Utah Football Looking Ahead To Pac-12 Play After Players Only Meeting
Sep 20, 2021, 7:28 PM
Utah Utes offensive lineman Nick Ford (55) leads the players onto the field before the start of a college football game against the SDSU Aztecs played on September 18, 2021 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by John Cordes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Photo by John Cordes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – For the first time since 2007, Utah football is 1-2 to start the season but they aren’t hitting the panic button after a players only meeting.
Devin Lloyd mentioned that the team will have a players only meeting after the loss to San Diego State on Saturday.
Britain Covey and the captains called a players only meeting on Sunday, which is a day off for the team.
“I think it comes down to reinforcing what we as a team want our culture to be not what someone else has wanted our culture to be, or what the coaches are trying to preach, which are all great things,” Covey said. “But we come together and we decide, what do we want to be? Forget about what people say on social media. Forget about whatever injuries there are, what type of team do we want to be? And how do we reinforce that this week? So it wasn’t as much a meeting about the sky’s falling. We’ve lost two games, what are we doing? It was a meeting of ‘okay, what do we want to be? This is a turning point, like we decide at this point.’ This is one of those points in your life where you get to decide. It was very forward thinking and I think people came out positive. There were some words said and things called out that we need to fix but I think that it was good to focus less on the sky falling and more on the sky being there still.”
Britain Covey talked about the players only meeting that was held on Sunday. #GoUtes pic.twitter.com/Xoe2gfF0Xf
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Quarterback and captain Cam Rising gave some detail about the players only meeting.
“Just pretty much what we need to get done and what we need to eliminate from what we’re doing and just focus on the task at hand. That’s pretty much just running the table,” Rising said.
Kyle Whittingham was asked at his press conference on Monday morning if he liked that his players had a meeting on Sunday.
“I do,” Whittingham said. “I wasn’t aware that it was going to happen until they came and talked to me afterwards. It appeared to be very productive and got some things hashed out. But I think it was a positive, we’ll find out if it helps us throughout the practice week and then the game but it certainly is an indicator that there’s a lot of care and investment by them to do that. It wasn’t encouraged, they did it on their own.”
Utah will open Pac-12 play on Saturday, September 25 against Washington State at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Kickoff is at 12:30 p.m. MDT on the Pac-12 Network.
Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com, Co-Host of Faith, Family and Football podcast with Clark Phillips III and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports.
