CINCINNATI - Head coach Scott Satterfield, redshirt junior quarterback Brendan Sorsby, redshirt junior offensive lineman Taran Tyo, and redshirt junior safety Christian Harrison spoke with the media ahead of Saturday’s game at Utah.
The Bearcats and Utes will kick off at 10:15 p.m. ET at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
Head Coach Scott Satterfield
Opening statement
“Going back to Saturday, obviously I’m proud of our guys and the way they came out and played right from the start. We got a good lead, had a little bit of a lull again there in the second half, but turned it on again on the fourth quarter. I’m proud of how they finished. It was a great atmosphere there at Nippert for Homecoming. It was awesome to see everybody in red, and for us to be able to go out and get a great win, that was obviously huge, too. Just keeps us going. That now leads to this week, a tough opportunity for us to go to Utah and play one of the hotter teams I think that's out there, especially playing them at home. They have an outstanding home field advantage in that stadium. Coach [Kyle] Whittingham has been there a long time, his 22nd year as the head coach, and has implemented a lot of great ball there over the years, especially defensively. I think Utah is kind of known for that this year, they have an outstanding offense, and they're able to run the football and keep a lot of pressure on the on the defense. I think obviously it'll be a tough challenge for us, but we're looking forward to it. We're excited about it, and got to have a great week of practice.”
On preparing for Utah’s quarterback situation
“That's part of their offense, or how they're run their offense. It's going to run through the quarterback. They want to run the football a lot of different ways and put stress on the defense. Obviously, [Devon] Dampier's their guy, and he's healthy, and then we anticipate him playing. But now for them, they have to feel really good about the fact they got another guy that can put in there, and had an outstanding game, and he was a big 12 Player of the Week this past week. So, I think it's what they do. Scheme-wise, you just have to defend that whole offense first time this year against what most of the metrics say. It's a Top-10 defense. One of the challenges is that they have a high stop rate. They're good at getting three and outs.”
On facing Utah’s defense
“That's a great defense we're playing, you mentioned the metrics, and just look at some of the stats, and then turn the film on and it packs it up. They're very stout. They have two tall, strong, defensive ends on the edge. I think one of them may be one of the top stat guys in the country, the other one. I mean, he looks and runs like a linebacker. Then two big linebackers on the inside as well that can move, and then some outstanding DBs, and they put pressure on you. I'm watching the Colorado game and I felt like they pressured them all night. They lived in the backfield, so they constantly put pressure on the offense, and you have to do a great job of trying to stay on the sticks and not get in those long situations. Because if you do, then they got you. I think part of that is playing clean football. I think in this environment, it challenges anyway, it was loud, for your offense, and for us very similar, probably our first game against an area that loud. So you have to stay on the sticks. You have to stay where you can get those down and distances manageable. Then we got to do a great job of being able to do both running and pass. I think these guys do a great job of passing that someone of the top pass defensive teams in the country. And I think a lot of it has to do with the pressure they put on here.”
On being a physical team and what it means to “put teams in a phone booth”
“It's what just speaks to being a physical football team, we have to impose our will on whoever we’re going against. It's the one-on-one battle throughout the whole day, it doesn't matter what that battle is. If it's Gavin [Gerhardt] versus their nose tackle, he knows he's got to win that battle right there. You can go to every single position. Just trying to emphasize how physical we needed to be. I think we came out of that game running the football for 265 yards. We imposed our will. I think that's what kind of game that was last week. Now this week, you're playing a team that played the same way as we tried to play last week. I think they're a very physical team. They obviously want to run the football and play great defense. This is a team we wanted to play last week, this is going to be a very physical contest as we play this week. I think that's what we have to be able to prepare for as we practice this week.”
On Tawee Walker and Evan Pryor’s dynamic in the backfield
“I think this is how we envisioned it. You have a guy who can run right through you and impose his will. He's had some great, tough yardage runs. The fourth downs this past week were huge, running through those guys. Then you also have a guy you can bring in, [Pryor], who can run around you, who can catch the ball out of the backfield, and I think you want to keep those guys fresh. Anytime you can rotate those guys, it is hard for the defense. What we thought was going to happen, is how we envisioned this. It's been fun to watch those guys work.”
On who will fill the shoes of Pryor if he’s out on injury
“We have Manny [Covey], Chance [Williams], or Zion [Johnson]. All three of those guys could be viable options for sure. As we go throughout this week in practice, we'll see where we're at with those guys. I think all those other guys are similar to Pryor. In fact, that's how they know their speed guys are quick, they're a different style of running compared to Walker.”
On preparing for the loud atmosphere in the upcoming game:
“We'll prepare for that. One good thing about having the indoor facility here, is that we can really crank up the volume. That's how we'll practice the next couple days here and work our silent cadence. Communication will be really key offensively, and watching them on film. Texas Tech, early in the year, didn't use a silent cadence, but they had seven false start penalties. Colorado this past weekend, they did not use the sound either. I've seen guys use it. I've seen guys not prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
On if the experience of playing at Arrowhead gives UC an advantage against loud sounds
“Absolutely, it'd be hard to be louder than Arrowhead was that night. That was as loud as a stadium that I've been to, maybe top two or three. There are a lot of things about that game that will help us as we head into this week’s game.”
On Antwan Peek Jr. being named Paycom Jim Thorpe Award Semifinalist
“Peek is a hard worker. We want to be a program where you have to earn everything, and he exemplifies that. He has earned everything, literally, from a walk-on to earning a scholarship, to earning a starting position, to earning playing time and then earning respect. He is a head hunter. I think he's a very physical tackler, and he does a great job of punching the ball out. He's been doing that his whole career. I love the fact that he is a humble person. He doesn't say a lot, he just works his tail off. I really appreciate that about him, and you can count on him, his consistency has been incredible.
On the impact of the drive that put them up 34-20 against Baylor
“It was a huge drive, that was a tipping point. In that game, we're up seven points. They had the momentum, and we had a penalty. This 2nd-and-18 is long. Brendan [Sorsby] takes off running, and gets about six or seven yards, and then Noah [Jennings] makes the third down catch there, which was a huge play for us to keep that drive alive. Once we hit that first down, now let's go. Let's start running the football. Two things, let's run that clock down and let's get this drive down to the end zone. We just kind of imposed a will on that drive, and were able to take it all the way down. I thought we had some really good drives throughout the game, even early in the game as well. We had 10-11 play drives. We're occupying the ball, keeping our offense on the field, and running the football. I thought our guys did a great job. Hats off to the offensive line. The offensive line has gotten a lot of accolades this year. Maybe not as much in this past game, I thought they played great. I thought they blocked very physically and imposing their will on these guys, and then Walker and Pryor, going hard.”
On the historic significance of playing in the venue at Utah
“I haven't spent a lot of time out there. I've been to the state and never played a game there. We went by there on vacation one time and just stopped in, probably eight or 10 years ago. I thought it was pretty cool. Two years ago, we went to play BYU. We were staying in Salt Lake, so we were able to go by the stadium there. It's pretty neat that they host events like that. I know this stadium from looking at it on TV and reading about how loud it is and how much of a home field advantage it is for Utah. When you think about Big 12 venues, there's some great venues, and we all get to go play at and some awesome atmospheres, and this will be one of those.”
On the getting the ball to Tawee Walker
“We want to keep him fresh, but if it comes to that, I think he can handle it. Coming into this year, even when we recruited [Walker], it was a deal where he's even said, “I don't need to carry the ball 25/30 times, I don't need to have that to be happy. I want to be here and do what I can to help the team”. If we get in a situation in the game where he's running the ball hard, let's just keep getting him the ball, we could do that with him. He's certainly that kind of running back. Thinking about a guy who's close to 220 pounds and a load, if you're hitting on that, that'd be something that we can lean on.”
On playing at BYU in 2023 and how it can help prepare them for making the trip to Utah this weekend
“I'm glad we went out there and played two years ago, because it was a Friday night, the same time that we will play this game. I thought we played well enough to win the game. We made too many mistakes at BYU two years ago. Had a pick six early in the game, some things that obviously hurt us, but we were right there in that game. We had an opportunity, and I thought we played with great energy that night. We've kind of been there, done that now. We'll tweak a little bit of the things, but I think we'll be in good shape for this.”
On the team being tied for the Big 12 record of seven straight games with two or more passing touchdowns and one or fewer sacks allowed
“It all starts with our guys up front, with Gavin [Gerdhart] and the rest of the boys. They’ve done a great job. Sorsby has done a great job of getting rid of the football if we needed to, or taking it down to run if we needed to. I think he's done a great job with the check downs as well, because that's huge. He’s able to think, ‘okay, it's not open down the field,’ working on checking this ball down to a tight end or running back. That's been very beneficial for us. This will be the biggest challenge we've had. This team's coming off of, I think, seven sacks last week against Colorado. They tend to put pressure on you. This will certainly be a challenge. John Henry [Daley] has nine and a half sacks. Logan [Fano], the other defensive end will put pressure on you. This will be a great challenge for us, and we'll see where we're at after this game.”
On Brendan Sorsby throwing the ball away
“That goes back to what we've been really harping on, taking what the defense gives us. If it's not there, then don't worry. Sometimes the defense wins, sometimes they play great defense. When that happens, let's go to the next play, because then the next play may be our play that we get the first down. That comes to decision making. Sorsby’s done a great job with his decisions, with our RPO games, decisions in the past games, knowing to run, knowing to throw away one, to check one. Anytime your quarterback’s doing that well you're going to have success, there's a big reason why we're sitting here 7-1.”
On the defense forcing opposing QB’s to run the ball more
“There's been many times where nobody is open, so they're going to try to take off and make something happen. There's no question about it. We have gotten better as the year has gone on. Kansas did a good job in their throw game there. We played some quarterbacks that can really run. Throughout the season, other than last week, most everybody can move, in terms of the quarterbacks. Last week that quarterback was not much of a runner, although he did try to take off a few times. Now, we have four games left, three of the four all quarterbacks can run and move. So, it’s something we hopefully can be prepared for.”
On the performance of the corners against Baylor
“We did a good job of mixing it up this week. We were playing some tighter man, playing some tighter zone coverage. In the past where, you're a little bit too loose, and that's where some teams were hitting us up on. I think maybe for us to tighten that up, it threw the quarterback off a little bit. His rhythm got messed up. He missed a few throws. Anytime you can make him get off just a little bit, that's the difference it takes. I think that we had several pass interference calls, but we're right there. I like the aggressiveness that we played with this past week, for sure.”
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