If you haven’t found the strength to watch the highlights of Utah’s loss to Arizona State, you’re not alone.
But you only need to watch one to understand the depth of the Utes’ troubles and to see Utah’s poor tackling in high definition.
Late in the third quarter, ASU running back Cam Skattebo takes a handoff, bounces off one Utah defender, then a second and then a third. For his final act, Skattebo stiff arms senior cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn into the dirt before racing into the end zone. The play accounted for 47 of his 158 yards while making Utah’s defense look silly along the way.
“It seemed like we missed 20 tackles tonight,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said after the 27-19 defeat. “There probably won’t be that many [on tape], but we are typically a single-digit missed tackle team week in and week out, and we had 13 or 14 missed tackles against Arizona. I bet we had more than that this game.”
Quarterback Cam Rising’s struggles garnered the headlines in the wake of the defeat, but Utah’s defensive struggles hurt just as much — especially considering how much time the Utes have dedicated to tackling of late.
According to Vaughn, the Utes spent the last two weeks focused on drills that improved their hip placement and wrapping up the opposition’s lower legs.
“All I can say is, really, we need to do better,” Vaughn said last week. “We’ve been taking it more seriously in practice, even when we’re not live. We’re working on bending our hips and getting down there in the lower body areas, so we can tackle better. Coach [Morgan] Scalley made sure we all did it. You’re going to run if you don’t do it.
“That’s all it was. I mean, we weren’t really throwing tackles how we were supposed to and wrapping up to the far leg like we were supposed to, but, it’s all getting fixed. ... I mean, Coach Scalley was real hot about it because that’s not like us. We don’t do that.”
Those corrections didn’t seem to work, given the struggles of Utah’s defense for a third straight week. The undisciplined errors seemingly got worse. It’s apparent Utah desperately needs veterans like linebacker Karene Reid, defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa, defensive end Connor O’Toole and linebacker Sione Fotu back in the lineup.
Utah needs Reid back more than anyone else. He was second on the team in total tackles in 2023.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) University of Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley as the Utah Utes are hosted by Utah State during NCAA football in Logan, Utah on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024.
But Whittingham doesn’t view injuries as an excuse. He surely didn’t after Utah’s loss to the Sun Devils.
“We had guys out,” Utah’s head coach said. “But the guys that are in there have got to get the job done. The majority of those, those runs that popped off were on zone pressures. Not all of them, but the majority of them we either lost the edge or lost an interior gap by getting cut off.”
The Utes are now 11th in the Big 12 and have all but eliminated their shot at the College Football Playoff. But as Utah (4-2, 1-2 Big 12) looks toward its matchup against TCU (3-3, 1-2) on Saturday night in Salt Lake City, its run defense and tackling issues will have to improve if the Utes want to get back on track.
“It goes back to the same dialog I had after the Arizona game,” Whittingham said. “It’s the same problems, and the thing same things that we’ve got to address and work on even more. That’s where we’re at.”
