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Entering the season with the promise of running off plays quickly, so far, the Utes offense has fulfilled only the promise of running the ball.
Kyle Whittingham acknowledged Monday that the Utes have adjusted their mentality when it comes to tempo. While Utah initially envisioned itself as a high-speed unit cramming in as many plays as possible, those expectations have slowed down as the coaching staff picks the tempo that works for its week-by-week match-ups.
"I think it's constant adjustment as far as what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are," he said. "I don't think we're playing as fast these last few weeks as we envisioned early in the season, but like I said, it's whatever you've got to do to get the best chance to win."
Over the last four contests, Utah is averaging just over 70 plays with nearly 30 minutes of possession per game. The recent numbers actually undershoot last year's plays per game, 72, with Dennis Erickson leading the offense. Utah has run 40 fewer plays than its opponents, and in the two games it has run more plays, the edge has only been one offensive snap.
The running game ramping up, combined with more reliance on defense, has made quick tempo less of an emphasis in some situations, such as against UCLA. While the Utes had some hurry-up plays against Oregon State to try to wear down the Beavers' defense, Whittingham acknowledged there will be more times when Utah relies on ball control rather than getting off fast snaps.
"We're probably much more of a strong running team than I thought we'd be," he said. "We haven't run as uptempo as we thought we'd be."
Utah specialists defend 'weird' routines
Tom Hackett said the special teams guys get an unfair rap as the team weirdos.
"I tell the rest of the blokes, we think they're weird," he said Monday. "We're the normal ones."
But the specialists are at least somewhat weird, he admitted before rhetorically asking who isn't.
Hackett, who stays with placekicker Andy Phillips at the team hotel on the road, said both make sure to abide by a careful pre-game routine.
Hackett sleeps with a football the night before the game, "just so I get the feel of it," calls his parents "regardless of the time in Australia" and has a cup of coffee the morning of.
Phillips is more particular. He must eat penne pasta - and he has to have the red pasta or the white pasta, "but he can never have both," Hackett said.
While showering before boarding the team bus, Phillips listens to the same old-school hip-hop playlist on his computer.
Then, as soon as he can before the game, "he has to read part of the Bible or the Book of Mormon."
So if you want to start kicking field goals like the two-time Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week, that's the formula: Penne, old-school hip-hop and the bible.
And preternatural talent helps, too.
Scott No. 1, but receivers in flux
The big news was at quarterback on Monday afternoon. Elsewhere on the depth chart, another starter reclaimed his role.
After Tim Patrick started and played a lot of snaps against Oregon State, Kenneth Scott is back atop the receiving spot across from Dres Anderson. Whittingham described the move as taking advantage of Scott's blocking ability, which came in handy against the beleaguered Beavers run defense at the end of the last game.
That doesn't mean competition is over. Whittingham wants Patrick to continue to challenge Scott and Anderson on the wings.
"He blocked exceptionally well and blocking is a part of being a complete receiver," Whittingham said. "All three are going to play between Dres, Timmy and Kenneth Scott. They're all going to play. Naming Kenneth the starter this week was probably a product of the blocking situation, but Timmy was not disappointing."
This is probably the point where most fans think to themselves: "Start anyone who isn't dropping the ball."
Yeah, well that will be a factor, too.
Whittingham perhaps didn't use the best wording when he spoke about how the Utes haven't been "able to get a finger on" their problems with dropped passes. All of Utah's top receivers have dropped passes in recent weeks, with Anderson's bobbled slant that became a pick probably standing as the low point of the passing game doldrums.
But Whittingham refused to pin it on the receivers. There's a lot of problems with the passing game, he said, including bad ball locations, inconsistent blocking, and other issues.
"We're not pointing at any one guy, any one group," he said. "If anything, point the finger at me. I'm the guy that's gotta try to get it solved."
Buck vs. Book
They won't be on the field at the same time, but the arguable headliners in Saturday's contest are the top two rushers in the Pac-12.
Buck Allen leads the league with 129.9 yards on the ground, but Booker has crept up in recent weeks and now averages 123.7 yards per game. Booker is slightly better per carry, with 6.2 yards to Allen's 6.1, but Allen has eight touchdowns to Booker's six. Booker is the reigning Athlon Sports offensive player of the week following his 229 yards and 3 touchdown performance against the Beavers, while Allen was the conference player of the week after Week 7's games.
In a conference renowned for greta quarterbacks, Utah's game with the Trojans could be a run-off. Whittingham called it the "intriguing match-up" of the evening.
"It will be very pivotal," he said. "Football most weeks is about stopping the run and being able to run. We've got two teams that do a nice job."
Utah is No. 2 in the league in both running the ball and stopping the run, and USC is sixth in both categories. The Trojans run defense numbers are skewed by a disastrous early season performance at Boston College when they allowed for 452 yards. However, in three of their last four games, the Trojans have allowed 77 rushing yards or fewer.
The defensive front is led by Leonard Williams, a wild-haired and wide-bodied defensive tackle who many NFL scouts have marked as a potential top-five draft pick next year.
"I would have to agree with that," Whittingham said. "From the tape I've seen, he's a disruptor. He's a guy that demands double teams. He's a very talented football player and one of the best defensive linemen, if not the best lineman, in the country."
Utah's own defensive line is a formidable test for Allen, who will face the nation's top unit in tackles for a loss.
"He's definitely a good running back, but he doesn't scare us," tackle Clint Shepard said. "We've faced good running backs week in and week out and shut them down."
Utes hoping for Carter back vs. Kessler
When you're going against the reigning Pac-12 offensive player of the week, you hope to be fully healthy.
USC has Cody Kessler, perhaps one of the most underrated quarterbacks in a conference loaded with talent. In a school that produced Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and Matt Barkley, Kessler is the only quarterback in program history to throw for seven touchdowns in a game, which he did last week against Colorado. For the year, he's thrown 18 touchdowns and only one pick.
"We got our work cut out for us," Whittingham said. "He's a lot like Halliday, as far as a pocket passer, and Mannion that we just faced. Not really eager to to run the ball, which is not to say he's not an athlete because he is, but he makes his living in the pocket. He's done a nice job of that this year.
Tevin Carter can't come back quickly enough.
The senior safety has been out with an unspecified injury since midway through UCLA, and freshman Andre Godfrey has been picking up the slack in his place. But Whittingham acknowledged it's tough to miss a player like Carter against a passing attack like the one Kessler leads.
"Tevin Carter, we're going to hope he plays, it's a week-to-week thing," he said. "We sure missed him last week, but you're always going to miss a good football player."
Hale ramping up reps
Making his season debut last week: linebacker Jacoby Hale.
The senior, who led the team in sacks last year, had a modest coming out, not recording any official stats in a handful of snaps, but just being on the field undoubtedly helped a linebacking corps that needs depth. With Jason Whittingham still out for the near future and Uaea Masina done for the year, Hale is a player the Utes need to be healthy.
It's still a gradual process, Kyle Whittingham said, and there will still be some caution as Hale comes back from his torn ACL in spring.
"He just got a handful of reps last week, and it was his first live action since spring ball, since he had the injury," he said. "He's a talented player, and we hope to integrate him more each week as the season goes on, and hopefully he'll play maybe one-fourth or one-third of the game this week. We want to increase his reps in practice as well. We're going to start adding to that as he feels good."
Night [kickoff] fever
The Pac-12 released game times for the Nov. 1 slate, and Utah viewers will have to be ready for another late evening the night after Halloween. The game is set for a 9 p.m. MT broadcast on Fox Sports 1, with the game to be called by Gus Johnson and Charles Davis.
It marks the fourth time in as many weeks the Utes will start a game at 8 p.m. or later. It's well known the media hates late games for killing deadlines, but Whittingham said he'd rather not play so late as well.
He just knows there's little to be done about it.
"Everything's driven by TV schedules," he said. "We really don't concern ourselves with it because we have no control over it. Ideally, we would like to kick off at noon every week. I think that's ideal, but that's never going to happen. You just deal with the hand that you're dealt, and we think we have a good protocol or system for whenever the kickoff is."
Hackett wins the press conference
When Hackett entered the room, Whittingham took a pause between questions to address him: "Tommy! Hi! They brought a punter to the press conference. You guys are going to have a lot of questions for him."
We did. And he had some quality answers. I'll just leave you with a bunch of Tom Hackett quotes, because otherwise I could type notes all night.
• On why punt and kick coverage units have performed well: "It's effort. If you really want it, then you can go get it. It's not real hard. It's not rocket science. ... From what I can see, it seems like pretty basic coverage."
• On the black helmets: "I grew up playing Australian Rules football, so I never even wore a helmet then. Cleats have always been my favorite accessory. ... There are a lot of kids on the team that are fond of the glossy black helmet look. It's fine. I'd rather have it than not have it, but it doesn't really tickle me, I think."
• On his hair: "Yeah, I've got the flow going. I'm superstitious now, so I might cut it at the end of the year."
• On handling pressure at the end of games: "I just told myself, 'Listen mate, just relax and punt the ball. It's not that hard.'"
• On being labeled weird: "I think we're all weird, aren't we? Everybody on the team is probably a little bit cuckoo."
• On getting more fake opportunities: "I don't know if that will happen. I blew it on the Idaho State game. I should've saved it for the bigger game."
• On making a decision to fake or punt: "If I see a guy there, I'm just going to kick it. I'm not the most athletic bloke on the team, so I'm not going to try to beat him one-on one."
Kyle Goon and Matthew Piperkgoon@sltrib.com and mpiper@sltrib.comTwitter: @kylegoon and @matthew_piper