three points on three first half turnovers –
“I thought our defense played hard all night. They're playing with some confidence. If somebody makes a play on us they just play the next play. They keep playing our game, keep playing hard and make people earn what they get. The defense certainly bailed the offense out in the first half. The offense gave them some short fields and the defense held them to field goals.”
On the play of his defense overall –
“I thought they really did some good things. I thought we tackled well most of the night. Booker's a really good running back and he's really hard to tackle. He's a big, strong runner. We let him get out a couple of times and get one or two big plays, but overall he had to earn everything he got. I thought we really played well in the back end and contested the passing game pretty well. The zone read hurt us a couple of times but I thought we contained the quarterback pretty well on some of that stuff. I thought that we just played hard and were in the right place. I thought we had some guys make plays.”
Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
On if the final score was upsetting:
No disappointment there. I'm proud of our guys. They played a full 60 minutes against a very good football team. Their quarterback might be the best pocket passer in the nation.
On what turned the game in Utah's favor:
The two biggest factors in the game - first was our ability to take the ball away. We forced six turnovers and made five interceptions. We also had the fumble recovery. Second, Devontae Booker and our offensive line picking up over 200 yards on the ground.
On the defense:
Defensive line did a nice job creating pressure, although we didn't have many sacks. We batted balls down and made him move around. Those were important aspects of the game also.
On the game plan:
I'm proud of our coaching staff and the defensive plan they put together for [Jared] Goff. It wasn't our best night offensively, but we got six takeaways and scored 30 points. It was not our best night there but the best thing about being 5-0 is the chance to be 6-0.
On being 5-0:
We have a big challenge next week and we're right in the middle of the Pac-12 slate now, [playing] one right after another for seven weeks or so. We'll enjoy this for a day or so and get right back on it.
On if he has seen a better secondary performance:
That's a tough one. There may be one in there somewhere but the secondary did a great job, especially against a team and quarterback like that. They were ball hawks back there tonight.
On affecting Cal Quarterback Jared Goff:
I thought we did a nice job with our coverage, disguising our coverages and applying pressure. I think that was a big part of it. Mainly, we just made some athletic plays out there.
